US Court Suspends Enforcement of DoD Ban on Firms Lobbying for Alibaba
A US federal court has paused the enforcement of a Pentagon ban on trading with firms that lobby for Alibaba, though its blacklist status remains.
According to reports from Bloomberg and other media outlets, a judge at the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, ordered on October 27 local time the suspension of enforcement of a specific U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) sanction. This measure had previously prohibited the DoD from conducting business with companies engaged in lobbying activities on behalf of Alibaba Group, which is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
The dispute stems from provisions added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in December 2024. The rules stipulated that if a lobbying firm represented both an entity on the DoD's 'Chinese military company blacklist' and other clients, the DoD would be barred from transacting with that lobbying firm. This effectively forced major U.S. lobbying agencies to choose between representing sanctioned Chinese tech firms like Alibaba or maintaining commercial relationships with U.S. defense contractors, leading several to sever ties with Chinese technology companies.
While the court's order temporarily halts the enforcement of this lobbying-related ban, providing relief to affected firms, the judge did not rule on the legality of Alibaba's inclusion itself on the DoD's '1260H list.' In June, the DoD added Alibaba to this list, which targets companies in sectors including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robotics, and drones. Alibaba has denied any collaboration with the Chinese military and filed a lawsuit seeking its removal from the blacklist.