China will, as always, defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday in the wake of media reports that the U.S. will add eight more Chinese companies to an investment blacklist for alleged involvement in the surveillance of the Uygur minority people in Xinjiang.

Zhao reiterated that "China has always opposed the U.S. move to generalize the concept of national security and intensify its unreasonable suppression of Chinese enterprises."