The U.S. Department of Defense added Alibaba, BYD, Unitree Robotics, and other high-profile Chinese technology and industrial companies on Monday to its list of “Chinese military companies,” broadening Washington’s scrutiny of firms it deems to support Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy.
DOD originally had moved to expand that China list, known as the 1260H list, in February, before it quickly withdrew the document from the Federal Register without an explanation.
The Pentagon framed the list’s more than 60 additions Monday — which landed just weeks before its first restrictions are set to hit U.S. contractors’ supply chains — as part of the country’s push to build a “strong, secure and resilient industrial base.”
Why it matters: Starting June 30, the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act will prohibit DOD from entering into or renewing contracts for goods or services directly with listed entities. The same restrictions will apply to indirect goods or services starting a year from now.
“The principal objective is to identify where Chinese firms may be seeking to embed themselves in the U.S. defense industrial base,” David Shedd, a former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Brief last month. “This list is very important in identifying for the private sector where those activities are taking place.”
Who was added: major Chinese stock-traded brands and additional firms involved in biotech, electric vehicles, semiconductors, shipping, telecoms, including:
Their unexplained removals had been striking, fueling analyst speculation that they were a mistake and, perhaps, the reason behind the retraction.
Who was delisted: 10 entities, including subsidiaries of COSCO Shipping and of China Electronics Corporation, a prominent telecoms equipment producer. The DOD did not provide reasons for those removals from the list, which had last been updated in January 2025.
All told, the additions and delistings bring the 1260H list’s total to 188 firms.
Big picture: The (re-)expansion comes less than a month after President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed in Beijing to pursue what both sides described as “strategic stability” in bilateral relations.
In the past, Beijing has accused Washington of “overstretching national security” and vowed to take “all necessary measures” to defend Chinese companies’ rights.
Read more from The Brief:
DOD originally had moved to expand that China list, known as the 1260H list, in February, before it quickly withdrew the document from the Federal Register without an explanation.
The Pentagon framed the list’s more than 60 additions Monday — which landed just weeks before its first restrictions are set to hit U.S. contractors’ supply chains — as part of the country’s push to build a “strong, secure and resilient industrial base.”
Why it matters: Starting June 30, the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act will prohibit DOD from entering into or renewing contracts for goods or services directly with listed entities. The same restrictions will apply to indirect goods or services starting a year from now.
“The principal objective is to identify where Chinese firms may be seeking to embed themselves in the U.S. defense industrial base,” David Shedd, a former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Brief last month. “This list is very important in identifying for the private sector where those activities are taking place.”
Who was added: major Chinese stock-traded brands and additional firms involved in biotech, electric vehicles, semiconductors, shipping, telecoms, including:
- Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant and second-largest publicly listed company by market capitalization; DOD had named its larger rival in AI development, Tencent, to the list last year.
- Baidu, the search-engine giant turned AI heavyweight in its own right, whose Ernie Bot chatbot is the focus of a congressional investigation for national security risks.
- BOE Technology, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of LCD and other smart displays.
- TP-Link, which holds a large share of the U.S. consumer router market. It was among the primary targets of a March FCC ban on new imports of foreign-made routers over national security concerns.
- Unitree, the civilian-marketed firm whose dog-like robots are booming — and appearing repeatedly in military contexts. (The company now is IPOing in Shanghai.)
Their unexplained removals had been striking, fueling analyst speculation that they were a mistake and, perhaps, the reason behind the retraction.
Who was delisted: 10 entities, including subsidiaries of COSCO Shipping and of China Electronics Corporation, a prominent telecoms equipment producer. The DOD did not provide reasons for those removals from the list, which had last been updated in January 2025.
All told, the additions and delistings bring the 1260H list’s total to 188 firms.
Big picture: The (re-)expansion comes less than a month after President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed in Beijing to pursue what both sides described as “strategic stability” in bilateral relations.
In the past, Beijing has accused Washington of “overstretching national security” and vowed to take “all necessary measures” to defend Chinese companies’ rights.
Read more from The Brief:
