Now the official press release has arrived: Xiaomi has been officially removed from the US blacklist. The Chinese company was listed by the Trump Administration by executive order as a "Communist Chinese Military Company".
This is the full press release:
Xiaomi (the "Company") is pleased to announce that on May 25, 2021, at 16:09 pm (Eastern Standard Time), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a definitive order to cancel the designation of the Company from the United States Department of Defense as "Communist Chinese Military Company" (CCMC). By canceling the designation, the court formally lifted all restrictions on the ability of US persons to buy or hold stock in the company.
The Company is grateful for the trust and support of its global users, partners, employees and shareholders. It reiterates that it is an open, transparent, publicly traded and independently managed company. The Company will continue to provide reliable consumer electronics products and services to users, and relentlessly build incredible products at fair prices to enable everyone in the world to enjoy a better life through innovative technology.
With this decision, Xiaomi therefore returns to be considered an independent company with respect to the armed forces and the Chinese government. Anyway, Xiaomi's has always been a very different case than Huawei's, since Google's services had never been questioned.
In fact, Huawei continues to be included in two distinct blacklists, that of the Department of Defense and that of the Department of Commerce. According to the latter, American companies cannot establish any kind of commercial relationship with the banned companies. And Xiaomi has never entered this second list, which instead happened to Huawei. Hence the Google block.
Xiaomi and black list: a bit of history
Xiaomi had only been included in the blacklist of the Department of Defense, with the executive order to American companies not to make investments in it anymore. This happened last January, but Xiaomi immediately stated that he had respected all the laws in force and had never had any relationship with the Chinese army and the Communist Party.
Therefore Xiaomi sued the US in the Columbia District Court. In March, federal judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that the relationship between Xiaomi and the Chinese army could not be proven. Xiaomi thus won the case against the American government.
And now the agreement has been definitively ratified: Xiaomi has gone out of the blacklist and US companies will be able to continue investing in the Chinese company without incurring penalties.
