The river already sounded at the end of 2025: the Pentagon agreed that Chinese giants like Alibaba, BYD and Baidu They were linked to the Chinese Army. It was unclear at the time whether the companies would be included on the Pentagon’s 1260H list, but it was clearly a warning and came just three weeks before Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a trade truce.
It seemed like things had calmed down, especially with more recent moves like the opening of the market for Nvidia can sell its GPUs H200 for AI or Donald Trump’s visit to China (accompanied by several CEOs of American companies) to ease tensions and maintain a fine balance in that trade truce.
But it turns out not and, as they point in Reuters, Alibaba, BYD and Baidu are the new Chinese companies on the Pentagon’s list. And they are not the only ones.
Many more Chinese companies on the Pentagon’s blacklist
The update of the known list 1260H It had been expected for a long time. The November thing was a warning, but not a real update. It is now, one month after Donald Trump’s diplomatic visit to Beijing, that the Pentagon has launched the new version that reflects interesting changes.
Because we have mentioned Alibaba, BYD and Baidu as companies that join that selector ‘club’ of companies for which there are still no direct sanctions, but there is a clear consequence: starting at the end of this month, the United States Department of Defense will have prohibited from contracting directly with any of these companies.
And… what are they? Well, it turns out that there are a lot, and from all sectors. Alibaba and Baidu are two Internet giants (like putting Amazon and Google on the list respectively, wow), but there are also the aforementioned BYD -cars and batteries-, CXMT and YMTC -semiconductors and RAM memory-, Unitree and RoboSense -robotics- or WuXi AppTec -biotechnology-.
It is a very curious list because they are companies that are competing, directly, against American or Taiwanese companies. For example, we have recently told how the technology industry is looking so much at CXMT like YMTC for get a RAM memory which they cannot access through traditional means due to the component crisis.
The United States and China are immersed in the war over robotics and Unitree is one of the most advanced in both humanoid and quadruped robots (something China is exploring for military use). Precisely, Nvidia announced that it was going to work closely with Unitree for the development of robots.
And then there is China BlueChemical Limited, a subsidiary of state oil company CNOOC, and Baicells, which makes telecommunications equipment.
As we say, there are no consequences in the form of direct sanctions on these companies or with pressure like what happens with Huawei, but according to US law, the Department of Defense will not be able to make deals with these companies starting this month and, starting in 2027, it will not be able to buy their products or services through third parties.
What do Chinese companies say? As we read so much in Reuters as in GuardianAlibaba considers that it is something that has no basis because “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy”, ensuring that they will take “all available legal actions against attempts to tarnish the company”.
Baidu, for its part, also rejection the measure, ensuring that “the suggestion that Baidu is a military company is completely unfounded”, noting that they will not hesitate to “use all immediate measures to be removed from the list.” This is something that WuXi AppTec has also responded to and it is possible to get off that list, but only if they withdraw from the United States or if they change the name of the entity.
“These Chinese companies are working with the Chinese military against our national interests” – John Moolenaar
From the Pentagon it is stated that publicly traded companies have ballots to be classified as “Chinese military companies”, although they can request their removal from the list, according to Pentagon representatives.
House Select Committee Chairman Joihn Moolenaar was somewhat more direct, noting that updating the list “It’s a warning to American companiesall levels of government and for the American people themselves”, ensuring that “these Chinese companies are working with the Chinese military against our national interests.”
In Reuters, Craig Singleton, an expert on relations with China, points out that Washington no longer treats Chinese companies as isolated entities, but as a strategic conglomerate that is part of an arm of the Chinese government.
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