Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Camera drones; the flying, helicopter-like devices

  • the likes of which you might have been given for Christmas,

  • fly in their thousands across the US every day.

  • They're mostly used for fun, but they're also

  • used by the US government for more serious purposes,

  • such as mapping terrain or tracking wildlife movements.

  • The problem for the government is

  • that these devices are almost all made, at least in part,

  • in China.

  • And now officials here in Washington

  • have started to worry what might happen should Beijing demand

  • access to the images they take.

  • This is especially a problem for the US Department

  • of the Interior, which uses hundreds of these drones

  • to do everything from fighting wildfires to monitoring

  • potential earthquake signs.

  • Last year, the department decided to temporarily ground

  • all 810 of its drones because every single one of them

  • had been made, at least in part, in China.

  • Now, I've been told the department has decided these

  • pose a serious security threat and is so

  • planning to make that ban permanent,

  • albeit allowing for certain kinds of flight

  • for emergencies, for example.

  • This is being done despite the protests of the department's

  • own staff.

  • I've been leaked documents which show many of the department's

  • staff worrying about what the effect would

  • be on their daily work should such a ban take

  • hold permanently.

  • Read FT.com for my full story on this.

  • Now, at the end of last year, I reported

  • on the pushback coming from certain sections of the US

  • technology sector against the latest Trump administration

  • move against Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

  • In the comments to that piece, MK

  • asked how this push against Huawei

  • fitted with the more positive narrative that's

  • been going on around the US-China trade talks.

  • Well, this is a particularly pertinent question

  • now as I speak because the phase-one China trade

  • deal has just been signed.

  • And I suspect that officials in the Trump administration

  • think now that that agreement is in the bag,

  • now is exactly the right time to once more ratchet up

  • the pressure on the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

  • In fact, I would expect to see more

  • on exactly this thing from the Department of Commerce

  • in the coming weeks.

  • Stay tuned.

Camera drones; the flying, helicopter-like devices

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it