Xiaomi wins temporary suspension of U.S. ban on US investments

The Trump-era ban was lifted on Friday by a U.S. federal judge, who ruled that Washington lacked “substantial evidence” to support its claim that Xiaomi is owned or controlled by China’s military.
Days before President Joe Biden took office in January, the United States Department of Defense added Xiaomi to a list of companies it claimed to be linked to the Chinese military. The companies on the list were subject to severe restrictions, including a ban on American investments.

If district judge Rudolph Contreras had not issued an injunction, the ban would have come into effect on Monday, according to court documents.

Xiaomi’s shares soared up to 12% on Monday in Hong Kong. The stock lasted more than 7%, on its way to its best day since December.

The initial news of the inclusion of Xiaomi in the list of the Department of Defense caused a fall of 10% in the shares of the company. At the time, Xiaomi denied ownership or control of the Chinese military and subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking its removal from the list.

The court “is somewhat skeptical that important national security interests are actually involved here,” Contreras said in his opinion on Friday, adding that the court supported Xiaomi’s argument that the ban would cause “irreparable damage” to the company. by inflicting “serious damage to reputation and unrecoverable economic damage.”

Xiaomi said on Sunday in a document to the Hong Kong stock exchange that he was “satisfied” with the decision to temporarily lift the ban and said he would continue to pressure the court to permanently withdraw from the Department of Defense list.

The Department of Defense did not respond outside of US business hours to a request for comment on the next steps in the case.

In the weeks before Biden’s inauguration, the Trump administration stepped up its campaign against Chinese corporations. In addition to Xiaomi, the Pentagon added eight other companies to its list in mid-January, including Luokung Technology, a Chinese mapping software developer listed on Nasdaq. Luokung was also due to halt negotiations on Monday, but the company announced last week that its suspension was postponed to May because the Department of Defense erred in the name of the company when it was added to the agency’s list.

Other Chinese companies also continue to suffer from the restrictions of the Trump era. The New York Stock Exchange announced last month that it would withdraw CNOOC, China’s third largest oil company, to comply with the order to ban American investments in certain companies that former President Donald Trump signed in November. Its shares stopped trading on March 9.

.Source