The United States issued an updated list Monday of Chinese companies that it believes are aiding the country's military -- including e-commerce giant Alibaba, search engine provider Baidu and electric vehicle maker BYD. The US Defense Department unveiled the designations just weeks after President Donald Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, with both sides seeking to maintain stability in the bilateral relationship.
Trump has since invited Xi to pay a reciprocal visit to Washington in September. But the latest release could fan tensions between the world's two biggest economies.
The Pentagon's update on Monday comes months after it briefly released -- then withdrew -- an earlier version of the list without explanation.
The new list is largely similar to the version momentarily published in February, except for two memory chipmakers, which were reinstated to the blacklist after having been removed from it at the time.
The re-added companies are ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies.
The companies targeted also cover some of China's key tech giants involved in artificial intelligence, like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. Tencent was already previously designated.
While the determinations have few immediate legal implications for many of the companies, it is seen as a move that could precede more punitive measures.
Other companies that were added include pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec and start-up Unitree, which makes humanoid robots.
