BEIJING: China said Saturday it firmly opposed the US adding several prominent Chinese businesses to its list of military companies, and that the move ignored the consensus reached during US President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.
The Pentagon on Monday added several non-state-owned Chinese companies, including electric vehicle maker BYD, tech giants Alibaba and Baidu to its list that seeks to identify Chinese companies it deems to have ties to the Chinese military, preventing them from landing US defence contracts.
By adding these firms to the list, “the US side has ignored the consensus reached during the meeting between the heads of state of the two countries in Beijing,” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said Saturday in a statement.
The US has “disregarded the overall interests of bilateral economic and trade relations, continuously generalised the concept of national security, and abused state power to unjustifiably suppress Chinese enterprises,” the spokesperson added.
BYD, Alibaba and Baidu said earlier there's no basis to include them in the list.
Trump in mid-May visited Beijing in a much-anticipated summit with Xi. The two leaders agreed to boost economic ties between the countries, including China's purchase of more US agricultural products and Boeing jets, and the setting up separate boards of trade and investment.