McEntee reports another $225,000 from Tencent and adds a second company on the Pentagon’s China list

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — John McEntee, who ran the White House personnel office in President Trump’s first term, reported another $225,000 in lobbying income from Tencent America for the third quarter, according to a report posted Wednesday afternoon, a day after the filing deadline. That brings his reported income from the Chinese technology company to $1.075 million since he registered in the summer of 2025.

His filings show a second client on the Pentagon’s list of what it calls Chinese military companies. In August, McEntee registered to lobby for Zhongji InnoLight, a Chinese maker of optical transceiver modules for cloud and AI networks, on “FCC issues, DOW issues related to client’s telecom business,” effective Sept. 1. The Defense Department added InnoLight to its Section 1260H list in June, saying the company is indirectly owned by China’s state-asset regulator and affiliated with its industry ministry. InnoLight said in a June 10 exchange filing that the listing was “inconsistent with facts” and that it is “neither a Chinese military enterprise nor a military-civil fusion enterprise.”

No third-quarter report for the InnoLight engagement had been posted as of early Thursday. Because the registration took effect during the quarter, a report was due Tuesday.

What the Tencent reports say

McEntee’s 2025 registration described the Tencent issue as an “erroneous trade restriction designation.” Each of his five quarterly reports since then lists the Treasury Department as the agency contacted and “Assistant to the President” as his former covered position. Each also describes the specific issue lobbied as “No specific issues.” The reports don’t name the officials he contacted, and the law doesn’t require them to.

A smaller Tencent operation

As the Inquisitor reported Wednesday, four outside firms dropped Tencent in late June, as a provision of the 2025 defense authorization law took effect that bars the Pentagon from contracting with companies whose lobbyists also represent a listed Chinese military company. Platinum Advisors DC has since registered for Tencent America and reported $150,000 for the third quarter.

By that tally, reported spending on Tencent’s federal lobbying fell by about two-thirds from the second quarter to the third. Because a company’s in-house total can include payments to outside lobbyists, the combined figures may count some spending twice, but Tencent Holdings’ in-house figure alone also fell by about two-thirds. McEntee is the only outside lobbyist who reported Tencent income in both quarters.

InnoLight’s earlier lobbyists

InnoLight had other representation before McEntee. In a registration posted in May, MO Strategies signed up to lobby for the law firm Hogan Lovells on InnoLight’s behalf, reporting $350,000 in the first quarter on “United States trade and semiconductor policy,” with contacts at the Commerce and Defense departments. MO Strategies then filed a termination effective June 26, reporting $530,000 for the second quarter. That was the same day it ended its Tencent registration, less than three weeks after the Pentagon added InnoLight to its list.

The Section 1260H designation doesn’t carry sanctions on its own, and nothing in the law bars anyone from lobbying for a listed company. The contracting restriction falls on companies that do business with the Pentagon. McEntee files as a self-employed registrant in Newport Beach, Calif., and his reports list no other clients.

The Inquisitor emailed McEntee, Tencent, InnoLight, MO Strategies, the Pentagon and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday morning with questions about the filings, including when the InnoLight report will be filed. None had responded by publication time. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Tencent Seafront Towers, the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen. Chainwit. / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.