Xiaomi removed from the “blacklist” by the United States

After around 4 months, the Xiaomi Group’s lawsuit against the US government reached a settlement.

The US Department of Defense will remove China’s Xiaomi Corp from a government blacklist, a court-filed, overturned by the Biden administration of one of Donald Trump’s last jobs in Beijing before exiting the office.

The court filed stating that the company and the US government would agree to resolve their ongoing lawsuit, ending a brief and contentious dispute between the hardware company and Washington, which had led the China-U.S.

Emily Horne, who aspires to the White House National Security Council, said, “the Biden Administration is deeply concerned about potential U.S. investments in companies linked the Chinese military and fully committed to keeping up the pressure on such companies”. She further added in her statement the company is watching the latest developments closely, without elaborating.

After spreading the news, Xiaomi Group’s stock price continued to climb higher in the afternoon and finally closed up 6.1% to 26.1 Hong Kong dollars, with a total market value of 657.9 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The Department of Defense did not immediately comment. A Department of Justice spokesman declined to comment. The department designated the firm to have ties with China’s military and placed it on a list that would prohibit US investment in the company.

Xiaomi filed a lawsuit against the US government, terming his placement “illegal and unconstitutional” and went on the offensive, denying any ties to the Chinese military. In March, a federal judge temporarily halted the enforcement of blacklisting, citing the US government’s “deeply flawed” process for inclusion in the ban. The judge also suspended an investment ban imposed on Chinese mapping technology company, Luokung Technology Corp last week.

The Biden administration has agreed not to challenge that decision. Horne cited the ruling as saying “the Trump administration failed to develop a legally sufficient basis for imposing restrictions on the company and compelled this action”.

Xiaomi’s local smartphone rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd was also placed on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred from accessing key technology of American origin, thereby designing its chips and source components from outside vendors.

Later, the US Department of Defense imposed similar restrictions on China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation a key to China’s national campaign to boost its domestic chip sector.