In the last days of his rule, Donald Trump sent another poison arrow to the Chinese technology sector by putting several other companies from that country, most notably Xiaomi, on the “blacklist”.
List of companies
The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday added, among others, Xiaomi to the list of companies it believes have ties to the Chinese military, which will prevent U.S. companies from investing in that Chinese firm, and it remains to be seen whether and to what extent it will make Xiaomi’s business more difficult.
The move is a continuation of a war waged by the Trump administration for a long time and in which Huawei, the second global smartphone maker in terms of the number of copies delivered, is an emblematic example. This was mainly reflected in the fact that Huawei is not allowed to use Google services, which has led to a dramatic drop in sales outside China, and recently their access to state-of-the-art chips has been limited.
By the way, it’s no worse to note that Xiaomi was blacklisted shortly after it first overtook Apple as the third global smartphone maker. And that Huawei in 2019 also reached the list of proscribed companies around the time it removed Apple from the position of the second manufacturer in the world. It can certainly be a coincidence, but it is unusual, to say the least.
A long-term plan
Entering the US “list of entities” also prevented Huawei in their long-term plan to overtake Samsung in the position of the largest global smartphone manufacturer, and at the same time Xiaomi, along with several other Chinese phone manufacturers, profited the most from Huawei’s troubles. embarked on a major expansion and began to raise their market shares outside China to the detriment of Huawei.
