Tech giant Alibaba Group Holding has secured a temporary legal reprieve that effectively allows it to resume lobbying in the United States, the latest development in its dispute with the Pentagon after the firm was included on a blacklist of companies deemed to support China’s military.A judge in the Northern District of California on Sunday ordered the Department of Defence not to enforce a lobbying prohibition against Alibaba while the court considered the firm’s constitutional challenge to the statute, according to the latest US court filings.The order was not a final response to Alibaba’s lawsuit challenging its inclusion on the blacklist but would provide temporary relief from the lobbying restriction, and marked a twist in the firm’s legal battle with the Pentagon – a dispute closely watched as part of the broader US-China technological rivalry.“We are pleased that, for purposes of the lobbyist-contracting ban, Alibaba will not be treated as a Chinese military company and will have proper channels to communicate our views and address concerns,” an Alibaba spokesperson said on Monday.The initial lobbying blackout stemmed from the Pentagon’s designation made under the National Defence Authorisation Act, which barred the Department of Defence from entering into contracts with any firm employing lobbyists who also represented companies on the blacklist. The restriction effectively forced lobbying firms to choose between defence contracts and these Chinese companies.In early June, the US defence department added Alibaba, along with other Chinese tech firms including search engine and AI giant Baidu, robot maker Unitree Robotics and electric vehicle makers BYD and Nio, to the Section 1260H list.