Xiaomi sees bright overseas future after US blacklist removal

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp's removal from a United States Defense Department blacklist is further indication that the US government sanctions on Chinese companies are unwarranted, experts said.

"The removal indicates that restrictions imposed by the US government on Chinese companies do not hold any ground or support," said Wang Peng, an associate professor at the Hillhouse Research Institute of the Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"In the global market, fair market order cannot be disrupted for biased political reasons. Cooperation and win-win results always outweigh differences on the global stage," Wang said.

The comments came as a joint status report filed on Tuesday with a US court said that Xiaomi and the US Department of Defense had agreed to resolve the litigation for listing the enterprise as a "Communist Chinese Military Company". The two parties are negotiating over specific terms before filing a separate joint proposal before May 20.

Xiaomi declined to comment on the issue, when contacted by China Daily.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi and eight other Chinese companies were blacklisted by the US government for suspected links to the Chinese military, an issue which would have led to its delisting from US exchanges and removal from global benchmark indexes. Xiaomi sued the US Department of Defense and the Department of Treasury in January.

In March, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras put a temporary halt to the restrictions, saying the US move was "arbitrary and capricious" and did not allow the firm its due process rights.

Gao Feng, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday that China always believes that removing the sanctions on Chinese companies will benefit China, the US and the rest of the world.

"The blacklist removal has boosted Xiaomi's confidence in further expanding abroad and it will contribute more cost-effective and high-quality electronic products for consumers," said Ding Jihua, an expert on compliance from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

A report from market consultancy Counterpoint showed that in the first quarter, Xiaomi accounted for 35 percent of the total smartphone market in Spain, surpassing South Korean giant Samsung and US tech giant Apple, which accounted for 34 percent and 14 percent of the market, respectively.

Globally, it has become the third-largest smartphone brand after Samsung and Apple. Xiaomi said its global smartphone shipments rose by 62 percent in the first quarter of this year to 49 million units.

"Chinese companies should also strengthen compliance management to protect themselves through compliance, so that they can move forward steadily on the road of globalization against global economic and political uncertainties," Ding said.