Pentagon blacklists Alibaba and BYD from defense contracts

The Pentagon has blacklisted several prominent Chinese businesses, including Alibaba, BYD and Baidu, from getting U.S. defense contracts.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has added several prominent Chinese businesses, including the tech giant Alibaba, electric car maker BYD and search engine Baidu, to its list of Chinese military companies, preventing them from getting U.S. defense contracts.

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The list, updated and published Monday by the Pentagon, now sanctions well-known, non-state-owned Chinese companies that are not traditionally considered to be in the defense or security sector. It reflects growing wariness of Beijing’s strategy of tapping the strength of non-state businesses for military purposes.

Created in 2021 by a congressional mandate, the list seeks to identify Chinese companies that the Pentagon considers to have links to the Chinese military — not only those directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces but also those contributing to the country’s defense industrial base.