Pentagon accuses Alibaba and BYD of aiding China's People's Liberation Army

The U.S. Department of War released an updated list of Chinese companies that, according to its information, are collaborating with the People's Liberation Army. The listing includes, among others, e-commerce giant Alibaba, search engine provider Baidu and electric vehicle manufacturer BYD. In response, Beijing raised an objection that called on Washington to stop "repressing" its companies.

The list saw the light of day just weeks after Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, as both sides sought to maintain stability in the bilateral relationship.

"A warning to U.S. companies"

The Pentagon's update comes several months after the release, and subsequent withdrawal, of an earlier version of the list without explanation. The new list is largely similar to the version released briefly in February, AFP reports.

Among the companies affected are some of China's leading tech giants involved in the artificial intelligence race, such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. In addition, two memory processor manufacturers were reinstated on the blacklist after being removed the initial list: ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies.

"This updated list of Chinese military companies is a warning to U.S. businesses, all levels of government and the American people," said Rep. John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, according AFP.

In a statement, Moolenaar urged U.S. companies to "stop doing business with these threats to our national security" or risk "facilitating China's military rise."

Outrage in China

Following the report's release, one of China's foreign ministry spokesmen, Lin Jian, sharply criticized the list: "China has strongly opposed the United States' generalization of the concept of national security (...) and its ill-advised crackdown on Chinese enterprises" and urged Washington to "correct its wrong practices."

Baidu rejected its inclusion on the list via a statement on Chinese social networks, calling the accusations "completely unfounded." "The claim that Baidu is a militant company is completely baseless. We will not hesitate to employ all resources at our disposal to get the company delisted," a spokesman said.

For its part, Alibaba called its addition to the list "a mistake" and threatened legal action. "Alibaba Group is not a Chinese military company nor is it part of any military-civilian fusion strategy," the company said in a statement.

Trump invited Xi to pay a visit to Washington in September. But the list could ignite tensions between the world's two largest economies.