In a dramatic turn of events, the Pentagon on Friday listed several high-profile Chinese companies in a list of companies linked to the People’s Liberation Army, but withdrew the notification later. The US Department of War had added a large number of Chinese firms, including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., search engine leader Baidu Inc., and electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Co., to its Section 1260H list of firms allegedly supporting China’s military.
The update was published in the U.S. Federal Register but withdrawn mere minutes later without any official explanation, sparking speculation about internal policy debates or diplomatic considerations ahead of anticipated talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April.
The Section 1260H list, mandated by the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, requires the Secretary of Defense to annually identify and publish companies deemed “Chinese military companies” or those contributing to Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy.
While inclusion on the list does not trigger immediate sanctions, it prohibits the Department of Defense from entering into contracts with these entities in future and carries significant reputational and compliance risks, potentially deterring U.S. investors and contractors.
Alongside Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD, the briefly published list added TP-Link Technologies Co., biotech firm WuXi AppTec Co., and artificial intelligence robotics company RoboSense Technology Co. Ltd. The list included a total of 154 Chinese companies and their subsidiaries. The new list kept Huawei Technologies, which was already there.
Notably, the update also removed two major Chinese memory chip manufacturers, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. and ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., which were earlier included in the list.
As per the South China Morning Post, the list was removed from the Federal Register on Friday morning on a request for withdrawal from the US Defence Department’s Privacy, Civil Liberties and Transparency Directorate. The report stated that the agency requested the removal without citing any reason. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment beyond stating, “We have nothing to announce at this time.”
