Select Committee: Owner of Capitals, Wizards Should Cut Ties with Chinese Military Company Alibaba
Chairman John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China sent a letter to Ted Leonsis, the Chairman and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) and the owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, requesting information regarding the nature of the partnership between MSE and Alibaba. The letter comes after last month’s decision by the Pentagon adding Alibaba to its updated list of companies linked to the Chinese military operating in the U.S. MSE has an ongoing business relationship with Alibaba, including sponsorship agreements and the integration of the company’s Alipay at the Capitol One Arena.
In the letter, Moolenaar writes:
“The Pentagon recently designated Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Alibaba) as a Chinese military company due to Alibaba’s support to China’s military-civil fusion and its ties to China’s state-owned assets commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). China’s military-civil fusion seeks to make the PLA the world’s leading military, particularly through the implementation of ‘intelligentized warfare’. Technology companies such as Alibaba play important roles in this computing-focused military advancement. This U.S. government designation is a recognition that Alibaba represents a danger to American security and the stability of the western Pacific.
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In one example of how Alibaba supports China’s military ambitions, its cloud and AI services enable China’s BeiDou satellite system to provide position, navigation, and timing (PNT) to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Alibaba Cloud partners with a key contractor of BeiDou, and Alibaba has obscured its ownership of that same key contractor. In turn, the PLA is using BeiDou’s PNT to prepare for war and will use it in any future war, including any projection of power against Taiwan. BeiDou’s satellites will tell PLA systems and soldiers where they are and where to strike. Alibaba Cloud will help them do so.
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I would appreciate your confirmation that MSE will discontinue or has already discontinued any ongoing business relationship with Alibaba and its affiliates.”
Read Moolenaar’s full letter here.