Xiaomi blacklisted by the USA

Xiaomi & the US military argument

The decision of the USA governement to place the Chinese company on the American defence blacklist is representative of the American fear of decline.

In 2020 the Chinese smartphone maker overtook Apple for the first time.

But President Joe Biden believes that Xiaomi is a trojan horse of the People's Army of China, and as such that it is threatening the security of the United States. Other Chinese companies have been blacklisted such as the oil company CNOOC, the aircraft manufacturer COMAC and lately Huawei, another tech mogul.

The American president has until November 2021 to confirm this decision. Xiaomi’s hardware though is not as dependent on US manufacturers as the telecommunications infrastructure of its competitor Huawei. Behind the military argument, there is in fact the American desire to break the rise of Chinese technology, in order to contain China. Especially since it relied heavily on American capital to develop its economy. The case of Xiaomi, like that of the social network TikTok, illustrates the interpenetration between the two capitalisms.

One of the first three investors, when Xiaomi was founded in 2010, was Qualcomm, the leading American specialist in microprocessors for mobile phones. He has since followed the successive rounds to finance the spectacular development of that company. Therefore we can expect that decoupling will be painful. Xiaomi is nicknamed the "Chinese Apple", and Apple is itself very present in China, and could well also bear the cost of this formal attack by the American government against the Chinese digital ecosystem. Joe Biden’s decision is therefore awaited on both sides of the Pacific. Undoubtably, we can expect China to retaliate shall he confirm a decision formally made by his predecessor, President Donal Trump.