US Court Grants WuXi AppTec Preliminary Injunction on Military-Entity Listing; Shares Hit Record HK$204.6

WuXi AppTec announced that a US court has granted its motion for a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the US Department of Defense from enforcing the 'Chinese military company' designation during the litigation. The injunction is a temporary relief measure, not a final judgment; the DoD may supplement evidence and re-list the company. In its review, the court noted that the DoD's three justifications for the listing contained evidentiary interpretation errors and required WuXi to provide US$1 as security.

On June 8, 2026, the DoD published an updated list of 'Chinese military companies' and WuXi AppTec was included for the first time. On June 11, WuXi filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the designation. After 60 days of legal proceedings, the court granted the preliminary injunction and denied the DoD's request to stay the injunction during an appeal.

The list is based on Section 1260H of the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, known as the 1260H list. As of June 2026, the list included 188 Chinese companies spanning new energy, electric vehicles, biopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, and other sectors, including WuXi AppTec, Alibaba, Baidu, BYD, NIO, and Unitree. Starting June 30, 2026, the DoD is prohibited from directly entering into procurement contracts with listed companies, and indirect procurement bans take effect from 2027.

In historical cases, Xiaomi was placed on the 1237 list, the predecessor of the 1260H list, in 2021. Xiaomi sued the DoD and reached a settlement, being removed in May of that year. Semiconductor equipment maker AMEC was removed in 2021 via administrative appeal, re-listed in 2024, then formally sued and removed again at the end of the year. On August 11, WuXi AppTec's Hong Kong-listed shares touched an intraday high of HK$204.60, a record.