They had managed to fly under the radar.
The catalog of US blacklist brands has just been expanded, with Xiaomi as the latest addition.
Before being blocked by the United States, Huawei would become the world’s leading mobile manufacturer. In the end they did, but it has been a tough road.
In simple terms, and when it comes to fruition, like with Huawei, US companies are totally prohibited from doing business with the brands on this list, so they can’t use Google Mobile Services or buy hardware for their phones. The block we are currently talking about for Xiaomi are investments for the time being.
The information comes from the Reuters agency, where it would take effect from November 2021, according to the document they had access to. All US investors should be dumping their assets from Xiaomi and Comac, the other major company to join (and 7 more).
We don’t know whether the next government (Joe Biden) will reconsider these measures based on alleged espionage, or whether the trade war will continue with nasty political demagogic tricks based on artificially expanding local supply.
Undoubtedly, it’s a hard blow, we have to be careful to make it official.
UPDATE: It’s official, as seen in this Executive Order.