US lists China’s BYD, Alibaba, Baidu as ‘Chinese military companies’

Chinese embassy successful Washington, DC, condemns designation, calling it ‘discriminatory’.

The United States has designated Chinese firm giants Alibaba, BYD and Baidu arsenic companies that enactment China’s military, expanding its blacklist to immoderate of the country’s best-known commercialized brands.

The Pentagon included the firms successful an update connected Monday that is apt to complicate the fragile detente nether mode betwixt Washington and Beijing aft years of rocky relations.

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China’s embassy successful Washington, DC, condemned the listing arsenic “discriminatory” and an illustration of the US authorities “overstretching” the conception of nationalist security.

“Chinese companies that bash concern overseas person been strictly observing laws and regulations of their big countries,” an embassy spokesperson said.

“The US should halt its incorrect signifier and make a fair, conscionable and non-discriminatory situation for Chinese companies.”

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, said determination was “no basis” for its inclusion connected the blacklist.

“Alibaba is not a Chinese subject institution nor portion of immoderate military-civil fusion strategy,” a institution spokesperson said.

“We volition instrumentality each disposable ineligible enactment against attempts to misrepresent our company.”

BYD and Baidu did not instantly respond to requests for comment.

The Pentagon’s database of “Chinese subject companies,” which is updated annually, present includes 188 firms, up from 134 successful 2025.

Firms included connected the list, which was created successful 2021, and entities nether their power volition beryllium barred from information for US defence contracts nether rules acceptable to travel into effect aboriginal this month.

The Pentagon defines “Chinese subject companies” arsenic entities owned oregon controlled by the Chinese military, oregon that lend to China’s “military civilian fusion”, referring to Beijing’s strategy of melding civilian and defence-related probe and innovation.

Companies indispensable besides transportation retired immoderate of their operations successful the US to beryllium designated.

In its updated list, the Pentagon said Alibaba, BYD and Baidu supported China’s subject improvement via their affiliations with the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Republican lawmaker John Moolenaar, who chairs the US House of Representatives committee connected strategical contention with the Chinese Communist Party, said the updated database served arsenic a informing astir Chinese companies moving against US nationalist interests.

“Any of them that are publically traded connected US exchanges should beryllium instantly delisted and their products should beryllium removed from proviso chains our state depends on,” Moolenaar said successful a statement.

“American companies indispensable halt doing concern with these threats to our nationalist security, different they are enabling China’s subject ascendance.”

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese person Xi Jinping astatine the Great Hall of the People successful Beijing, China, connected May 14, 2026 [File: Kenny Holston/Pool via Reuters]

The enlargement of the blacklist comes little than a period aft US President Donald Trump met Chinese person Xi Jinping successful Beijing for a two-day acme aimed astatine lowering the somesthesia successful their countries’ years-long commercialized warfare and tech rivalry.

Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD are among China’s astir salient brands, claiming the apical spots successful the e-commerce, net hunt and electrical conveyance markets, respectively.

The summation of respective household brands not usually associated with the defence assemblage mirrors past year’s designation of tech steadfast Tencent, the proprietor of the ubiquitous messaging app WeChat.

Other additions to the database see RoboSense Technology, an AI and robotics institution with office successful Shenzhen, and Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics.

RoboSense Technology and Unitree Robotics did not instantly respond to requests for comment.

Dennis Wilder, a nationalist information adept who worked connected China astatine the CIA and the White House’s National Security Council, expressed scepticism astir the feasibility of implementing specified a “broad-brush” blacklist.

“Although it whitethorn marque immoderate US firms wary of engaging with the labelled entities, successful fact, galore US firms already person heavy relationships with these entities that they are not going to springiness up unless determination are existent penalties attached to moving commercialized deals with them,” Wilder told Al Jazeera.

“Sanctions that scope this wide are sanctions that don’t work. Unless the US is consenting to decouple from the Chinese system altogether, these sanctions are simply performative,” Wilder said.