China bans online platforms from selling drones due to military parade

Major online shopping platforms have been told to stop selling unmanned aerial vehicles – commonly known as drones – due to the military parade being held in Beijing on Thursday.

In a statement, Taobao.com said it had been told by the Ministry of Public Security to stop selling drones and aerospace products until Friday. The company issued the statement last week.

Other major e-commerce platforms, including JD.com and Suning.com, have also been told to stop selling drones.

Model aircraft owners have been banned from flying their planes for sports, entertainment and advertising campaigns from August 22 until September 4, within 300 kilometers of Tian’anmen Square.

The prohibition was announced by the General Administration of Sport’s Aeronautical Radio Model and Sports Management Centre.

When the phrase “unmanned aerial vehicle” is input on e-commerce platforms, no results show up. When consumers input the type of a specific unmanned aerial vehicle, they can only browse information about the product on the webpage, but cannot place an order.

Drone companies said the suspension of sales at online platforms will have a limited influence in the short term.

Yu Shengxin, sales manager at Shenzhen Jiuxing Tianli Technology Co, said: “Exports of our drone products comprise a large percentage of total sales, so we are not worried about the ban on sales. The company will strengthen cooperation with Tencent to manufacture more civilian drones.”

Securities Times quoted Rapoo Technology, another drone manufacturer in Shenzhen, as saying it has not been affected by the prohibition because apart from Beijing, offline sales of drone products in other cities are being processed normally and online sales will resume on Friday.

Analysts said the security issue surrounding unmanned aerial vehicles is the main reason for Beijing issuing the no-fly restrictions.

She Shuanglin, an analyst at Internet consultancy Analysys International in Beijing, told China Daily, “The percentage of online purchases of drone and aerospace products by consumers is much higher than that for offline sales. Moreover, unmanned aerial vehicle companies are mainly small startups, so they are more susceptible to such a situation.

“There are still no effective measures to manage and supervise the drone industry, including production standards, industry technology standards and market admission standards.”

She said the quality of drones varies greatly, and suggested that the government introduce industry standards as soon as possible.