US adds Chinese tech giants to list of companies allegedly working with China’s military

By Juliana Liu, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — The US Department of Defense has added Chinese tech companies Tencent, a social media and gaming giant, and CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, to a list of firms that it alleges work with China’s military.

Inclusion on the Pentagon list does not result in any immediate sanctions, but it could affect the reputations of the companies named and hinder their commercial progress, particularly if they want to do business in the United States.

Shares in Tencent, which owns Chinese super-app WeChat, were 6.5% lower in Hong Kong on Tuesday, while CATL’s Shenzhen-listed shares lost more than 3%.

They join dozens of other alleged Chinese military companies on the list that the Defense Department alleges operate directly or indirectly in the US, according to a notice posted to the Federal Register on Monday.

The Pentagon has said the so-called 1260H list, which is updated annually, is “an important continuing effort” in highlighting and countering China’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, a goal to develop the most technologically advanced military in the world by eliminating barriers between the country’s civilian research and commercial sectors and its armed forces.

In a statement to CNN, Tencent called its inclusion on the list “a mistake.”

“We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business. We will nonetheless work with the Department of Defense to address any misunderstanding,” a spokesperson said.

CATL, which supplies batteries to Tesla and plans to provide its “knowledge” and services to Ford to make lithium-ion batteries at a plant in Michigan, said in a statement that it “has never engaged in any military-related business or activities, so this designation by the Department of Defense is a mistake.”

“We will proactively engage with DoD to address the false designation, including legal action if necessary,” it added.

A tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing has been escalating ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump later this month. Last week, Beijing said it was planning to curb the export of technology used to extract minerals critical for the growth of the global electric vehicle (EV) industry.

In December, the outgoing Biden administration imposed fresh export controls on US-made semiconductors that Washington fears Beijing could use to make the next generation of weapons and artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

The US Commerce Department said the goal of the curbs was to slow China’s development of advanced AI tools that can be used in war and to undercut the country’s homegrown semiconductor industry, which it says threatens the national security of the US and its allies.

Breaking down barriers

Since coming to power in late 2012, China’s top leader Xi Jinping has unleashed sweeping reforms to transform the Chinese military into a world-class fighting force. A key part of that modernization drive has been to better integrate the country’s private sector and defense industrial base through the sharing of resources, talent and cutting-edge technologies.

While efforts to break down barriers between China’s military and civil sectors date back to the 1990s, the military-civil fusion strategy has been increasingly promoted under Xi and elevated to a national strategy in 2014, as part of the leader’s vision to turn China into an economic, technological and military superpower.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is radically different from the US military, because it is the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said Isaac Stone Fish, CEO and founder of Strategy Risks, a business intelligence firm with a focus on China.

“Beijing demands that its companies support the PLA,” he said. “US companies that have important partnerships with large Chinese companies, like Ford with CATL, need to understand that the regulatory, economic, and PR risks of these partnerships will continue to grow.”

Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said that given Tencent’s business model, which focuses on social media and gaming, it “has a good chance to secure exclusion through US courts,” like Chinese consumer electronics maker Xiaomi managed to do in 2021 in a separate case.

In January 2021, during the waning days of the first Trump administration, the Defense Department added Xiaomi to another list, under Section 1237, which subjected it to harsh restrictions, including a ban on American investment.

Before the ban could take effect, a federal judge granted a temporary reprieve to the Chinese company by ruling that Washington lacked “substantial evidence” to support its claim that Xiaomi is owned or controlled by China’s military. In May of that year, the US Department of Defense and Xiaomi reached an agreement to set aside the ban.

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CNN’s Hassan Tayir contributed reporting. This story has been updated with additional information.