The US Federal Government has blacklisted Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, whose products including eScooters are sold at JB Hi Fi.
Questions are also swirling around other Chinese brands such as Oppo, and Anchor Innovations who manufacture the Eufy security cameras, with insiders tipping several other Chinese consumer brands are facing bans due to concerns over their ownership or relationship with the Chinese Government.
The new bans come as the Trump administration races to increase the pressure on Beijing in its final days in office with observers claiming that the Biden administration will continue the bans and possibly add more brands to the banned list.
Recently Xiaomi surpassed Apple to become the world’s third-biggest smartphone manufacturer with the Company whose products are distributed in Australia by Sydney based Panmi also selling electric bikes and scooters as well as robotic vacuum cleaners in Australia.
The US Federal Government claim that Xiaomi have alleged connections to the Chinese military.
Xiaomi Viomi V2 Pro
Xiaomi shares trading in the US dropped as much as 14 per cent on the news that it had been added to the Pentagon’s list of companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military.
Yesterday Xiaomi announced a new Mi Smart Speaker into the Australian market, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Speaker is priced at $99.95 and be operated using Google Assistant.
Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary said, “China’s reckless and belligerent actions in the South China Sea and its aggressive push to acquire sensitive intellectual property and technology for its militarisation efforts are a threat to US national security and the security of the international community,”.
During the past 18 months the US has put other Chinese companies on the entity list, including Huawei, the telecoms equipment provider who is banned from being a supplier to Government in Australia.
Recently Gabi Cirlig a security consultant said of a Xiaomi mobile product “It’s a backdoor with phone functionality,”.
Speaking with Forbes after discovering that his Redmi Note 8 smartphone a Xiaomi product was watching much of what he was doing on the phone. That data was then being sent to remote servers hosted by another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, which were ostensibly rented by Xiaomi.
The seasoned cybersecurity researcher found a worrying amount of his behaviour was being tracked, whilst various kinds of device data were also being harvested, leaving Cirlig spooked that his identity and his private life was being exposed to the Chinese company.
Oppo another major Chinese smartphone Company have not said whether their Chinese made devices are collecting data in Australia.
