We wrote about it not long ago, that outgoing US President Donald Trump has added 9 more Chinese companies to the blacklist of qualified entities under the Defense Authorization Act.
Although the new president, Joe Biden, has not reversed the decision of his predecessor, after his "ascension" to the throne, a large number of appeals and requests for review have been filed, asking for the economic decisions taken under the previous administration to be reversed, mitigated or at least reviewed. Xiaomi did not wait for the new president to put the company's request on the agenda and immediately filed a lawsuit against the decision.
In the Company's view, the decision by which the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of the Treasury, under the NDAA, designated the Company as a "Chinese Communist Army Company" is not supported by the facts and deprived the Company of its statutory remedy. In their view, the US decision and the process leading up to it was unconstitutional, or at least illegal, and the lawsuit named as defendants both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, thus suing two of the most important government officials.
The abbreviation in the title, GMS, may be unfamiliar to many, so I'll explain. Google Mobile Services are Google applications, often pre-installed on Android devices. GMS is not part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which means that an Android manufacturer must obtain a license from Google to legally pre-install GMS on an Android device. This license is provided by Google without a license fee. But this service can be obtained and installed afterwards, legally and illegally. Old Xiaomi fans may be familiar with the term GAPS or the Google Installer for phones ordered from China.
In China, Google's services were already banned, but you could install them if you really wanted to, using the Google Installer app downloaded from the Xiaomi app store. Xiaomi has decided to deprive users of this option with the release of MIUI 12.5 in China, as well, by banning the installation of any Google app at the system level. In order to do so, a Chinese user has to open the bootloader and then "enjoy" the US company's services with a custom ROM.
We are curious to see how the story will develop, we will follow the developments and write about it. Stay tuned!
