A national security memo from the White House, as reported by the Financial Times, alleges that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has provided technological support to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, including in operations that could target the United States. The memo cites declassified intelligence indicating that Alibaba may have supplied cloud-computing services, AI-related tools, and access to user data specifically payment records, IP addresses and WiFi metadata to the PLA. It also accuses Alibaba employees of transferring knowledge about previously unknown software vulnerabilities to China’s military-civil fusion apparatus.
Alibaba strongly rejected the allegations, calling them “complete nonsense” and claiming they form part of a politically motivated campaign to undermine the company and a recent U.S. China trade truce. The White House has not said whether it will take concrete action in response, and no specific operations or targets in the U.S. have been publicly identified. The story highlights escalating concerns in Washington about the risks posed by the integration of private Chinese firms into China’s military-civil fusion strategy, and the potential vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure and data via such firms
