Why did the US designate Tencent as a Chinese Military Company?

For the longest time, Tencent was the biggest gaming publisher few gamers had heard of. But between its shares in studio darling FromSoftware and its classification as a military company by the U.S. Department of Defense, Tencent just can’t avoid the spotlight of late.

Yes, you heard that right. The U.S. DoD classified Tencent as a military company on Jan. 6. Despite such a harsh designation, being put on the list of so-called Chinese military companies doesn’t necessarily ban U.S. companies from working with Tencent or result in direct sanctions. However, the existence of these 134 companies on the Section 1260H list (as it’s officially called) could scare other businesses from dealing with Tencent on a per-company basis and escalate U.S./Chinese tensions.

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