Chinese media corporation Tencent often carries a certain notoriety in Western gaming communities and being associated with the name invites a certain degree of prejudiced hate. Now, even The Pentagon or Department of Defense in the US seems to have followed suit after blacklisting Tencent and deeming it as some kind of a threat to national security, just like brands and companies like Xiaomi.
The report came from Bloomberg where Tencent has been classified by The Pentagon as a Chinese military company. The US government thus suspects Tencent as a corporation working with the Chinese military and Chinese government to further their goals on foreign soil, whatever those might be.
Apparently, the blacklist doesn’t carry any legal implication or effect but it is certainly detrimental for any foreign company looking to start or expand its business in US territories. The aforementioned Xiaomi, for example, was included in The Pentagon’s blacklist back in 2021, which limited the audience for their phone brands and affected sales. Xiaomi has since been removed from the blacklist after a few months.
Tencent Unfazed?
Meanwhile, Tencent also gave its statement on the matter, stating that the blacklist is ‘clearly a mistake.’ Tencent will then be pushing for their removal from the blacklist to fix the damage to their reputation. So far, Tencent’s shares have declined, according to Bloomberg, though the blacklist hasn’t had any significant effect.
Tencent’s Danny Marti even assures everyone that the blacklist has no impact on Tencent’s business.
As for those who are unaware of Tencent’s scope and network, it currently owns Riot Games (100 percent), which is famous for e-sports titles like League of Legends and Valorant. Tencent also has stakes in other games and studios such as Fortnite, PUBG, Epic Games, and Larian Studios, and is even planning to invest in companies like Ubisoft after the latter’s financial problems.
