The Department of Defence has added several major Chinese firms to a US tech blacklist of companies said to have ties to the Chinese military. It’s not a posting that comes with an out-right ban from the US market, or sanctions, though the Pentagon will be prohibited from contracting directly with listed companies starting later this month. The list is intended to identify companies the Pentagon believes have links to China’s military or military-civil fusion efforts.
Among the companies listed are some big names in key sectors: e-commerce giant Alibaba, BYD – the EV company selling more cars than Tesla, and search engine Baidu all make the list. A number of other high-tech companies are lumped in too: Unitree Robotics and RoboSense, and memory chipmakers CXMT and YMTC.
The Chinese foreign ministry has condemned the move, saying in a statement that the inclusion of these companies amounted to discrimination and that Chinese companies were being ‘unreasonably suppressed.’
Many of the companies involved have echoed that sentiment, issuing statements of their own. Alibaba said there was ‘no basis’ for its inclusion, and that it is not part of any military-civil fusion strategy. Baidu called the designation ‘entirely baseless,’ and BYD said it would pursue all available legal and administrative legal action.
The Dao view: What the US tech blacklist says about Washington’s approach to Chinese tech
This can be seen as the latest move in a game that began with Huawei’s listing back in 2019. Since then, Tencent and drone producer DJI have also found themselves on the list along with battery maker, CATL.
What’s happening here isn’t really about military procurement. It’s more about what Washington considers strategic tech. The companies in question sit in sectors that are now treated like national security assets rather than purely commercial enterprises: EV makers, AI firms, robot manufacturers and chip companies.
The inclusion of Alibaba, Baidu, BYD and Unitree suggests the US-China competition is moving beyond tariffs and into a contest over the entire technology stack – and just a month after Xi Jinping and Trump seemed to be getting along so well. Beijing must be feeling sour. Watch Chinese critical minerals for export controls if you’re looking for the retaliatory blow.
