BEIJING: Beijing said on Tuesday (Jun 9) it “firmly opposed” the US blacklisting of Chinese companies after Washington added tech giants Alibaba and Baidu to a list of firms it says are aiding the Chinese military.
The Pentagon update on Monday came months after it released, and then quickly withdrew, an earlier version of the list without explanation.
“China has consistently and firmly opposed the United States’ generalisation of the concept of national security … and its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing.
Lin urged Washington to “correct its erroneous practices”, warning that Beijing will “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”.
The new list includes 80 companies and their subsidiaries, and is largely similar to the version momentarily published in February, although two memory chipmakers were reinstated after having been removed at the time.
The re-added companies are ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies.
The Pentagon’s release marks the latest test of relations between the world’s two top economies, whose leaders met in Beijing last month for a highly anticipated summit.
That meeting saw President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping seek to stabilise bilateral relations.
Trump has invited Xi to pay a reciprocal visit to Washington in September.
The companies targeted in the US Defence Department’s latest list include some of China’s top tech giants involved in artificial intelligence, including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
Tencent had already been designated in the blacklist.
Alibaba called its inclusion “a mistake”, while Baidu said on social media “there is no credible justification” for adding it to the list.
The determinations have few immediate legal implications for many of the companies, although it is seen as a move that could precede more punitive measures.