Among the firms banned from doing business with the Defense Department is CATL, the world’s largest EV battery-maker, which supplies Elon Musk’s Tesla.
By Ellen Nakashima and Cate Cadell, Washington Post
The Pentagon will blacklist China’s largest EV battery manufacturer and its largest tech firm beginning in June 2026, barring them from Defense Department contracts and sending a powerful signal to American firms about the potential risks of doing business with them.
In a notice in the Federal Register on Monday, the Defense Department published a list of firms that it deems to be operating in the United States for, or on behalf of, the Chinese military or that contribute to China’s military buildup.
The “1260H list,” mandated annually by Congress since 2021, now includes CATL,the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery-maker, which supplies Tesla, the EV manufacturer owned by President-elect Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk. It also lists the social media giant Tencent, China’s most valuable technology company.
Other firms of note added to the list are China’s top commercial-jet-maker, a DNA-sequencing firm with U.S. ties and two companies at the heart of China’s surveillance-technology boom.
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