DJI Photo:VCG

The US Commerce Department has withdrawn a previous plan to impose restrictions on foreign-made drones including DJI products from China, Reuters reported. An expert said the US move is likely driven by economic realities rather than a shift in its policy thinking.

The US Commerce Department said on Friday US time it had withdrawn a plan to impose restrictions on Chinese drones to address "national security concerns," Reuters reported on Saturday.

Last month, the US Federal Communications Commission barred imports of new models of foreign-made drones and critical components including from China's DJI and Autel. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said earlier this week it was exempting some non-Chinese drones from the restrictions, Reuters reported.

China firmly opposes the US side's overstretching of the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies, Lin Jian, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on December 23.

Lin made the remarks while commenting on reports by Reuters and The Hill suggesting that the FCC was adding China's DJI and all foreign-made drones and components to a list of companies "determined to pose unacceptable risks to US national security" and will bar approvals of new types of drones for import or sale in the US.

The US latest decision to withdraw the Commerce Department's proposed restrictions is driven by economic realities rather than any shift in Washington's approach of restricting normal economic cooperation under the guise of national security, Li Yong, an executive council member of the China Society for WTO Studies, told the Global Times on Saturday.

The US political restrictions on normal trade and industrial cooperation have increasingly hurt the interests of US businesses and faced resistance from the American market, as Chinese-made high-quality and cost-efficient drones have become integral to a wide range of US commercial and public-sector applications, Li said.

Chinese imports account for the vast majority of US commercial drone sales, with more than half coming from DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer, according to Reuters.

The drone sector demonstrates that cooperation between Chinese and American industries is interdependent and leaves room for ample collaboration. "Such cooperation should aim to benefit the people of both countries, rather than impose misguided restrictions," Li said.

Global Times