Pentagon adds Alibaba and Baidu to list of firms linked to Chinese military

Tech's international relations haven’t thawed despite Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping.

The Defense Department has released an updated list of companies it believes are linked to the Chinese military, and it now includes e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba and internet services provider Baidu. As CNBC notes, being included in this particular list doesn't mean the US government is imposing sanctions on them. However, it does mean that the Defense Department will no longer be able to sign contracts directly with the companies in the list, or even use their products or services through third parties. That means it could still lead to loss in contracts for the companies, since some US firms working with the Pentagon might end up dropping them as suppliers.

Apparently, the agency already published an updated list in February, but it pulled the list down before President Trump's trip to Beijing in May. Re-uploading the updated list and even including Chinese memory chipmakers CXMT and YMTC in the most recent version shows that the relationship between the two countries, specifically in the realm of technology, hasn't exactly thawed despite Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In fact, in addition to the release of this updated list, a bipartisan pair of US Senators is now urging the Trump administration to tighten the rules on chip manufacturers the US works with even further. They're asking for restrictions so that the overseas subsidiaries of Chinese firms won't be able to order custom chips from contract manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). And it sounds like Taiwan is mulling the introduction of laws that mirror the United States', as well: According to Bloomberg, Taiwanese authorities are looking into restricting AI chip sales to all Chinese clients, not just those in the Pentagon's blacklists, like Huawei. If Taiwan ever decides to adopt the proposed framework, it will prohibit the sales of AI chips with higher processing powers to Chinese customers.