A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Department of Defense from imposing restrictions on Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which goes into effect next week.
Just before former President Trump left office in January, the DoD named Xiaomi a “Chinese Communist Military Company” (CCMC), subjecting it to Trump’s executive order banning the U.S. from investing in such companies. . But late Friday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued a preliminary injunction to prevent him from calling Xiaomi ‘irreparable damage’, saying the name was ‘arbitrary and fickle’.
Xiaomi said the case would suffer “extreme and irreversible damage” to its business and reputation if the restrictions came into force, and maintained that it was working “in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations of jurisdictions in which it does business. ” A company spokesman said The edge in January that Xiaomi “does not own, control or be affiliated with the Chinese army and is not a ‘Communist Chinese Military Company’.”
In its Friday ruling, Contreras disputed the Trump administration’s argument that “Chinese civilian companies” such as Xiaomi allow the Chinese government to “directly threaten the American homeland.”
“The court is somewhat skeptical that weighty national security interests are actually involved here,” the judge wrote.
Xiaomi said in a statement that it would continue to demand that the CCMC designation be permanently removed.