Despite the recent easing of trade relations between the U.S. and China following Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s summit last month in Beijing, the Pentagon signaled Monday that the adversarial relationship is far from over after it added numerous Chinese technology companies to its list of national security threats.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon added about two dozen Chinese tech companies to an annually updated list that includes companies linked to the communist regime’s military. Some of the companies included on the list are prominent and do extensive business in the U.S., such as e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group and drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology. Other companies include search engine and artificial intelligence company Baidu, electric carmaker BYD, memory chip companies Yangtze Memory Technologies and ChangXin Memory Technologies, humanoid robotics company Unitree, and pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec.

The Pentagon designation means that the companies are banned from doing business with the U.S. military but can still sell products to American consumers. The WSJ noted that inclusion on the list can cause “reputational damage [that] can affect sales to other parts of the government or to American consumers.” Still, SZ DJI Technology’s drones have remained widely popular with U.S. consumers despite the company being added to the Pentagon list in 2022.

Concerns over cybersecurity threats imposed by Chinese entities remain high. A new report published Tuesday by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike noted that Chinese-linked hackers posed the greatest espionage threat to technology companies. The report stated that Beijing’s hacking campaigns “align with the Chinese government’s strategic priorities and a sustained interest in technology development, intellectual property, and information with strategic and economic value.” In one recent example, a hacking group known as Salt Typhoon breached major U.S. telecommunications companies in 2024 and stole data that “could allow Chinese intelligence services to exploit global communication networks to track targets including politicians, spies and activists.”

In light of these attacks, Chinese router companies like TP-Link Technologies that operate in the U.S. are being focused on as significant cybersecurity threats. The company was added to the Pentagon’s list after coming “under investigation by multiple federal agencies over national security concerns.” The company, which created a new headquarters in California in 2024 separate from its Chinese business, is currently trying to attain an exemption to the U.S. ban on foreign-made routers.

Experts like Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Robert Maginnis, who serves as senior fellow for National Security at Family Research Council, say that while the Pentagon designations are helpful, more must be done to counter the threat imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.

“The Pentagon’s designation of additional Chinese firms linked to the Chinese military is a useful step, but it is not a decisive one,” he told The Washington Stand. “These actions raise awareness, discourage American investment, and increase scrutiny of companies that support Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy. However, China’s influence operations, technology transfers, and supply-chain penetration are far too extensive to be stopped by a list alone.”

Maginnis further argued that U.S. consumers “can help by avoiding products and services from companies tied to China’s military and surveillance apparatus, particularly in sensitive sectors such as telecommunications, drones, AI, and data collection. Consumer choices send an important market signal, but government policy, export controls, and supply-chain security remain the primary tools.”

“China’s leaders seek far more than economic prosperity; they seek global influence and a world order increasingly favorable to Beijing’s authoritarian model,” he continued. “Likewise, in ‘The New AI Cold War’ and the concluding volume of that trilogy, I warn that advanced technologies such as AI are becoming strategic instruments in the competition between free societies and authoritarian regimes.”

“The bottom line: Pentagon designations are necessary, but America must think much bigger,” Maginnis concluded. “This is not merely a commercial competition, it is a long-term struggle over technological leadership, national security, and the future balance of global power.”