Top secret White House memo claims Alibaba is helping Chinese military target US: report
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 with access to its customer data and shared information on critical software vulnerabilities.The FT noted that it could not independently confirm the memo’s claims.Alibaba 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.”“We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify,” the Alibaba spokesperson told The Post.“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 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 declined to comment to the FT.
The memo, dated Nov.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 the claims were a “complete distortion of fa...