Proposed drone ban exposes irrationality of US politics

A bill, titled "Countering CCP Drones Act", passed by the US House of Representatives in mid-June, alleges, without providing any evidence whatsoever, that all Chinese-made drones, especially those made by DJI, constitute a "national security threat" and therefore should be banned.

Industry experts believe there is little reason for the bill not to get through the Senate at this stage, because it is part of a series of US attacks against Chinese technology and manufacturing, and because it is backed by a bipartisan consensus in Washington. However, this is a bill that will cause immense collateral damage to US hobbyists, professionals and organizations, and disrupt the entire domestic market with no feasible replacement for Chinese-made drones.

US politics is suffering from mass hysteria pertaining to China. All Chinese technology products, whether they be electric vehicles, Huawei products and services, or the TikTok app, are irrationally denounced as a "national security threat" by the US. Although such denunciations are presented as legitimate "concerns" in the mainstream media, the accusers never furnish evidence to back their claim. Such accusations are based on McCarthyist hypotheses, which baselessly speculate that the given target will "spy" on behalf of China in some way or the other, and therefore the only option is to ban it outright.

This mass hysteria reached its height at the beginning of 2023, when the US unilaterally declared China's high-altitude meteorological balloon to be a "spy balloon". The US has applied the same lame logic to pretty much everything, creating a media echo chamber that offers no opinion to the contrary, no balance and no reasoning.

Despite this, the proposed ban has been criticized by industry insiders, who recognize the political motivations behind it and the damage it will cause. The Drone DJI website says: "The Airborne Public Safety Association, Law Enforcement Drone Association, and DRONERESPONDERS — which represent over 6,000 agencies, police and fire agencies with drone programs across the US — have written a letter to the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to oppose the inclusion of the Countering CCP Drones Act in the Senate version of the NDAA."

In another article published on the news site TechRadar, a columnist says: "In much the same way that no one has yet to definitively prove how TikTok is stealing our data and putting us at risk, I can find no proof that DJI drones are putting the US at risk." The author adds: "My frustration level with a US government that's sliding Chinese technology companies from safe and acceptable to dangerous and bannable like so many beads on an abacus is at an all-time high".

What sets the DJI ban apart from other US bans and sanctions on Chinese products is that it will impose economic and technological backwardness on itself just to oppose China, an action which is motivated by spite, opportunistic paranoia and small-minded protectionism. As it were with Huawei's 5G, Chinese-made EVs and other Chinese products, US politicians see the ban on Chinese-made drones as an acceptable way to curb China's technological progress only to increase the cost of US consumers and inconvenience them because it has completely lost its mind.

The author is a British political and international-relations analyst.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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