America blacklists Alibaba, BYD and Baidu
A very important and major turning point has come in the ongoing trade tension between America and China. The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) has put China’s most famous and biggest companies e-commerce giant Alibaba, electric vehicle manufacturer BYD and search engine company Baidu in its blacklist. America alleges that these big business companies are actually working to increase the strength of the Chinese army.
The real reason for Pentagon’s action
The Pentagon on Monday updated its list in which the names of companies associated with the Chinese military are recorded. This list was prepared for the first time in the year 2021. After the latest update, the names of 188 companies have now appeared in this list, which was 134 in the year 2025. The US government claims that companies like Alibaba and Baidu are part of China’s ‘military-civil fusion’ strategy. According to the Pentagon, these companies are directly connected to China’s Government Assets Supervision Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. After this decision, from the end of this month all these blacklisted companies will not be able to be a part of any US defense deal.
Expressing strong protest and warning of legal battle
There has been a sharp reaction from China on this decision of America. The Chinese Embassy in Washington termed it completely discriminatory and said that America is crossing its limits in the name of national security. On the other hand, Alibaba has completely rejected all these allegations. The company spokesperson clarified that they are not part of any military strategy, and also said that they will take legal action against this misleading action. Baidu has also said that calling itself a military company is completely baseless. However, at present no response has been given on this issue by BYD, a big player in the electric car market.
Fear of huge fluctuations in global market
The impact of this decision is not going to be limited to the defense sector only. Republican MP John Moolnaar has even demanded that these Chinese companies listed in the American stock exchanges should be immediately de-listed. They argue that American companies should immediately stop doing business with these firms that have become a threat to national security. If this happens, there can be huge turmoil in the international market. However, Dennis Wilder, a national security expert who has worked in the US intelligence agency CIA, believes that such blanket restrictions may not fully work at the ground level. Many American companies have very deep business relationships with these Chinese brands, which they would not like to break easily.
Tension increased immediately after the summit
This entire diplomatic and business action has taken place at a time when US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Beijing less than a month ago. The main objective of that two-day summit was to calm the long-running trade war between the two countries. But now America has made its intentions clear by blacklisting artificial intelligence companies like Alibaba, Baidu, BYD and RoboSense Technology and Unity Robotics. Keep in mind that last year, Tencent, the company that owns WeChat, was also blacklisted by America in a similar manner.
