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Han Li

A US appeal court on Friday gave Chinese drone maker DJI another chance to challenge its inclusion on a Pentagon blacklist of companies allegedly linked to the Chinese military.
DJI, a Shenzhen-based drone maker, has been engaged in a years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence to be removed from the list.
The latest ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not remove DJI from the list, but sent the case back to the lower court to reconsider one part of the Defence Department’s justification for designating the company.
The Defence Department declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
DJI praised the court ruling as a significant step towards correcting an unjustified designation.
“The decision reinforces what DJI has consistently maintained: DJI is not a military company,” a DJI spokesperson said in a statement.


“We are a privately held company that has revolutionised the consumer and commercial drone markets, consistently condemned the use of our products in combat and taken active steps to prevent it.”
The company said it will continue to fight the designation as the case moves forward.
DJI was first placed on the Pentagon’s Chinese military company list in 2022. The company petitioned the Defence Department for delisting and later sued over its designation.
A lower court sided with the Pentagon in 2025, and the company then appealed, leading to Friday’s ruling.
What did the US Court of Appeals ruling say?
Judge Bradley N. Garcia wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel.
The appeal court rejected three of DJI’s four arguments, including its claims that the Pentagon violated its due process rights, lacked sufficient evidence to find that DJI received assistance from the Chinese government, and failed to explain why it treated DJI differently from similarly situated companies.
But the court agreed with DJI on one narrow but critical issue: the lower District Court improperly upheld the Pentagon’s separate finding that DJI contributes to China’s defence industrial base without examining the classified record.
Garcia wrote that the Pentagon’s report contained a section titled “DJI Contributes to the Chinese Defence Industrial Base”, but every word of that section except for the heading was redacted in the unclassified record.
The appeal court said the District Court could not rely on arguments made by government lawyers or evidence elsewhere in the record to supply a rationale the Pentagon itself had not provided.
“On that assumption, the District Court’s analysis cannot stand,” Garcia wrote. “There is, in other words, no publicly stated rationale for why the Secretary believes DJI contributes to the Chinese defence industrial base.”
The appeal court sent the issue back to the District Court, which may now examine the classified record and determine whether to uphold the Pentagon’s determination that DJI contributes to China’s defence industrial base.

China’s drone dominance sparks geopolitical tension
China’s dominance of the drone market has fuelled the geopolitical tension behind cases like this one. Beijing has spent years building up its drone industry.
In counter-drone detections tracked by Dedrone, a drone detection and defence company, DJI alone accounted for 83.48 per cent of all drones detected in 2025.
The company’s dominance has raised concerns about US reliance on Chinese-made drones and American leadership in the sector.
In recent years, US policymakers have increasingly treated drones not as niche tools but as essential military infrastructure. The Trump administration signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” in June 2025.
DJI is among a growing number of Chinese companies challenging their placement on the list. Earlier this month, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the Pentagon from including Chinese biotech company WuXi AppTec on the list.
E-commerce giant Alibaba, also added to the list in June, has sued seeking its own removal. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.


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Latest ruling gives Shenzhen-based company hope after years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence


Latest ruling gives Shenzhen-based company hope after years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence.


Chinese drone maker DJI gets another shot at Pentagon blacklist removal

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Latest ruling gives Shenzhen-based company hope after years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence

Latest ruling gives Shenzhen-based company hope after years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence