DJI is suing the Department of Defense over the company’s listing as a Chinese military company

Drone manufacturer DJI filed a criticism lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion DoD list “Chinese military companies”.

A DJI spokesman said the company filed the lawsuit after “attempting to contact the Department of Defense for over sixteen months” and decided it had “no alternative but to seek relief from federal court.”

“DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military, and the Department of Defense itself acknowledges that DJI produces consumer and commercial drones, not military drones,” the spokesman said.

The Chinese company was included on the Department of Defense’s 2022 list, following similar actions by other government agencies – in 2020 DJI was included on the list Department of Commerce Entity List this essentially prevented American corporations from selling it, and the following yr it was placed on the Treasury Department’s investment block list because of DJI’s alleged involvement in surveillance of Uyghur Muslims. (The company said it had “nothing to do with the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang”).

In its lawsuit, DJI claims that as a result of the listing, it “suffered ongoing financial and reputational harm, including loss of business, and employees were stigmatized and harassed.”

The company says the Department of Defense report justifying the listing “contains a scattered set of claims that are completely inadequate to justify the designation of DJI.”

The lawsuit argues: “Among numerous deficiencies, the report applies improper legal standards, confuses individuals with common Chinese surnames, and relies on outdated facts and weakened ties that fail to establish that DJI is a (Chinese military company).” It also says that founder and CEO Frank Wang and three early-stage investors “collectively own 99% of the company’s voting rights and approximately 87.4% of its stock.”

The Department of Defense didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s request for comment.