Drones flew over caves and crevices scattered along mountain trails in northern Utah, transmitting real-time video to a search team on the ground looking for a missing hiker. Nineteen minutes later, they had his coordinates, bringing the rescue (a drill) closer to its conclusion.

“In this type of environment, that’s pretty fast,” said Kyle Nordfors, a volunteer search and rescue worker. He was operating one of the drones, made by the Chinese company DJI, which dominates sales to law enforcement agencies as well as the hobbyist market in the United States.

But if DJI drones are the tool of choice for emergency services across the country, in Washington they are considered a threat to national security.

DJI is on a Defense Department list of Chinese military companies whose products the U.S. military will be prohibited from purchasing in the future. As part of the defense budget that Congress passed this year, other federal agencies and programs will likely also be prohibited from purchasing DJI drones.

The Treasury and Commerce Departments have penalized DJI for using its drones to spy on Uighur Muslims held in camps by Chinese officials in the Xinjiang region. Researchers have found that Beijing could potentially exploit vulnerabilities in an app that controls the drone to gain access to large amounts of personal information, although a US official said there are currently no known vulnerabilities that have not been patched.

Now Congress is weighing legislation that could wipe out much of DJI’s commercial business in the United States by placing it on a Federal Communications Commission list that would prevent it from operating on the country’s communications infrastructure.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, has been met with an intense lobbying campaign by DJI. The company hopes that Americans like Nordfors, who use its products, will help persuade lawmakers that the United States has nothing to fear (and everything to gain) by keeping DJI drones in flight.

But the influence campaign faces a skeptical public.

“DJI poses an unacceptable risk to national security, and it is time for drones made by communist China to be removed from the United States,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a leading sponsor of the bill. law, in an emailed statement this month.

Government agencies have shown that DJI drones are providing data on “critical infrastructure” in the United States to the Chinese Communist Party, Stefanik said, without elaborating. “Any attempt to claim otherwise is a direct result of DJI’s lobbying efforts.”

Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved the bill that would effectively ground DJI drones, known as the CCP Countering Drones Act. The legislation could come to a vote in the House of Representatives in the next month or two, said a lobbyist and a China expert who had been briefed on the plans, as part of what they described as a “China week” planned during the which several The possibility of imposing restrictions on the country’s business operations in the United States could be considered.

The bill is also likely to find support in the Senate, which has introduced a variety of restrictions on Chinese-made drones in recent years.

In the midst of the 2024 campaign, both parties are eager to show they are tough on China. The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the popular social network TikTok, to sell the app within a year or stop operating in the United States. President Biden signed it into law on Wednesday.

Like TikTok, DJI drones are very popular in the United States. David Benowitz, a former DJI employee who works for American drone maker BRINC, estimated that DJI drones accounted for 58 percent of the commercial market in 2022. There is no accurate and recent data on DJI’s popularity among law enforcement. , but a Bard College 2020 study that relied on FAA records pegged the company’s share at 90 percent.

DJI’s lobbying efforts have been supported by users who fear that a ban on the company’s drones would be disruptive and costly, especially since American suppliers have not proven they can compete on cost or quality.

“Beyond the national security risks these drones pose, we need a strong and competitive U.S. drone industry,” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House committee on competition, said in a statement. United States and China.

DJI spent $1.6 million on lobbying last year, according to Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics. The company has spent at least $310,000 so far this year, according to its Senate lobbying disclosures. Some of those dollars have helped organize meetings with lawmakers for first responders using DJI drones.

The company also funded a website called the Drone Advocacy Alliance, according to Vic Moss and Chris Fink, two drone users who run the site. It is intended in part to raise awareness about the CCP’s Counter-Drone Act and includes a template for contacting lawmakers directly.

“Our products are designed and intended to promote the general good and benefit society,” DJI spokesperson Regina Lin said in a statement. She denied that the drones had been involved in human rights violations and said they were not intended for surveillance.

DJI recently opened a showroom on a prime stretch of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to showcase its drones, which cost between $279 and at least $9,000 and are used for a wide variety of purposes, including photography, videography and architecture. amateurs and professionals.

“Some of my friends and I used them to measure the land and get the dimensions of the buildings,” said Paolo Dallapozza, an Italian architect who visited the store recently.

Amid rumors that China hawks in Congress could blacklist lobbyists representing Chinese companies with military ties and their other clients, at least two companies representing DJI (Vogel Group and Avoq) broke up its ties to DJI in February, according to Senate lobbying disclosures. DJI quickly hired new representatives, Senate documents show, including Liberty Government Affairs, which is run by a former top aide to Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who has been hostile to efforts to rein in TikTok.

DJI’s lawyers have complained to the Pentagon about its inclusion on the list of Chinese military companies. DJI has tried, so far without success, to be removed. The lawyers noted, among other points, that DJI’s ownership in the hands of state-owned companies in China (including several banks, a state-owned insurance company and two municipal funds) represents less than 6 percent of the company.

“DJI’s ownership is concentrated primarily in the hands of its founders and early-stage executives, none of whom are government officials or representatives of government or state entities,” said Loretta Lynch, former attorney general under President Barack Obama and now attorney general. partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, she wrote in a letter to the Department of Defense in July.

The Pentagon, however, does not bow down.

As China “attempts to blur the lines between the civil and military sectors, ‘knowing your customer’ is critical,” said Defense Department spokesman Jeff Jurgensen.

“American companies should be careful not to contribute to the military programs of the People’s Republic of China,” he added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Strategic discussions among DJI lobbyists have taken on a panicked tone in recent weeks, according to a company representative who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential details. Users like Fink, a former 911 operator who runs a drone store in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that sells a variety of brands and models, including some from DJI, have tried to intervene.

Fink said he was less focused on where the drone was built than on ensuring consumers had the option to choose quality products. “I think we just need more competitive offerings that we can have that provide a cohesive, reliable, secure, easy-to-use system,” he said.

Michael Lighthiser operates a large fleet of drones, including many produced by DJI, for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has met virtually with state representatives, including members of the staff of Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, to argue against the proposed restrictions. the use of DJI drones. But in recognition of political reality, Lighthiser said he also recently purchased a fixed-wing vertical takeoff drone from Event 38 Unmanned Systems, a manufacturer based in Richfield, Ohio.

The Event 38 drone costs a little more than DJI’s version, Lighthiser said, but “I don’t want to buy a Chinese-made product that could be gone in a month.”

Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington.