The US Department of Defense will take away China’s Xiaomi from a authorities blacklist, a courtroom submitting confirmed, marking a noteworthy reversal by the Biden administration of one in every of Donald Trump’s final jabs at Beijing earlier than exiting workplace. The submitting said that the 2 events would conform to resolve their ongoing litigation with out additional contest, bringing to an finish a short and controversial spat between the {hardware} firm and Washington that had additional soured Sino-US ties.
A Xiaomi spokeswoman mentioned the corporate is watching the most recent developments carefully, with out elaborating. Shares within the firm rocketed over 6 p.c in Hong Kong as information of the choice unfold. The firm’s share worth has tumbled roughly 20 p.c because it was positioned on the blacklist in January within the waning days of the Trump administration. Department of Defense officers weren’t instantly obtainable for remark after US enterprise hours. The division had designated the agency as having ties to China’s army and positioned it on an inventory that might limit US funding within the firm. Seven different Chinese firms have been additionally positioned below related restrictions.
Xiaomi went on the offensive by submitting a lawsuit towards the US authorities, calling its placement “illegal and unconstitutional” and denying any ties to China’s military. Soon after that victory, Reuters reported that other Chinese firms placed on the same blacklist were considering similar lawsuits. Xiaomi was among the more high-profile Chinese technology companies that former President Donald Trump targeted for alleged ties to China’s military. Trump had made countering the rise of Beijing a centrepiece of his administration’s economic and foreign policy.
Xiaomi’s local smartphone rival Huawei was also put on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology of US origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors. The measures effectively crippled the company’s smartphone division. Later, the US Department of Defense placed similar restrictions on China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a firm key to China’s national drive to boost its domestic chip sector.
Prof. Doug Fuller, who tracks China’s semiconductor sector at the City University of Hong Kong, says that Xiaomi’s win was “low-hanging fruit” for the Biden administration in its efforts to appropriate the excesses of Trump’s China coverage as his time period ended. “I believe it’s a signal that Biden will likely be a bit softer,” he said. “Calling Xiaomi a Chinese military company was always ridiculous. For firms tied to more legitimate defence concerns, or Xinjiang, however, it will be more difficult.”
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