Trump administration adds Xiaomi to US blacklist of Chinese companies

Donald Trump has six days left in office, but that isn't stopping his administration from putting more Chinese companies in its crosshairs. The latest victim is Xiaomi, one of the world’s largest phone manufacturers.

The US Department of Defense has designated Xiaomi a “Chinese Communist military company", which means it will be subject to Trump’s new executive order that bans the US from investing in "Chinese military" companies considered a security threat. The Trump administration on Thursday added nine Chinese firms total to its new blacklist, alleging they are all Chinese military companies.

Reuters noted all the companies in this last-minute push will be subject to a US investment ban that forces American investors to divest their holdings of the blacklisted firms by 11 November 2021. However, President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn soon, giving him ample time to overturn the new order. It's unclear if that will actually happen, but it's certainly interesting to watch the events unfold.

It's also interesting Xiaomi has been blacklisted at all, considering it's mostly a consumer tech company, and a very popular one.

Huawei is on the Chinese military company blacklist, too. It's also on the Commerce Department’s Entity list, which restricts US companies from exporting its tech. But Huawei doesn't just make phones; it builds telecommunications equipment, and lawmakers worry about it being part of US cellular infrastructure. ZTE and DJI are on the Entity list, too, which, again, separate from the US investment ban list.

Perhaps Biden will take a more relaxed approach with these Chinese companies in the future, but only time will tell.

from Pocket-lint https://ift.tt/3nOYSOC
via IFTTT