Tencent Finds Its Way To DoD's "Military Companies" List, Claims It Is Clearly A Mistake

Tencent Holdings Ltd. may have found itself smack dab in the middle of the United States and China trading tit for tat moves. Recently, in response to similar moves from the U.S. to "protect national security," China threw trade controls at a number of U.S. companies.

Now, Tencent, one of the largest multimedia companies in the world, finds itself appearing on the U.S. Department of Defense's list designating it as a Chinese Military company. According to Bloomberg (paywall), the designation sent Tencent's U.S. stock on a nasty decline.

On the Tencent side of things, the company calls the move clearly a mistake and a "misunderstanding," telling Bloomberg, "We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business. We will nonetheless work with the Department of Defense to address any misunderstanding."

The DOD claims the list, created during Donald Trump's first presidency and updated annually, serves to work against China's attempt to merge their military and civil companies. The move, according to the DOD, attempts to mitigate China's government from gaining access to military tech from civilian companies. However, the list has been used to throw barbs before and in 2021 the U.S. actually removed Xiaomi Corp., another Chinese tech company, after it sued the U.S. government for being placed on the list. Xiaomi, like Tencent, also denied serving the Chinese military.

Chinese telecommunications technology company Huawei also found itself on the updated list, amongst other companies.