China Tightens Drone Export Controls to the U.S., Retaliates Against Some American Firms

[Financial News]  

China has retaliated against U.S. restrictions on drone imports. It tightened export controls on drones bound for the United States and imposed countermeasures on some American companies.
According to the Financial Times (FT), the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) announced countermeasures in four separate statements on the 5th in response to recent U.S. import bans.
MOFCOM banned Chinese companies from doing business with the U.S. biotech firm Applied DNA Sciences and five other American companies. It said such transactions amounted to "support for illegal U.S. sanctions related to Xinjiang."
The move was retaliation for the United States' ban on imports of items suspected of being linked to forced labor in western Xinjiang.
The ministry also tightened export controls on drones to the United States, in response to Washington's ban on imports of Chinese technology products. It expanded restrictions not only on finished drones, but also on key components and related technologies listed on the dual-use control list.
The ministry said exports would be reviewed "on a case-by-case basis."
Although U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit China next month for a summit with President Xi Jinping, relations between the two countries remain tense. Trump made a state visit to China in May, the first by a U.S. president in nine years, but ties have not improved.
Last week, the United States added 43 Chinese companies to its import ban list. The firms are accused of using forced labor in Xinjiang.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also banned some imports of Chinese technology products, citing security risks. New models of some drones and routers were included in the ban.
The FCC had previously banned new models of communications equipment from companies such as Huawei and Hikvision in June.
In a statement on the 5th, MOFCOM sanctioned the U.S. firm Compliance Testing, citing its role in "helping" the FCC. Referring to the FCC's recent "negative measures," the ministry said such actions threatened China's "sovereignty, security and development interests."
Meanwhile, China already imposes broad restrictions on drone exports. Many of those rules were introduced in 2023, the year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
China currently dominates the global drone supply chain, and companies such as DJI, Autel Robotics and XAG still have significant sales in the U.S. market despite increasingly complex American regulations.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter