Alibaba sues the US government for adding it to list of firms linked to Chinese military
Key takeaways
- It denies supporting the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and wants to be removed from the blacklist.
- Robert Way/Shutterstock Alibaba has filed a lawsuit against the US government after the Department of Defense added it to the updated list of companies it believes are connected to the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
- The Defense Department released the updated 1260H list earlier this month, which now also includes internet services provider Baidu.
It denies supporting the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and wants to be removed from the blacklist.
Robert Way/Shutterstock Alibaba has filed a lawsuit against the US government after the Department of Defense added it to the updated list of companies it believes are connected to the Chinese People's Liberation Army. According to Bloomberg and the BBC, the Chinese e-commerce giant is suing to be removed from the Pentagon blacklist, arguing that its inclusion in it has no "basis in fact or law" and is a violation of its right to free speech, as well as of constitutional due process.
The Defense Department released the updated 1260H list earlier this month, which now also includes internet services provider Baidu. You can think of Baidu as Google's counterpart in China. It said that Alibaba was a "military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base," due to its regulatory ties to Beijing.