It’s unclear how Mark Aitken, who has lobbied for the Chinese military–connected drone manufacturer DJI, passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s vetting process.
A former lobbyist for a Pentagon-designated Chinese military company had a stint as a congressional staffer so brief that the lawmaker to whom he would have reported didn’t know about his appointment until after it was mired in controversy last night, National Review has learned.
Mark Aitken, who previously lobbied for the Chinese military–connected drone manufacturer DJI, updated his LinkedIn profile yesterday to share that he was the new staff director of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Asia-focused subcommittee. That’s an influential perch from which he would have been able to set the committee’s agenda on China policy.
A few hours later, the committee announced that he was no longer on its staff.
According to mandatory lobbying disclosures filed with Congress, Aitken’s contracts with the Shenzhen-based firm totaled over $2 million. His subsequent work as public affairs vice president for Shein, the Chinese fast fashion giant, netted him over $4 million in 2024.
DJI, which is known to American consumers as the dominant manufacturer of cheap, high-quality drones, was added to the Defense Department’s list of Chinese military companies in 2022. The Commerce Department has also blacklisted DJI, linking it to the Chinese Communist Party’s mass surveillance programs. U.S. officials are also concerned that DJI could share information with the Chinese authorities or be controlled from China.
House Republicans have been particularly outspoken against DJI’s apologists. Representative Elise Stefanik has harshly criticized former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s work for the company. Former Representative Mike Gallagher has called DJI lobbyists “sellouts” to the Chinese regime.
The GOP-majority House Foreign Affairs Committee is dominated by China hawks, and its chairman, Representative Brian Mast, has taken a strong stand against Beijing’s threats to American interests.
Yet Aitken’s move to HFAC yesterday rankled Republican staffers who favor tough policies to confront the Chinese Communist Party, and it’s still not clear how he made it through the committee’s vetting process.
“Hiring at that level — staff directors — is approved by the chairman himself,” a senior GOP aide who used to work on the committee, told NR. “This is a very bad look for Mast.”
As news of Aitken’s hiring started to spread among China policy hands and on social media, a spokesman for the committee shared that the former lobbyist was “no longer” on its staff. “This is a confidential, personnel matter and there is no further comment from the committee,” the spokesman told NR.
Representative Young Kim is the chairwoman of the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee for which Aitken would have been the top staffer. A spokeswoman for Kim said that the California Republican “was not aware of the hire.”