Tencent added to US blacklist of ‘Chinese military companies’

Tencent currently operates TiMi Studio Group (Pokémon unite) and LightSpeed ​​Studios (PUBG mobile) internal. It also owns third-party studios Riot Games (League of Legends) and grinding equipment games (Path of exile) outright; is the majority investor in Techland (Dying light) and Klei Entertainment (Don’t starve); and holds shares in Epic Games (Fortnite),FromSoftware(Elden Ring), Ubisoft(Assassin’s Creed), Bloober Team (Silent Hill 2 remake), Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wakker), Do not kink (Life is strange), and Supercell (Clash Royale), among others.

“The company intends to initiate a review process to correct this mistake,” Chairman Ma Huateng said in Tencent’s message to its investors. “During the process, it will engage in discussions with the US Department of Defense to resolve any misunderstandings, and if necessary, take legal action to remove the company from the (Chinese military company) list.”

President-elect Donald Trump established the blacklist during his first term an executive order banning Americans from investing in so-called ‘communist Chinese military companies’. The Chinese drone manufacturer DJI claimed this a lawsuit from October 2024 told the Defense Department that it lost business deals in the US and that its employees were stigmatized after being added to the blacklist two years earlier.

According to House of Representatives Bill 6395the designation “Chinese military enterprise” indicates that a business entity is “directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or beneficially owned by, or acts in an official or unofficial capacity as an agent of or on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army or any other organization which is subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.”