By Evaristo Lara
In its most recent list of companies operating for the Chinese military from the United States, the Pentagon added Alibaba, a technology and e-commerce giant; to BYD, manufacturer of electric vehicles; and Baidu, the most used Chinese language search engine in the world.
According to the Department of Defense, the aforementioned firms, although they are not companies that belong to the Chinese state, are subordinated to the interests of its army, especially by having a presence in US territory, which represents a risk for the nation.
Since 2021, by order of Congress, a list of Chinese companies considered possible threats was created in the United States by subjecting itself to possible military objectives of the Chinese army.
Recently, 15 more companies were added to this group, including the three mentioned, and in this way we reached 188that is, fifty-three more than those identified until last year.
In the case of Alibaba, being linked to the technology sector with global penetration through trade, it is considered to fully comply with Chinese military interests.
“It is a contributor to the military-civilian merger of the immoral Chinese defense industry because it is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT),” the Pentagon list details.
With respect to BYD and Baidu, their permanent links with the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) in Beijing and with the MIIT stand out, which also makes them vulnerable to giving in to any indication or collaboration that the Beijing government could hypothetically request.
The way Washington labeled these three companies and 155 others in the last five years, It caused the Chinese embassy in the United States to issue a statement accusing the Trump administration of exaggerating its handling of the concept of national security.
“The United States should stop its wrong practices and create a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies,” part of the letter states.
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