Former US President Donald Trump had blacklisted several Chinese powerhouses from US exchanges during the last days of his tenure in office. His successor, Joe Biden, walked down the same path and clamped down hard on Chinese tech giants as well. Amid this ongoing battle between US and Chinese companies, smartphone maker Xiaomi has finally scored a victory after reaching an agreement with the US government that would remove the company from an investment blacklist.
This comes after Xiaomi had sued the US government as it was given the designation of of “Communist Chinese Military Company” by the US Department of Defence on the orders of President Trump, which led to the blacklisting of the company. As a part of this blacklisting, American investments in Xiaomi were prohibited.
During the last weeks of Trump’s reign, firms like Tencent and ByteDance were prohibited from buying American-made components and excluded from infrastructure projects around the world. Perhaps it is this that made Xiaomi, the well-known smartphone manufacturer, a surprise inclusion in the list of firms to be banned.
The ban was halted in March by a US court after it was argued that it was “arbitrary and capricious” and deprived the company of its due process rights (which also led to a temporary lifting of the ban) and it was speculated that Xiaomi was likely to win the litigation and reverse the ban imposed upon it. The Department of Defence has now agreed that a final order vacating the designation “would be appropriate.” While Xiaomi did not comment, Pentagon officials were not available for comment as well.
“The Parties have agreed upon a path forward that would resolve this litigation without the need for contested briefing,” the filing said. Both parties – the US government and Xiaomi Corp. – will file a separate joint proposal before May 20.
Chinese tech giants have been having a hard time both in their home country and abroad. While the Chinese government has clamped down upon the behemoths hard after letting them reign unchecked for a long time, the US government has not been lenient as well, alleging that Chinese firms owned or controlled by the military indulged in abusive business practices and stopped American investment in such firms.
