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Wency Chen

Leading chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has joined a growing list of Chinese technology companies suing the US government over their additions to Pentagon blacklists, as legal experts said US courts had shown a willingness to hold the Department of Defence to account.
Recent rulings involving Chinese tech firms including lidar sensor maker Hesai Group, drone manufacturer DJI and biotech firm WuXi AppTec indicated that judges were prepared to scrutinise the US government’s evidence and grant interim relief, said Mark Shi, a compliance lawyer at Shanghai-based Co-Effort Law Firm.
Other Chinese companies have cases pending – including the tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, which was granted a temporary reprieve over a lobbying restriction last month. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The CXMT case would test whether a company’s broad ties to China’s industry ministry or state-asset regulator were enough to label it as a military-linked entity, and to what extent such US national-security determinations remained subject to evidence, reasoned explanation and due process, Shi added.
CXMT, China’s largest maker of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips, filed a lawsuit in a Washington federal court on Friday against the US Department of Defence, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth named as a defendant.
The company is seeking removal from the Pentagon’s Section 1260H list of Chinese companies with military ties. It was first added to the blacklist in January 2025, and kept on the list after a review in June.
The designation bars the Pentagon from contracting directly with listed companies, with restrictions set to extend through defence contractors’ supply chains from June 2027. It can also discourage customers, banks and suppliers from doing business with them.
CXMT said in its complaint that it was “not affiliated with the Chinese military” and produced DRAM chips for civilian and commercial uses.
The Hefei-based company said it spent more than a year submitting information to the Pentagon in an effort to secure its removal. The department published a notice delisting CXMT in February, but withdrew it the same day, according to the firm.
CXMT alleged that the Pentagon’s decision-making was arbitrary and violated its rights to due process.
The question is not about ‘how’ but ‘when’ CXMT will be able to break into the ‘big three memory club’
Neil Shah, Counterpoint
The lawsuit adds to a widening push by Chinese companies to challenge US blacklists in court.
Companies were suing because the “designation now carries measurable costs, from lost government contracts and supply-chain restrictions to lobbying curbs and customers cutting ties”, Shi said.
Some of these efforts have borne fruit. The Pentagon removed the Chinese semiconductor firm Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment from a blacklist in 2024, after it sued.
Earlier this month, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Hesai was entitled to see the unclassified evidence against it and respond, though it left the company’s designation as a military-linked entity in place.
The court also revived part of DJI’s challenge because a lower court had not examined classified evidence. WuXi AppTec, meanwhile, secured a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon from enforcing its designation of the company as a military-linked firm while its case proceeds.
The legal offensive comes as CXMT’s commercial position strengthens. This week, the firm reported its first-half revenue had surged by 874 per cent year on year to 150.3 billion yuan (US$22.4 billion). Its net profit reached 77.6 billion yuan, reversing a 2.3 billion yuan loss a year earlier.
According to Counterpoint, CXMT was the world’s fastest-growing DRAM supplier in the second quarter of the year, with the firm holding a 7 per cent share of the global market. On Saturday, it announced it had begun mass production of its LPDDR6 memory, which is set to be used in Xiaomi’s 18 Fold smartphone handset from September.
“The question is not about ‘how’ but ‘when’ CXMT will be able to break into the ‘big three memory club’,” said Neil Shah, a vice-president of research at Counterpoint.


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Chipmaker CXMT has sued the US government to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist – joining a wave of legal challenges by Chinese tech firms


Chipmaker CXMT has sued the US government to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist – joining a wave of legal challenges by Chinese tech firms.


CXMT joins growing list of Chinese tech firms suing US Pentagon over blacklists

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chipmaker CXMT has sued the US government to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist – joining a wave of legal challenges by Chinese tech firms

Chipmaker CXMT has sued the US government to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist – joining a wave of legal challenges by Chinese tech firms