UPDATE: “We are not a military company or supplier,” Chinese gaming giant Tencent responds to landing on list of companies that give the US Government the heebie-jeebies

UPDATE (08/01/25, 9:05 AM GMT): VG247 has recieved an additional statement from Tencent in which the company said the following:

"As the company is neither a Chinese military company nor a military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base, it believes that its inclusion in the CMC List is a mistake. Unlike other lists maintained by the U.S. Government for sanctions or export control measures, inclusion in the CMC List relates only to U.S. defense procurement, which does not affect the business of the Group.

"The CMC List is also distinct from the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex List (NS-CMIC List) maintained by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control," it added, "and inclusion in the CMC List will not prohibit any persons (other than the Department of Defense) from business dealings with the Company, including transacting in the securities of the Company."

Tencent confirmed that it "intends to initiate a Reconsideration Process to correct this mistake", which will see it "engage in discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense" and undertake legal proceedings to remove the Company from the CMC List" if the latter is deemed "necessary". "The company will make further announcement(s) as and when appropriate," it concluded.

Gaming giant Tencent, which you might know as the owner of League of Legends developer Riot Games - or for the numerous other bits of investing and publishing it's done in the gaming space - has been put on a list of businesses the US Government believes have ties to the Chinese military.

Tencent, which was reported to be considering acquiring struggling Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft last year, has denied that it does have the alleged links to the Chinese military machine.

“We are not a military company or supplier,” a Tencent spokesperson told The Verge in the aftermath of the listing becoming public knowledge, adding that the company plans to "work with the Department of Defense to address any misunderstanding."

As the spokesperson also noted, this listing from the Pentagon doesn't come with any specific sanctions on businesses which are given it. Instead, it's designed to act as a warning to US businesses that working with companies on the it could lead to them potentially not getting any future Pentagon contracts they're in the running for.

According to the New York Times, there are currently 134 companies on the list, with battery maker CATL having been added to it around the same time as Tencent, and also having denied that it's engaged in any military-related activities.

Tencent shares have taken a hit following the news, dropping as much as 7%, which obviously isn't idea for the company, which has stakes and shares in the likes of Epic Games and Activision Blizzard, in addition to the stuff mentioned earlier.

Given the kind of cash and corporate interests at stake in this bit of US/China head-butting, you'll not be surprised to learn that the FT is reporting that both Tencent and CATL will consider resorting to legal action if their attempts to get the designations dropped by chatting to the US Department of Defense don't result in them being taken off of this Pentagon list.

If you're after some Tencent related news that's even more wacky that it having some serious words with the American government, it and subsidiary Polaris Quest revealed Light of Motiram, a game that definitely doesn't look a lot like Horizon Zero Dawn, last year.