Xiaomi sues US government over investment blacklist
- Xiaomi is suing the US Department of Defense and Treasury.
- The company wants to be removed from a US investment blacklist for companies with ties to the Chinese military.
Xiaomi has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Treasury.
In an official announcement by Chairman Lei Jun, the company stated that the US government’s decision to regard it as a “Chinese Communist military company” was “factually incorrect”. It has asked the Columbia District Court to declare the decision unlawful and reverse it.
The litigation follows Xiaomi’s previous January 15 statement that it complies with all relevant laws and regulations.
To be clear, Xiaomi has not been added to the same blacklist as Huawei. The latter is on a more harmful US company list that bans him from doing business with American companies.
In the case of Xiaomi, if confirmed, the blacklist would require US institutional investors to divest their holdings from the company by November.
Xiaomi has also written to Biden-appointed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, stating that the investment restrictions would “do immediate and irreparable harm”.
We’ll have to wait and see how the matter goes and whether Xiaomi is luckier with the Biden administration than with the Trump administration.
