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The U.S. has added some of China’s largest technology and social media firms to its list of “companies it identifies as military in nature” (The Wall Street Journal, subscription). 
 
What’s going on: “The additions to the Defense Department’s list of ‘Chinese military companies’ reflects its assessment that China fuses commercial and military technology. Beijing aims ‘to strengthen all [China’s] instruments of national power by melding aspects of its economic, military and social governance,’ as the Pentagon put it in a threat assessment published last month. The report cited efforts to harness advanced artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and integrated circuits for military means.” 

• Among the more than 50 businesses added are Cosco Shipping, battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology, airplane manufacturer Aviation Industry Corp. of China and tech firm Tencent Holdings.
• To be put on the list, a China-based company must have some U.S. operations.  

The backdrop: The additions come a little over a month after China announced a ban on exports of germanium, antimony and gallium, critical minerals it deemed to “have widespread military applications.” 

• The materials are used in semiconductors, fiber-optic cables, solar cells and other important manufactured goods. 

What it means: While legislators have ramped up the pressure on the Defense Department to put more names on the list, being added is “more about signaling and reputational damage than immediate legal restrictions,” Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Journal. 
 
However … The incoming Trump administration is likely to “use the growing list as the legal basis for a more determined decoupling strategy, including limiting investments in many of these companies and even potential sanctions,” according to a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.