Less than a month after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping maintained a delicate trade war truce in Beijing, the US has added some of China’s biggest technology companies to a Pentagon list of firms it claims are aiding the Chinese military – a move that risks inflaming tensions further.
On Monday, the US Department of Defense published a long-awaited update to its Section 1260H list, naming 188 “Chinese military companies” deemed a national security risk. Among the new inclusions are e-commerce giant Alibaba, internet search provider Baidu and electric car maker BYD, which earlier this year surpassed Tesla to become the world’s top EV maker. The list also includes electric carmaker Nio, aircraft manufacturer Comac, biotech firm WuXi AppTec, and robot makers RoboSense and Unitree.
“US adds Alibaba, BYD and Baidu to Pentagon list of Chinese firms aiding military, risking fresh tensions”
The Pentagon’s list aims to alert American organisations to the risks of doing business with the flagged Chinese firms, but inclusion does not trigger immediate sanctions. Many of the companies compete directly with US players in electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, and are said to serve as “military-civil contributors” to Chinese defence operations.
The Chinese embassy in the US called the list “discriminatory”, insisting that Chinese firms have strictly complied with laws abroad. Policy analyst Stefanie Kam from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University said Beijing is likely to view the move as a “form of economic containment” and could retaliate with tit-for-tat sanctions or add American companies to a list of its own.
Several companies have already pushed back. An Alibaba spokesperson said the firm was “not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy” and would “take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company”. Baidu “categorically” rejected its inclusion, saying “the suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless” and that it would “use all options available” to be removed. WuXi AppTec described its inclusion as “incorrect” and said it would “take immediate actions to challenge and correct this erroneous designation”.
Other Chinese tech firms previously listed – including Tencent, Huawei, drone maker DJI and battery giant CATL – remain on the roll. The update supersedes a list from early 2025, and comes after a short-lived February index that was withdrawn without explanation while Trump’s trip to China was pending. That February list has now been reinstated with the addition of two memory chipmakers, CXMT and YMTC.
With no evidence of direct military contracts provided in the Pentagon’s filing, the stage is set for a diplomatic showdown that could shake the fragile trade truce.