A top-secret White House memo alleges that Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba is supporting Beijing’s military in cyber operations targeting the US, the Financial Times reported.
The document, which the FT said it reviewed, claims that Alibaba has provided the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with access to its customer data and shared information on critical software vulnerabilities. However, the FT noted that it could not independently confirm the memo’s claims.
Alibaba has pushed back on the report, calling the allegations “complete nonsense.” “This is plainly an attempt to manipulate public opinion and malign Alibaba,” the company said in a statement to the FT.
A spokesperson for Alibaba Group told The Post: “The assertions and innuendos in the article are completely false.” They added, “We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify. This malicious PR operation clearly came from a rogue voice looking to undermine President Trump’s recent trade deal with China.”
The Post has sought comment from both the White House and the Chinese government.
According to the FT’s account, the memo alleges that user data—including IP addresses, WiFi details, and payment histories—were made available to the Chinese government and its military. The document also reportedly claims that Alibaba employees have passed along information about “zero-day” exploits—highly-prized software flaws that developers have not yet had a chance to fix.
When the FT asked if the company had ever worked with the PLA, Alibaba did not immediately provide a response, the report said. The White House and the CIA also declined to comment to the FT.
The memo, dated November 1, came just after President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary truce on trade restrictions during a meeting in South Korea.
When asked about the memo, the Chinese embassy in Washington told the FT that the claims were a “complete distortion of facts,” insisting that Beijing would never force companies to gather foreign data in a way that violates local laws.
The memo offered no details about what US sites or systems the PLA may have been focusing on, the FT reported. However, the FT noted that the Director of National Intelligence has previously warned that Beijing has the capability to compromise US infrastructure.
That warning cited the “Salt Typhoon” cyber campaign, described in the intelligence assessment as a major, ongoing breach of American telecommunication networks.
A former top CIA analyst on China, Dennis Wilder, told the FT that the PLA’s cyber-espionage efforts have hit an “unprecedented” level.
“The PLA is conducting widespread and daily intrusions against US critical infrastructure, including airports, seaports, and other critical transportation nodes of US forces in the Pacific, but also in the continental US,” said Wilder. He added that the goal was to prepare for a military conflict by laying the groundwork for “system destruction warfare.”
These allegations mark the latest flashpoint in Washington’s growing concerns over Chinese tech firms’ connections to the military. US officials have pointed to Beijing’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, which they say requires private companies to share their technology with the PLA.
“The federal government and industry must take steps to protect the American people and eliminate Chinese companies’ access to our markets and innovation,” Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told the FT.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/us-news/top-secret-white-house-memo-claims-alibaba-helps-china-military-target-us-report/
