Xiaomi was among nine new companies added to the list. In July last year, the US placed the Chinese partner of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson on the same list.

In a statement accompanying the new list, the Defence Department said: "The department is determined to highlight and counter the People’s Republic of China’s Military-Civil Fusion development strategy, which supports the modernisation goals of the People’s Liberation Army by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise acquired and developed by even those PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities."

This means Xiaomi cannot raise funds from investors in the US or list on American markets.

In May 2019. the US placed Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies on a list known as the Entity List that prevented it from obtaining US products without a licence from the Commerce Department. But Huawei was able to get what it needed from branches of American companies based outside the US.

The latest list of companies blacklisted by the US.

In May 2020, the US put in place further restrictions to cut off Huawei's supply of semiconductors which it gets mostly from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. This was done through the Foreign Direct Product Rule that makes it necessary for any company — American or foreign — that sells American products or those made using American technology to require a permit before selling to Huawei.

In September, the US imposed sanctions on China's biggest maker of semiconductors, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, claiming it posed an "unacceptable risk" of its products being diverted to "military end use".