Xiaomi said it has connections in the US that will help the company avoid the political obstacles other smartphone makers from China are facing, Reuters reported, citing a statement from senior VP Wang Xiang. The company is firmly set on entering the US market next year and is adding engineering resources to develop versions of its handsets that are compatible with US mobile networks. Wang added that talks with US carrier had not yet produced concrete agreements.
Wang said the tension introduced “uncertainty” but downplayed its impact on Xiaomi’s US expansion plans, highlighting relationships with suppliers such as US chipmaker Qualcomm and Alphabet. “We don’t see any reason for us to get into that political problem,” said Wang, who ran Qualcomm’s China operations before joining Xiaomi in 2015. He said Xiaomi was strictly focused on the consumer market and that many of its engineers and investors were American.
The comments come after the US expressed serious mistrust regarding Huawei, saying its ties with Softbank could pose a security risk for the merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint. ZTE is starting to reform after the threat of a 7-year trading ban with the US almost put it under. For China Mobile, the US is likely to reject a request for an operator license in the country, due to national security concerns.
