TL;DR
A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to give Alibaba temporary relief from the law that caused all its Washington lobbyists to drop it, while the court weighs the measure’s constitutionality. The case stems from Alibaba’s June addition to the Pentagon’s 1260H Chinese military companies list, which it is suing to escape. TNW has covered every prior beat of this saga, all interlinked.
A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to give Alibaba temporary relief from a law that stripped it of every lobbyist it had in Washington, Bloomberg reports. The reprieve stands while the court considers whether the measure is constitutional.
The case is shaping up as a test of how far the US can go in curbing Chinese companies’ activities on American soil. Alibaba sued the Defense Department in San Jose last month after being added to the Pentagon’s Section 1260H list of alleged Chinese military companies.
The Pentagon added Alibaba, Baidu, BYD, and robot maker Unitree to the list in June, bringing it to 188 firms. Alibaba calls the designation baseless, arguing it violates due process and First Amendment protections.
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The lobbying exodus stems from a separate provision, Section 851 of the 2025 US defence law, which bars the Pentagon from contracting with firms that also lobby for 1260H-listed companies. When it took effect last week, five lobbying firms dropped Alibaba and four dropped Tencent.
Alibaba’s core argument is that the combined effect silences it in Washington at the moment it most needs a voice there. The judge’s order restores its access to lobbyists, at least for now.
A fight bigger than Alibaba
The 1260H label imposes no automatic sanctions, but it carries heavy reputational and commercial weight with investors, customers, and contractors. Baidu and BYD are reportedly contesting their designations too.
Beijing has already hit back with trade curbs on 56 US firms, deepening congressional hostility. Washington has meanwhile held off blacklisting DeepSeek and 100-plus other Chinese firms, a sign the list functions as a bargaining chip as much as a security tool.
For Alibaba, the reprieve is narrow and provisional, and the blacklist itself still stands. But a US court agreeing to examine the law’s constitutionality gives all 188 listed companies a reason to lawyer up.
