Why Xiaomi phones aren't banned, but are rarely sold in the US

Why Xiaomi phones aren't banned, but are rarely sold in the US Despite being a top device manufacturer, the company's phones aren't common in the States. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Americans looking at a list of the most popular smartphone brands across the globe may be confronted with a stark realization: we are systematically cut off from some of the most exciting mobile tech on the market. Most consumers are stuck choosing between smartphones from a handful of brands —primarily Apple, Samsung, Google and Motorola. But take a trip abroad, and you'll find a cornucopia of brands. Foreign markets enjoy access to devices from companies including Oppo, RealMe, Honor, Huawei and, of course, Xiaomi. Despite being unavailable stateside, Xiaomi is the third most popular mobile vendor in the world at the time of this writing, holding just under 10% of the global market. Many Yanks may assume that they've never been able to put their mitts on the latest flagships from Xiaomi, such as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, because the phones are Chinese in origin and therefore banned in the United States. But that's not the case. While the technological rivalry between the US and China has been tumultuous in recent years, with everything from smartphones to Wi-Fi routers ending up on some kind of blacklist or banned list, Xiaomi products were only briefly the subject of one such dragnet a few years ago. The real reason its phones are so infrequently sold here is much more straightforward: The company hasn't made inroads into the US market on its own merits. Our commercial operating environment is not compatible with Xiaomi's own business principles, and, meanwhile, its offerings in China and elsewhere are getting better than ever. Xiaomi was (very briefly) on a US blacklist If you recall Xiaomi phones being banned in the United States, your memory isn't entirely faulty. In early 2021, as once and future president Donald Trump prepared to begrudgingly leave office, his administration engaged in a series of harsh crackdowns on Chinese technology. The most famous and enduring of these bans fell on Huawei, which had been gaining plenty of steam in the US market and was quickly becoming a viable competitor to Apple and Samsung. But as reported by Reuters on January 14, 2021, Xiaomi was added to a blacklist of companies purported to have ties with the Chinese military. American investors were prohibited from trading in the company and required to divest any holdings. That ban was short-lived. Two weeks later, Xiaomi filed a lawsuit contesting the ban. On May 25, just over four months after being blacklisted, the US government agreed to lift its Xiaomi ban. But even though the debacle lasted only a third of a year, and despite the fact that nothing technically prevents Xiaomi gadgets from being sold in the United States, you're almost certainly not using one if you're a longtime US resident. One reason Xiaomi doesn't participate much in the US market…