The approval was a rare example of Chinese technology company winning US government clearance in a climate recently defined by suspicion and restrictions. Chinese telecommunications hardware has drawn most of the attention as potential national security threats – with US President Donald Trump banning American agencies from using smartphones and other devices by China’s Huawei – but US agencies and lawmakers have also portrayed Chinese-made drones as technology that might pose security issues.

Chinese drone maker DJI monitors US blacklist as it develops own tech

In May, CNN reported that the US Department of Homeland Security alerted US companies to “be aware” of whether their “unmanned aerial systems” (UAS) data was “being stored by the vendor or other third parties.

“If it is being stored, find out how, where and for how long.”

The alert from the department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to CNN, stated that the drones were a “potential risk to an organisation's information”.

The warning did not name any particular manufacturer, but spurred speculation that DJI – which Skylogic Research, a market research firm, estimated accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the drones used in North America – might be banned from selling in the US.

How DJI went from university dorm project to world’s biggest drone company

US local law enforcement organizations and infrastructure operators have grown to rely on drones in recent years. According to DJI’s website, the Los Angeles Fire Department has used DJI’s industrial aerial drones for more than 175 incidents. The department deploys drones during fire-suppression calls, which has improved the efficiency of both its training and how its firefighters respond to high-risk incidents.

The Interior Department said it was approached by DJI in 2017 to collaborate on creating and testing two drone models that would provide the department’s bureaus access to DJI’s hardware while preventing any data leakage – intentional or unintentional – to any outside entities.

During 15 months of testing of the two models, the Interior Department found, there was no indication that data was being transmitted outside the system.

The testing “clearly shows that despite the hand-wringing over US-China tech decoupling, workable solutions to data security concerns are possible,” said Lorand Laskai, a visiting researcher at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology.

“The real question is whether these arrangements will be able to withstand the growing distrust between the United States and China,” Laskai said. “It's impossible for DJI to allay all concerns the US government has about the company’s drones, especially when to come to hardware ‘back doors’ and potential supply chain attacks.

“In addition, Congress appears increasingly concerned about the diminished state of the US drone industry and blames DJI. Neither of these concerns will be easy for DJI to address,” he noted.

To address US concerns about data leaks, DJI – which has repeatedly denied that its devices send flight data to China or elsewhere – announced last month a plan to move some of its manufacturing lines to the US.

DJI fixes security flaw that could have given hackers access to data

“As part of our long-term commitment to America that began in 2015 with our research and development facility located in Palo Alto, we are opening a new production facility in California and filing for compliance under the US Trade Agreements Act,” DJI said in a statement.

William Stofega, programme director of mobile phones and drones with IDC, a global market intelligence firm specialised in technology, said it was “too early to tell whether DJI has completely put its challenge behind with the approval”.

“But clearly it has made the correct response to elevate the concerns,” he said.