Alibaba has asked a US court to order the Pentagon to remove it from a list of groups it says have Chinese military ties, days after Beijing took retaliatory action against the defence department’s decision.
The Chinese ecommerce giant told a California district court in a lawsuit that the Pentagon had not provided “substantial evidence” to justify its inclusion on a “Chinese military companies” blacklist.
The Pentagon recently added Alibaba and other high-profile Chinese companies, including the world’s largest electric-vehicle manufacturer BYD, to the so-called 1260H list. The congressionally mandated blacklist includes Chinese companies with alleged ties to the People’s Liberation Army that undermine US national security.