The Biden administration is facing even more scrutiny over its approach to China. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has written a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, demanding clarification on the White House’s decision to allow American companies to export technology to adversarial foreign regimes.

Specifically, the letter highlights concerns related to DJI, a Chinese state-owned drone and camera company, which has been on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List since 2020 for helping China’s government carry out human rights abuses.

The letter, which was signed by 14 Republican lawmakers and one Democrat, noted that the company’s placement on the list “recognizes that DJI actively works against America’s national security interests, and the issuance of export control licenses to DJI should be prohibited to ensure it cannot benefit from American innovation and ingenuity.”

Currently, DJI is listed as subject to a “presumption of denial” licensing policy, but it has come to our attention that DJI’s drones likely still contain critical components from American companies, just as they did prior to DJI being listed. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) should not be recommending approval of export control licenses for U.S. technology that advances DJI’s capabilities, which are actively being leveraged by our adversaries in attacks against our allies and partners, from Eastern Europe to Israel.

As we work to keep China out of our skies, we must prevent U.S. parts from equipping CCP spyware.

U.S.-made tech should not be allowed to enhance the capabilities of our adversaries.

I’m taking action to counter the risk Chinese-controlled drones pose to our security interests. pic.twitter.com/467EDXYiNE

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) December 19, 2023

The letter added: “In addition to aiding the CCP in the brutal oppression of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, DJI drones have been exported to America’s adversaries for military purposes, in violation of U.S. export laws and sanctions.”

The lawmakers also alleged that the company is “illegally equipping the Russian Federation with drones that Russia’s military is deploying on the front lines of their war in Ukraine” and asked a series of questions related to whether the DoD “recommended approval” for American companies to export U.S. tech to the company. They also requested a briefing from DoD “experts and engineers” to “explain their national security review processes and their final recommendations.”

DJI, also known as Da-Jiang Innovations, is a premier player in the field of drone and camera technology. Founded in 2006, the company has expanded reach to include drone hobbyists outside of China and has established a subsidiary in North America for mass-market drone sales.

Several U.S. companies have business relationships with DJI. Ceva, a Maryland-based company, has sold technology to the company that it uses to manufacture its drones. DJI is also believed to rely on several cloud services, powered by Amazon Web Services, smart battery BMS (possibly from Texas Instruments), vision chips (possibly from Intel & Ambarella), and legacy thermal imaging cameras (from FLIR). It is also worth noting that about 50 percent of drones sold in the United States are manufactured by DJI, according to the lawmakers’ letter.

The Chinese government has used DJI’s drone technologies to conduct surveillance on the country’s population. In particular, it has been used in the Xinjiang region, where reports have exposed the CCP’s egregious and oppressive treatment of the Uyghur population.

DJI has denied assisting in human rights abuses and claims the letter “traffics in distortions and misrepresentations of fact.”

This situation could represent yet another scandal for the Biden administration. If it is revealed that the White House is allowing American companies to sell equipment used to help an authoritarian regime like China’s oppress its citizens while also empowering it to possibly use the tech against the United States, it will be difficult for President Joe Biden to avoid the scrutiny that will surely follow.