While Sorensen says it’s possible that China is adopting its own export rules in anticipation of stronger future sales, he thinks the ban could also be China’s way of signaling to other countries-possibly those the US has frozen out-that it has supercomputing tech to export.
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The restrictions come following national security concerns, which cover drones that stay airborne for longer than an hour, can reach altitudes of up to one mile and those that can handle bad weather.
Soon afterwards, Intel signed a $200m (£136m) deal with the US government to build a massive supercomputer at one of its own national laboratories.
The new measures should have little impact on China’s growing commercial drone industry, however, as few hobby drones meet the standards for restriction. “But it really makes sense in terms of national security”.
In addition to submitting drones for registration, Chinese companies will also be required to submit technical specifications for such technology exports, as well as export contracts detailing who the recipient will be and what the recipient intends to do with the technology. These devices generally have a battery life of approximately 20 minutes and are incapable of reaching high altitudes.
Leading Chinese maker DJI dominates the global market.
China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer now tops the list of the world’s biggest supercomputers and has a top processing speed of about 34 petaflops (33,862 teraflops). China’s decision to limit the export of computer processors may well be a result of a new computing race between itself and the US.
But the new export restrictions may have little to do with either incident.
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In the year 2013, answering the Associated Press, Ministry of Defense spokesperson Yang Yujun said, “Drones are a new high-tech form of weaponry employed and used by many militaries around the world”.
