The Pentagon added several non-state Chinese companies to its list that seeks to identify Chinese companies it believes have ties to the Chinese military, preventing them from obtaining US defense contracts.
BEIJING (AP) — China said Saturday it strongly opposed the U.S. adding some prominent Chinese businesses to a list of military companies and that the move ignored the consensus reached during U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.
The Pentagon on Monday added several non-state Chinese companies, including electric vehicle maker BYD, tech giants Alibaba and Baidu, to its list seeking to identify Chinese companies it believes have ties to the Chinese military, preventing them from obtaining US defense contracts.
By adding these firms to the list, “the US side has ignored the consensus reached during the meeting between the heads of state of the two countries in Beijing,” a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Saturday.
The US has “disregarded the general interests of bilateral economic and trade relations, repeatedly generalized the concept of national security, and abused state power to unjustifiably oppress Chinese enterprises,” the spokesman added.
BYD, Alibaba and Baidu said earlier that there was no basis to include them in the list.
Trump in mid-May visited Beijing for a long-awaited summit with Xi. The two leaders agreed to increase economic ties between the countries, including China buying more US agricultural products and Boeing aircraft, and setting up separate trade and investment boards.
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