Xiaomi Blacklisted In The US, This Is The Cause

JAKARTA - The United States (US) government has included Xiaomi in its blacklist. The reason for this decision was that Xiaomi Boss, Lei Jun, received an award from the Xi Jinping government. The awarding took place in 2019.

This is based on a report from the US Department of Defense which responded to the lawsuit in the US District Court. The lawsuit aims to make Xiaomi reject the award from the Chinese government.

For information, the CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun was awarded the award for Builders of Outstanding Socialism with Chinese Characteristics from the government. There are 100 influential businessmen who received the award.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Xiaomi is proud of this award by including it on Le Jun's biographical profile on the company's official website as well as in its annual report.

Xiaomi is also reportedly planning to invest in 5G networks and artificial intelligence (AI). Both of these are the reasons for the US Department to put Xiaomi on its blacklist.

The Xiaomi company has not yet provided an official response regarding this reason. However, the company denies allegations related to parties claiming that Xiaomi has close ties to the Chinese military.

In January, Xiaomi was subjected to sanctions by the US government after previously other Chinese technology giants such as Huawei suffered the same fate. However, unlike Huawei, until now Xiaomi is still active in the global mobile business environment, including importing its devices to the US.

The sanctions given by the US government resulted in the loss of company investment from the country of Uncle Sam. In this case, investors originating from the US can no longer own shares in Xiaomi and are forced to release it.

This policy stems from a 1999 law that states that the US Department of Defense must maintain a list of companies controlled or owned by the Chinese military.

In January, the US officially listed as many as 35 companies on the list which includes CNOOC, an oil company, and SMIC, a chipset manufacturer. Meanwhile, Huawei can no longer operate in the global business environment due to these sanctions. As a result, Huawei smartphone users cannot enjoy various Google applications as usual.