Chinese tech companies including BYD and Baidu have pushed back against inclusion in an expanded US list classifying them as military companies, in a fresh blow to ties between the US and China.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, internet search provider Baidu and electric vehicle makers BYD and NIO were added to the updated 1260H or CMC list. The Pentagon had previously briefly shared the list in February. The list comes less than a month after US President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping, where both sides maintained a delicate truce.
China’s Foreign Ministry called the list discriminatory, noting that it "unreasonably suppressed" its companies. It also urged the US to "correct its mistaken practices."
"China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," ministry representative Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing.
The listed firms were quick to condemn the decision. BYD, the world's largest seller of electric vehicles, told Reuters it firmly opposed being labelled a military company and would use all "feasible administrative and legal means" to safeguard its interests, adding that the move harmed its development achievements in the US.
Alibaba said there was "no basis" for its inclusion. "Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy. We will take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company," it said in a statement to Reuters.
Baidu "categorically" rejected the designation. "The suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless. We will not hesitate to use all options available to us to have the company removed from the list," it told Reuters. The biotech firm WuXi AppTec said its inclusion was "incorrect" and that it would "take immediate actions to challenge and correct this erroneous designation".
The new list is identical to the one issued in February and also includes China's top memory chipmakers CXMT and YMTC, which had previously been excluded. Other companies on the list include the AI-driven robotics company RoboSense Technology Co Ltd and Unitree, which builds humanoid and quadruped robots. Earlier this month, the US chipmaker Nvidia announced plans to work with Unitree to build robots for researchers.
While the list does not formally impose sanctions on the companies, it does prohibit the Pentagon from entering, renewing or extending contracts for goods, services or technologies with those firms or their affiliates.
