ORIGINAL STORY (10:26 AM): In a rather interesting development, Xiaomi has now been placed by the United States government in one of its ban lists [pdf]. This particular list which belonged to the U.S Department of Defense (DoD) is different from the Department of Commerce’s Entity List which famously includes Huawei and DJI. In general, the corporations that were listed down by the DoD has been referred to as the Communist Chinese military companies. The agency claimed that these companies have been supporting the People’s Liberation Army by providing access to their technologies, expertise, and research programs. Through the executive order that was signed by the outgoing U.S President Donald Trump in November last year, Americans are not allowed to invest in the companies that have been into the DoD ban list. For those who have existing investments, they will have to divest their holdings by 11 November 2021. However, as opposed to the DoC’s Entity List, Americans were not being prohibited from having business with the companies listed by DoD. Hence, Xiaomi’s operations are still safe at the moment but the news may not bode well for its investors. (Source: U.S Department of Defense. Images: Xiaomi.) UPDATE (9:00 PM): Xiaomi has since released an official statement through its official social media channels and blogs as a response to the announcement by the DoD today:
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) January 15, 2021 In general, Xiaomi has denied the allegations thrown to it by DoD. At the same time though, it seems that the company is also still figuring out how to mitigate the impact of the DoD ban list on it. Clearly, this is likely just the beginning of the showdown between Xiaomi and DoD although there is a possibility that things might change once the new U.S President Joe Biden steps into his office later this month.
