Technology & Science
FCC Blacklists Future Foreign Drones, Freezing New DJI Models in U.S.
On 22-23 Dec 2025 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission added all foreign-made drones—including market-leader DJI—to its Covered List, immediately blocking FCC certification of any new models or components for import or sale in the United States.
Focusing Facts
- The Covered List order bars equipment authorizations for future drones or parts from DJI, Autel and every non-U.S. maker as of its publication, a prerequisite for U.S. retail sales.
- Devices already cleared remain legal; more than 80 % of the 1,800-plus U.S. public-safety drone fleets use existing DJI models that are unaffected—for now.
- The move satisfies a National Defense Authorization Act mandate that an inter-agency review of DJI and Autel be completed by 23 Dec 2025.
Context
Washington’s drone freeze echoes the 1987 Toshiba-Kongsberg machine-tool embargo—another instance of U.S. regulators wielding technical licensing to curb perceived strategic leakage. It sits within a broader post-2018 tech-decoupling arc that has already swept Huawei (2019) and TikTok (2023 draft ban), signaling a shift from tariff skirmishes to outright technology exclusion. By damming the pipeline of next-generation Chinese airframes while dangling case-by-case exemptions, the FCC is effectively using market access as industrial policy, hoping to jump-start a domestic drone sector much as the 1934 Communications Act nurtured U.S. radio manufacturers. Whether it succeeds will hinge on substituting the 70-90 % market share DJI now holds—an echo of Japan’s VCR dominance in the 1980s. On a 100-year timeline, this is another waypoint in the long oscillation between globalization and strategic autarky: moments when security logic overrides price and performance, often at the cost of short-term innovation but in service of reshaping supply chains for the next technological era.
Perspectives
Right leaning U.S. media
e.g., Fox News — Applauds the FCC ban as a vital step to neutralize Chinese espionage threats and spur home-grown drone manufacturing. Rallies around Trump-era nationalism and anti-China rhetoric, downplaying the ban’s cost to half-a-million U.S. pilots and offering little evidence of actual data leaks.
Chinese state-owned media
e.g., China Daily — Frames the FCC decision as an unfounded, protectionist move that restricts consumer choice and violates market fairness. Seeks to shield national champions and deflect human-rights and security criticisms, omitting repeated U.S. intelligence warnings detailed in other outlets.
Asian business press
e.g., The Economic Times, The Business Times, CNBC TV18 — Presents the ban mainly as the latest escalation in the U.S.–China tech clash, stressing commercial ramifications for DJI and global supply chains while noting the stated security rationale. With an investor-centric lens, it tends to normalise the action as trade friction, giving corporate complaints and market impacts priority over assessing the security evidence itself.