US mulls ban on domestic drone maker over China ties

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed banning the import and sale of drones made by Texas-based Anzu Robotics, citing the company’s technological ties to a restricted entity widely understood to be the Chinese drone maker DJI, reports Caixin.

In a notice, the FCC proposed barring Anzu from continuing to import and sell certain drones and remote controllers that had previously received equipment authorization. If adopted, the order would require the company to stop those activities within 30 days. The proposed ban would not affect consumers already using the devices and would not apply to imports and sales for federal government use, commercial testing or product development.

Founded in 2023, Anzu has said it is backed by US capital and that its servers, customer support, repair operations and data storage are all based in the United States. According to the FCC, publicly available information shows that Anzu’s products are manufactured in Malaysia by an entity that has a technology-sharing or licensing arrangement with a company named in Section 1709 of the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act—which refers to two companies, DJI and Autel Robotics.