The United States published an updated list of Chinese companies that it believes are helping that country's armed forces.

The list includes, among others, the e-commerce giant Alibaba, the search engine provider Baidu and the electric vehicle manufacturer BYD.

The US Department of Defense announced the designations just weeks before President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, as both sides sought to maintain stability in the bilateral relationship.

The Pentagon's update comes months after it released - and then removed - an earlier version of the list without explanation.

The new list is largely similar to the version briefly released in February.

Two memory processor manufacturers were reinstated on the blacklist after being removed at the time: ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies.

Technology giants

“This updated list of Chinese military companies is a warning to American companies, all levels of government and the American people,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China.

In a statement he urged American companies to “stop doing business with these threats to our national security” or risk “facilitating China's military rise.”

Among the affected companies are also some of China's main technology giants, involved in the artificial intelligence race, such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.

Trump invited Xi to visit Washington in September. But the list could fuel tensions between the world's two largest economies.

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