The Pentagon has added five Chinese companies including Shenzhen-based tech giant Tencent and the world’s biggest battery maker CATL to a list of mainland firms that Washington believes pose threats to US national security.
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The new additions include chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc, Quectel Wireless and drone-maker Autel Robotics, according to a document on the Federal Register that is to be published on Tuesday.
The move expanded the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies to 134, including 56 entities and their subsidiaries. The designation forms part of Washington’s efforts to counter Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy.
As mandated by the Defence Authorisation Act of 1999, the Pentagon must publish a list of companies linked to the People’s Liberation Army.
But it was not until June 2020 that the first formal list of 20 Chinese military companies, including telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, was published.
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Signed into law on January 1, 2021, the NDAA for fiscal year 2021 required the Pentagon to annually update and publish the list of “Chinese military companies”.