Xiaomi is threatened with being included in the US “Blacklist”, what will be the impact on businesses and consumers?

Geopolitical issues are rocking the global technology industry again. This time, Xiaomi’s name was also dragged into the vortex of tension between the United States and China.

This technology company from the Bamboo Curtain country is said to have the potential to be included in the United States’ blacklist, known as Section 1260H.

This list contains companies that are considered to have links or suspected support for Chinese military activities.

If it is actually included in the list, Xiaomi will join a number of other big names that have previously received attention from the US government.

The push for Xiaomi to be included in the 1260H list came from regulatory groups and United States lawmakers. A group of nine US officials and legislators have reportedly sent an official letter to the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

The letter was sent on Thursday, December 18 2025 local time, not long after President Donald Trump signed the US military spending budget worth USD 1 trillion.

Reporting from Reuters (22/12/2025), dIn the letter, the legislators asked the Pentagon to add a number of new Chinese technology companies to the Section 1260H list. Apart from Xiaomi, two other names that were proposed were DeepSeek and BOE Technology Group.

Section 1260H itself is not a list of direct sanctions. However, its existence serves as a warning signal to US government agencies and its business partners.

Companies included in this list will be seen as having potential national security risks, so US suppliers and partners will tend to be more careful in collaborating.

In other words, Xiaomi’s inclusion on the list does not automatically impose financial penalties or an immediate operational ban.

However, the long-term effects can be significant, especially in business relationships with parties connected to the United States government.

Previously, the Section 1260H list had included a number of large Chinese companies, including Tencent Holdings, a technology giant known for digital services and entertainment, and CATL, China’s largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer. The presence of these big names shows that this list has strategic weight in US defense and trade policy.

The issue of Chinese technology companies’ involvement with their home country’s military has become a serious concern for the US government in recent years. In June, Reuters reported a statement by a senior US official who said that DeepSeek was suspected of assisting the Chinese military and evading US export controls.

Meanwhile, BOE Technology Group, which is known as a supplier of screens for various electronic devices including Apple’s iPhone, has also previously come under pressure from US lawmakers. They are pushing the Pentagon to gradually remove Chinese display companies from the United States technology supply chain by 2030.

It didn’t stop there, the parliamentarians who signed the letter also recommended adding a number of other Chinese companies to the 1260H list.

Among them are WuXi AppTec, GenScript Group, RoboSense, Livox, Unitree Robotics, CloudMinds, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Shennan Circuit Co, and Kingsemi Co.

The signatories of this letter are from the Republican Party and several of them are leaders of important committees in the US Congress. Names like Rep. John Moolenaar, Sen. Rick Scott, to Rep. Rob Wittman is recorded as urging the Pentagon to take firm steps against these companies.

For Xiaomi, this issue is certainly a challenge in itself. Even though this company is widely known as a manufacturer of smartphones and IoT devices with a large global market, the potential for it to be blacklisted in the US could affect the perception of investors, business partners and international consumers.

However, until now there has been no official decision from the Pentagon regarding whether Xiaomi will actually be included in the Section 1260H list. This situation is still a proposal and is in the evaluation stage by the United States defense authorities.