Chinese Drone Maker Autel May Warrant Placement on Entity List, Lawmakers Say

The U.S. should place export controls and investment restrictions on Chinese drone maker Autel Robotics, which has ties to the country’s military and uses parts from at least one other Chinese company on the Entity List, the leaders of the House Select Committee on China said in a letter last week to the Biden administration. The lawmakers also said they’re concerned that the Chinese government uses Autel’s technology for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and that the company sells its products to Russia.

The letter, signed by committee Chairs Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and nine others, asks the Commerce, Treasury and Defense departments to investigate whether Autel should be added to Commerce’s Entity List, Treasury’s Non-Specially Designated Nationals Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List, or DOD’s Chinese Military Companies List.

Autel is “openly affiliated” with China's People’s Liberation Army despite it presenting itself as a “commercial-oriented business,” the lawmakers said. The letter pointed to Chinese-language information on the company’s website that shows it has supplied to the Chinese military and is recruiting a “military industry sales director.”

Autel also has “gone to great lengths to muddy its history and to brand itself as a U.S. company,” the letter said. The firm in 2017 established a U.S. subsidiary, Autel Robotics USA LLC, which it calls a “family-owned business” and labels the U.S. as its “single most important market.” But the lawmakers said Autel “obfuscates the fact” that it was formerly a subsidiary of China’s Autel Intelligent Technology Corp., a company listed on one of China’s National Defense and Military Industry Hybrid Securities Investment Funds.

Although Autel has marketed products and drones as “manufactured in the USA with foreign and domestic parts and labor,” the lawmakers said Autel’s “made in USA” drones are comprised of microchips and components from Chinese technology companies that have been subject to U.S. trade restrictions. That includes Chinese telecommunications company ZTE and semiconductor company HiSilicon, which was added to the Entity List in 2019 (see 1905160072).

The committee leaders also expressed concerns that Chinese officials have used Autel drones for surveillance operations as part of its repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, noting Autel’s website advertises nine authorized dealers across Xinjiang, including firms in the surveillance industry. Autel also has publicly participated in Chinese police exhibitions and “openly participated in the China-Asia-Europe Security Expo hosted in Xinjiang, which included exhibitions centered on security and police equipment,” the letter said.

Beyond that, the company “appears to be potentially” supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, the letter said. The lawmakers pointed to reports that said Autel drones are being marketed in Russia under the name Patriot, while the company continues to “assert full compliance with relevant export control laws.”

If the Biden administration decides Autel shouldn’t be added to any U.S. denied party list, the lawmakers asked for the agencies to brief them on how they reached that determination.

Spokespeople for Autel, Commerce, Treasury and DOD didn’t comment.