Xinhua News Agency (Singapore edition) published an article on August 29 stating: “【Yangtze Memory Technologies sues U.S. Pentagon, demanding removal from 'military-affiliated enterprises' list】
On Friday (August 28), Yangtze Memory Technologies filed a lawsuit, asserting in its complaint that the company has no ties to China’s military. The company emphasized that the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips it designs, manufactures, and sells are used for civilian and commercial purposes, not military applications.
The lawsuit filed by Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) against the U.S. Pentagon, seeking removal from the so-called “military-affiliated enterprises” list, marks a landmark event in which Chinese semiconductor firms, facing unjust external pressure, have shifted from passive acceptance to proactive legal defense. Yangtze Memory Technologies alleges that the Pentagon’s decision to place it on the “1260H Military-Related Enterprises List” was arbitrary, unsupported by factual evidence, and violated due process. The case has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior officials named as defendants.
Yangtze Memory Technologies is China’s largest DRAM chip manufacturer and has now risen to become the world’s fourth-largest DRAM chip producer. Its products are deeply entrenched in consumer markets and have even sparked commercial discussions with major U.S. tech giants like Apple, who have shown interest in incorporating its chips into their supply chains. The decision to pursue legal action stems from the substantial, ongoing damage to the company’s brand reputation and international business collaborations since being added to the blacklist in January 2025. Although this list does not directly freeze corporate assets, it restricts companies’ participation in U.S. federal procurement, and more critically, sends a negative risk signal to global markets—forcing overseas clients to scale back cooperation out of risk aversion. This approach essentially reflects the U.S.’s long-standing tactic of using political means and ambiguous criteria to suppress China’s breakthroughs in storage technology.
Previously, many domestic enterprises facing such groundless pressure typically opted for passive appeals or diplomatic negotiations. By directly wielding the legal tools available in the United States, Yangtze Memory Technologies has formally embedded the fact of its purely civilian nature into public legal records, breaking away from the inertia of being victimized passively. This is not merely a corporate effort to protect its legitimate rights and interests—it also represents a proactive attempt by China’s hard-tech enterprises to systematically challenge the legitimacy of the U.S.’s discriminatory lists, marking a crucial step toward maturity and confidence in China’s indigenous semiconductor industry.
Yangtze Memory Technologies’ lawsuit against the Pentagon is a legal showdown where “you set the rules, I use the rules to defend myself.” Despite the U.S. Department of Defense maintaining a restrained response, stating it would not comment on pending litigation, and acknowledging that this administrative lawsuit is bound to be a protracted battle, Yangtze Memory Technologies’ courage to confront the issue head-on in Washington’s courts itself constitutes a powerful rebuttal to U.S. bullying behavior.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1874845594605571/
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