Washington accuses Alibaba, Baidu and BYD of working with the Chinese army

The American Department of Defense on Monday added the Chinese giants Alibaba (online commerce), Baidu (search engine) and BYD (electric cars) to its list of companies working, according to it, with the Chinese army.

Alibaba and Baidu rejected this inclusion in the list, saying it is without merit.

This designation, announced less than a month after Donald Trump’s visit to China, has few immediate consequences but could limit the economic links of American actors, public or private, with these companies.

The announcement risks complicating diplomatic and commercial relations between the two largest economies on the planet, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was invited to Washington in September.

The list revealed Monday is very close to a previous version very briefly published in February.

It “constitutes a warning for American companies, public authorities and the American population,” said John Moolenaar, Republican deputy responsible for a special parliamentary commission on China, in a press release.

The elected official urges American companies to “stop doing business” with these groups which “threaten our national security”.

This list also contains Chinese firms involved in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, the latter having been previously added to the list.

“The allegation that Baidu is a military company is completely unfounded,” the company reacted on social networks. She says she is ready to “use all means” to be removed from the list.

Alibaba, which also considers that its presence on the list is “unfounded”, assures in a press release that it is not “a Chinese military company and is not involved in any civil-military assimilation strategy”. The group reserves the possibility of legal challenge.

Its presence on the list “will have no impact on the group’s current activities in the United States or in the rest of the world because its activities are unrelated to the public procurement of the American army,” he adds. It “will not result in any other restrictions on exports or any sanctions,” says the group.