(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a Chinese tech-share selloff after the Pentagon added some of the country’s biggest names to a list of companies aiding the military — only to withdraw that roster minutes later without explanation.

The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.

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The Pentagon’s moves come at a fraught time in Washington’s debate over China tech policy. The US has now said that three of China’s AI frontrunners — Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — help the Asian country’s military. Their addition is almost certain to provoke Beijing. The designation of BYD, meanwhile, targets the country’s top electric-vehicle company.

While the list carries few immediate legal repercussions, the Pentagon is increasingly using it to restrict companies’ abilities to contract with the military or get research funding. A so-called 1260H designation also serves as a warning to US investors, and is widely considered a red flag that can precede more punitive trade restrictions.

Alibaba said in a statement it’s “not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy. We will take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company.”

A Baidu spokesperson said in a statement “we categorically reject the inclusion,” which has “no credible basis.” The “suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless and no evidence has been produced that would prove otherwise.”

Shenzhen-based BYD didn’t respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.

The 1260H list, first published in 2021, now includes more than 130 entities accused of working with the Chinese military. The names include those of airlines and computer hardware manufacturers, as well as firms in construction, shipping and communications.

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