The last thing the Trump administration did was blacklisting Chinese Tech Company, Xiaomi, which led Xiaomi to sue the US government over the designation. However, it seems that both parties have reached a consensus as the US is now backtracking on its decision. Meaning the Chinese company won’t be blacklisted any longer.
Both the Department of Defense and Xiaomi filed a joint status report saying that the two parties “have agreed upon a path forward that would resolve this litigation without the need for a contested briefing”.
The Department of Defense has blacklisted Xiaomi by designating it as a Chinese Communist Military Company. This led Xiaomi to eventually sue the government over the legislation as this could mean that many of Xiaomi’s investors would take away their investments by November this year. A district judge, Rudolph Contreras, became skeptical of this decision and decided to block the blacklisting and stopping the DoD.
The judge said that “The court is somewhat skeptical that weighty national security interests are actually implicated here”. Contreras questioned the Trump administration’s argument that civilian companies of China like Xiaomi could even help the Chinese government to “directly threaten the United States homeland.”
The judge said that the designation was “arbitrary and capricious” and he was skeptical if whether the company really posed a threat to US security or not. The judge then issued a preliminary injunction to block the blacklisting and the US didn’t even bother to appeal against it. Xiaomi even spoke to reporters saying that the company “is not owned, controlled or affiliated with the Chinese military, and is not a ‘Communist Chinese Military Company”.
However, now both Xiaomi and the DoD seemed to have called a ceasefire as they come to a consensus. Both have “agreed that a final order vacating the January 14, 2021 designation of Xiaomi Corporation as a CCMC … would be appropriate”. A joint proposal is now expected from both the parties and plans to negotiate an order vacating agency action.
I guess Xiaomi won’t be going down the path of Huawei.
