China’s 2025 Drone Export Crackdown: DJI Grounded in the West While Russia Still Flies
In 2025 Beijing imposed sweeping new limits on drone exports, halting or sharply reducing sales to Ukraine, the United States, and Europe while shipments to Russia appear to continue. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “Chinese Mavic is open for Russians but is closed for Ukrainians,” referencing DJI’s Mavic drones used in the war. On September 1, 2024, China’s export controls took effect, banning exports of all unregulated civilian drones that could serve military uses and adding high-end infrared imaging gear, laser rangefinders, and precision inertial navigation units to the export-control list. Under the new rules, exports of drone parts