The United States Department of Defense updated its list of Chinese military companies on Monday (8), including, among others, e-commerce giant Alibaba, electric vehicle manufacturer BYD and search platform Baidu.
This list, created in 2021 and which now brings together 188 companies from China, identifies companies that the Pentagon understands to be part of the Chinese military industry, maintain links or contribute to it, which exposes them to restrictions, such as the ban on signing defense contracts with the US. The inclusion comes weeks after a meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing and reinforces scrutiny over China’s civil-military fusion strategy.
According to the Associated Press, the Chinese Embassy in the United States accused the Department of Defense of “exceeding the concept of national security and creating discriminatory lists to persecute Chinese companies”.
Alibaba claimed that “it is not a Chinese military company nor is it part of any military-civilian merger strategy”, while Baidu said that its inclusion in this category is “totally unfounded”.
BYD also denied this classification and stated that it “will actively protect its legitimate rights and interests by all feasible administrative and legal means.”
