Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Sunday that the Biden administration is buying drones from a Chinese technology company that the Trump administration had restricted from doing business in the U.S. because of national security concerns.
Mr. Ratcliffe, who served under former President Donald Trump, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the Biden administration bought the drone technology from DJI, which is on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
“The Biden administration, through the FBI and Secret Service, purchased from DJI, which is a company that the Trump administration actually flagged in 2017,” Mr. Ratcliffe said. “Department of Homeland Security said that that specific company was using its drones for the purpose of providing information on U.S. critical infrastructure to the Chinese Communist Party. And that was moderate confidence that that was taking place, which is why our administration took all of those out and basically advanced a policy where we wouldn’t use that Chinese technology.”
The Biden administration appears to have changed the restrictions placed on DJI in June 2021. According to the Federal Register, the Biden administration’s End-User Review Committee changed DJI’s inclusion on the Entity List to exclude various technology.
The Entity List includes the names of foreign people and enterprises subject to restrictions on their business in the U.S. because of national security concerns. A Commerce Department spokesperson told The Washington Times in May that the Entity List includes more than 1,500 names.
