The U.S. Department of Defense has concluded that Chinese e-commerce leaders and AI developers Alibaba Group and Baidu, as well as carmaker BYD and five other companies from China, should be included in a list of organizations assisting the Chinese military. That's according to a letter to Congress sent by the Defense Department about three weeks before Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met Oct. 30 in South Korea, where the leaders agreed on a package of measures that included lowering duties and temporarily suspending some export restrictions.

According to Bloomberg, Deputy Defense Secretary Steven Feinberg outlined his position in a letter dated October 7, addressing it to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. The agency has a copy of the document at its disposal.

It is unclear whether the companies have been officially added to the so-called 1260H list, Inclusion on the list does not entail automatic sanctions, but serves as a stiff warning to U.S. investors about potential risks, the agency writes. The list is updated annually. It includes companies associated with the Chinese military and operating in the United States. The last update, which was released in January - even before Trump took office - did not include the mentioned companies.

The Pentagon's letter also mentions:

- Eoptolink Technology,

- Hua Hong Semiconductor,

- RoboSense Technology,

- WuXi AppTec Co,

- Zhongji Innolight.

Representatives of the eight Chinese companies mentioned in the letter did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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