Alibaba

June 30 (Asia Today) — Major Washington lobbying firms are ending their relationships with Alibaba, Tencent and other Chinese companies as a new U.S. defense-contracting restriction takes effect Tuesday.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Mercury Public Affairs and MO Strategies were among the influential firms that recently terminated contracts with the Chinese technology companies, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Public lobbying disclosures showed Alibaba had lost five lobbying firms and Tencent had lost four over the past week. MO Strategies said it would comply fully with the new Defense Department requirements.

The shift follows the implementation of Section 851 of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

The provision prohibits the Defense Department from awarding contracts to a company, including its parent companies and subsidiaries, if that company retains a covered lobbyist who also lobbies for a Chinese business on the Pentagon’s Section 1260H list.

The law does not directly prohibit lobbying firms from representing Chinese companies. In practice, however, it forces firms to choose between Chinese clients on the list and U.S. companies seeking Defense Department business.

The Pentagon established the Section 1260H list under the fiscal 2021 defense authorization act to identify companies it considers affiliated with China’s military or contributors to Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy.

The Defense Department added Alibaba and dozens of other companies to an updated list published June 8. The latest version includes 188 entities operating directly or indirectly in the United States, according to the department.

Tencent appeared on an earlier version of the list and remained designated in the June update.

A company’s inclusion on the list does not by itself impose comprehensive economic sanctions. Other U.S. laws, however, increasingly connect the designation to federal contracting, procurement and funding restrictions.

Alibaba filed a federal lawsuit last Tuesday seeking removal from the list. The Chinese e-commerce company said the Pentagon lacked sufficient evidence to classify it as a Chinese military company and failed to adequately consider evidence disputing the alleged ties.

Alibaba has denied that it works with the Chinese military or participates in China’s military-civil fusion strategy. Tencent has also denied military links.

Alibaba said in its lawsuit that the new lobbying restriction had already prompted several firms and individual lobbyists to indicate that they would end their relationships with the company.

The Pentagon’s expanded list and the new contracting rule are likely to increase compliance reviews among Washington lobbying firms, law firms, consultants and defense contractors.

Companies seeking Pentagon contracts may need to determine whether outside advisers represent any listed Chinese entities, even when those advisers’ work for the U.S. company is unrelated to national defense.

The development also narrows Chinese companies’ access to experienced lobbyists as they seek to challenge expanding trade, investment and national security restrictions in Washington.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260630010010558

June 9 (Asia Today) — The U.S. Defense Department expanded its list of Chinese companies it says are linked to China’s military, adding about two dozen firms, including BYD, Alibaba, Baidu, WuXi AppTec and Unitree, according to U.S. media reports.

The annual list, known as the Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies, grew from last year as U.S. national security officials increased scrutiny of Beijing’s use of civilian technology to support military modernization.

The newly added companies span electric vehicles, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and robotics.

BYD is one of China’s leading electric vehicle makers. Alibaba operates e-commerce and cloud computing businesses, including in the United States. Baidu is active in internet search and artificial intelligence. WuXi AppTec is a major pharmaceutical and biotechnology services company, while Unitree is known for humanoid and quadruped robots.

The move shows the Trump administration is looking beyond semiconductors and AI chips as it assesses security risks tied to Chinese technology and industrial supply chains.

Chris McGuire, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former official at the State Department and National Security Council, said the action shows Washington is increasingly attentive to security risks from Chinese products in industries beyond semiconductors and AI.

China objected to the move.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said the Defense Department was overstretching the concept of national security and creating a discriminatory list targeting Chinese companies.

The updated list drew attention because it comes as Washington and Beijing have recently appeared to ease some trade tensions.

The United States had reportedly held back some measures against Chinese companies, including sanctions, high tariffs and cyber-related actions. An earlier version of the list expected in February was withdrawn ahead of a U.S.-China summit, according to U.S. media reports.

The summit, held in Beijing last month, focused heavily on trade issues.

Still, the Pentagon continues to view China as the United States’ main military competitor.

Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the trade atmosphere may have improved after the summit, but Washington’s basic assessment has not changed.

He said U.S. officials still believe major Chinese civilian technology companies are connected to China’s military modernization.

Companies placed on the list are barred from doing business with the U.S. military. The designation does not automatically impose broad sanctions, but it can create reputational risk, reduce access to U.S. government-related business and increase scrutiny from investors and regulators.

The commercial effect can vary by company.

SZ DJI Technology, the Chinese drone maker placed on the list in 2022, has continued to maintain a strong position in the U.S. consumer drone market despite its designation.

The latest additions show that Washington’s concerns about China’s military-civil fusion strategy are expanding from advanced chips and AI models into broader technology and manufacturing ecosystems.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260609010002864

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

The United States has designated Chinese corporate giants Alibaba, BYD and Baidu as companies that support China’s military, expanding its blacklist to some of the country’s best-known commercial brands.

The Pentagon included the firms in an update on Monday that is likely to complicate the fragile detente under way between Washington and Beijing after years of rocky relations.

China’s embassy in Washington, DC, condemned the listing as “discriminatory” and an example of the US government “overstretching” the concept of national security.

“Chinese companies that do business overseas have been strictly observing laws and regulations of their host countries,” an embassy spokesperson said.

“The US should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies.”

Alibaba, BYD and Baidu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Pentagon’s list of “Chinese military companies,” which is updated annually, now includes 188 firms, up from 134 in 2025.

Firms included on the list, which was created in 2021, will be barred from consideration for US defence contracts from later this month.

The Pentagon defines “Chinese military companies” as entities owned or controlled by the Chinese military, or that contribute to China’s “military civil fusion”, referring to Beijing’s strategy of melding civilian and defence-related research and innovation.

Companies must also carry out some of their operations in the US to be designated.

The expansion of the blacklist comes less than a month after US President Donald Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing for a two-day summit aimed at lowering the temperature in their countries’ years-long trade war and tech rivalry.

Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD are among China’s most prominent brands, claiming the top spots in the e-commerce, internet search and electric vehicle markets, respectively.

The addition of several household brands not normally associated with the defence sector mirrors last year’s designation of tech firm Tencent, the owner of the ubiquitous messaging app WeChat.

Other additions to the list include RoboSense Technology, an AI and robotics company with headquarters in Shenzhen, and Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics.

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

Dennis Wilder, a national security expert who worked on China at the CIA and the White House’s National Security Council, expressed scepticism about the feasibility of implementing such a “broad-brush” blacklist.

“Although it may make some US firms wary of engaging with the labelled entities, in fact, many US firms already have deep relationships with these entities, that they are not going to give up unless there are real penalties attached to working commercial deals with them,” Wilder told Al Jazeera.

“Sanctions that range this widely are sanctions that don’t work. Unless the US is willing to decouple from the Chinese economy altogether, these sanctions are simply performative,” Wilder said.