China’s semiofficial daily Global Times responded angrily in a Jan. 8 editorial to the U.S. Defense Department’s Jan. 7 decision to add more Chinese tech companies to its Section 12600H blacklist of companies allegedly “collaborating with the Chinese military.” The infamous “CMC” list of “Chinese Military Companies” now totals 134 and covers “nearly all of China’s top tech enterprises,” Global Times reported. The list, it said, is “nothing short of absurd.”
Latest additions include Tencent Holdings, owner of super-app WeChat, battery maker CATL, China Commercial Aircraft Corp., COSCO Shipping Corporation (builder of Peru’s recently-inaugurated Chancay port), CXMT, etc. It’s expected that several of the named companies will take legal action against the DOD, due to the absurdity of these claims. Many have never had any dealings with the military and intend to initiate proceedings to prove that the DOD designation is a mistake, and if necessary take legal action if the blacklisting isn’t revoked.
The U.S.’s action, Global Times continues, “embodies a hegemonic mindset that aims to prohibit technological achievements from supporting the development of China’s national defense.” This is a double standard. “It’s hard to imagine how a country’s defense modernization could progress without relying on advanced technology.” Global Times points to the close relationship between many high-tech U.S. companies and the Pentagon.
Responding to a question on this issue at China’s Foreign Ministry briefing on Jan. 7, spokesman Guo Jiakun denounced the U.S.’s “practice of overstretching the concept of national security, making discriminatory lists in various names … to contain China’s high-quality development. The Chinese people’s right to development is not to be deprived or ignored. We urge the U.S. to immediately correct its wrongdoings and end the illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction on Chinese companies.”
