Both Alibaba and Baidu are pushing back today on the implication that they're aiding Beijing's military, after the Pentagon added the tech giants to its updated list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States - which was then quickly withdrawn and marked unpublished, with no further elaboration from the Department of Defense.
The casual show of "tweet & delete"-style force precedes President Trump's expected China visit in April, with trade, tech, and Taiwan set to be flashpoint issues. While the tech-heavy QQQ is trading cautiously higher at midday, U.S.-traded shares of BABA and BIDU are down more than 1% each.
