Beijing said on Tuesday that it “firmly opposed” the US blacklisting of Chinese companies after Washington added tech giants Alibaba and Baidu to a list of firms it says are aiding the Chinese military.
The Pentagon update on Monday came months after it released, and then quickly withdrew, an earlier version of the list without explanation.
“China has consistently and firmly opposed the United States’ generalization of the concept of national security… and its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing.
He urged Washington to “correct its erroneous practices”, warning that Beijing will “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”.
The new list includes 80 companies and their subsidiaries, and is largely similar to the version momentarily published in February, although two memory chipmakers were reinstated after having been removed at the time. They are ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies. AFP
