By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A dozen Republican U.S. lawmakers urged the Biden administration on Friday to deal with using Chinese language-manufactured agriculture drones, saying their use on American farms poses nationwide safety dangers.
The Home members, together with Representatives Elise Stefanik, Ashley Hinson and John Moolenaar, who chairs a choose committee on China, requested the Agriculture Division and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, in letters seen by Reuters, to element the administration’s efforts to deal with dangers posed by aerosol-dispensing drones.
The lawmakers requested for a briefing by Sept. 30, citing the massive variety of drones produced by Chinese language drone producer DJI as a safety concern.
DJI responded that it has no ties to the Chinese language navy, saying in an emailed assertion “the unfounded accusations towards our agricultural drone know-how are placing U.S. farmers in danger by doubtlessly depriving them of the super advantages that DJI spray drones provide.”
The corporate mentioned its agricultural drone know-how “helps sustainable agriculture, permitting American farmers and enterprise homeowners to combine further precision farming practices into their operations.”
The Chinese language Embassy in Washington mentioned China “firmly helps Chinese language firms in finishing up worldwide commerce and cooperation in drones for civilian use, and opposes sure international locations’ frequent unlawful sanctions on Chinese language firms and people on the grounds of so-called nationwide safety.”
The U.S. companies declined to remark.
The congressional letter famous that the Commerce Division has imposed export restrictions on aerosol dishing out drones which have potential for use as weapons supply platforms.
“The danger of those DJI agricultural spray drones being manipulated to hold out an assault in america can’t be ignored,” the letter mentioned. “Counting on our best strategic adversary for know-how crucial to the success of our agricultural manufacturing endangers the resiliency of our meals provide.”
Stefanik known as on the Agriculture Division and the cybersecurity company to “take rapid motion to mitigate the dangers of Chinese language-manufactured drones to our agriculture business.” She has proposed laws searching for to bar new DJI drones from working in america.
DJI agriculture drones use superior sensors that may accumulate and interpret crop knowledge that’s “inconceivable for the human eye to see”, the lawmakers wrote, arguing that China might use the sensors “to realize entry into granular degree element on the steadiness and situation of the U.S. agriculture sector.”
In 2020, the united statesimposed export restrictions on DJI. Lawmakers have mentioned DJI accounts for greater than 50% of all U.S. drone purchases.
