Before DJI, a Chinese drone company, was named a national security threat, it was the darling of the U.S. government, used by federal agencies, the military and more than 900 local and state law enforcement and emergency service agencies. In fact, the company so dominates the global market for small drones that even though parts of the national security establishment have worked to block it, other federal agencies have continued to embrace DJI drones and order more, arguing that their operations depended on them. The contrast reveals just how inconsistent and uncoordinated implementation of the U.S. government’s China policy has been, and how a “national security threat” can, at times, be in the eye of the beholder.  Government scrutiny first fell on DJI in August 2017, when the Army and Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote memos saying the drones might constitute a security risk, and escalated quickly from there. The following May, the Department of Defense ordered