What you need to know
- Xiaomi faced a U.S. blacklist in early January as the outgoing Trump administration branded them a military-affiliated company
- A challenge was levied against the move in federal court, with a Judge returning a victory for the Chinese company in March.
- Xiaomi continues to fight for a full reversal of the ban.
Earlier this year, Xiaomi was placed under new restrictions by the outgoing Trump administration. The company was alleged to be part of the "Communist Chinese military", and those restrictions forbade American companies from investing in them.
Xiaomi immediately moved to challenge the ban, and now the company's efforts have borne fruit.
Bloomberg reported on the case's outcome, saying:
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras put a temporary halt to the ban, siding with Xiaomi in a lawsuit that argued that the move was "arbitrary and capricious" and deprived the company of its due process rights. Contreras said Xiaomi was likely to win a full reversal of the ban as the litigation unfolds and issued an initial injunction to prevent the company from suffering "irreparable harm."
Contreras also dismissed the security concerns, saying that he was "somewhat skeptical that weighty national security interests are actually implicated here."
When the restrictions had first come into place, Xiaomi had defended itself, delivering the following statement to Android Central.
The Company has been in compliance with law and operating in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations of jurisdictions where it conducts its businesses. The Company reiterates that it provides products and services for civilian and commercial use.
The U.S. ban followed similar scrutiny placed on software companies like TikTok and WeChat, with the same nebulous security concerns being cited — albeit being dismissed by the Biden adminstration. Xiaomi says it'll continue to fight for the full reversal of the restrictions, issuing the following statement to Android Central:
Xiaomi believes that the decisions of designating it as a Chinese Communist Military Company are arbitrary and capricious, and the judge agrees with it. Xiaomi plans to continue to request that the court declare the designation unlawful and to permanently remove the designation.
