China Sees Red As US Tags BYD, Baidu And Alibaba In ‘Military List’
Beijing has flagged the US move to add prominent Chinese companies companies into a list that identifies firms with links to the Communist nation’s military.
The move is a flagrant breach of the consensus struck when US President Donald Trump’s visited Beijing in May for a summit with President Xi Jinping, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
The US has “disregarded the overall interests of bilateral economic and trade relations, continuously generalized the concept of national security, and abused state power to unjustifiably suppress Chinese enterprises,” the spokesperson added.
“We urge the US side to correct its mistakes and stop its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies. China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the Global Times reported, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on June 9.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon had added several non-state-backed Chinese companies, including electric vehicle maker BYD, and technology firms Alibaba and Baidu to its military list.
The controversial list is aimed at identifying companies which the US administration views as having links to the Chinese military. An inclusion in the list would mean these companies would be barred from vying for lucrative US defense contracts.
The Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement “the U.S. side has ignored the consensus reached during the meeting between the heads of state of the two countries in Beijing.”
Chinese biotechnology company WuXi AppTec sued the US Department of Defense in a Washington federal court on Thursday to overturn the decision to place it on its so-called Chinese military companies list.
The Trump administration is seen as taking an escalatory approach with its policy of linking artificial intelligence systems and technological platforms to national security, not only to Chinese firms but also on US-based AI giants including Anthropic.
BYD, Alibaba and Baidu have dismissed any basis to include them in the list. BYD had become the world’s largest electric vehicle seller after overtaking Elon Musk’s Tesla in 2025 full-year sales .
China has repeatedly criticized such moves linked to trade by the US as discriminatory, unfounded and damaging to normal business operations.
China and the United States had reached a broad agreement on widening trade through tariff cuts during President Donald Trump’s visit to China in May. Washington and Beijing had also agreed to tackle non-tariff barriers and issues impeding trade like market access. The Chinese Commerce Ministry had said then that these are preliminary agreements reached and will be “finalized as soon as possible.”