Business
Xi quips about backdoors during Xiaomi phone gift to Korea’s Lee
Chinese President Xi Jinping joked about security backdoors while presenting a pair of Xiaomi Corp. smartphones to his South Korean counterpart, a rare moment of spontaneous levity captured during a week of tense trade negotiations with Donald Trump.
Xi, in South Korea to meet Trump on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, presented the pair of devices to Korean President Lee Jae Myung. In a video circulated on social media, Lee asked: “Is the line secure?” Xi chuckled, pointed at the gadgets and replied through an interpreter: “You can check if there’s a backdoor.” The two leaders burst into laughter.
The exchange was striking because the issue of security and alleged espionage is a sensitive one and a major thorn in U.S.-Chinese relations. American lawmakers have raised the possibility that tech companies such as Huawei Technologies Co. build backdoors — ways to gain access to sensitive data — into their equipment or services, something the firms have repeatedly denied. Washington officials have in turn broached the idea of working similar access points or tracking technology into products such as Nvidia Corp. chips — which the U.S. company has publicly opposed.
Xiaomi’s shares rose as much as 4.4% in Hong Kong Monday, propped up in part by EV sales data. Retail investors have in the past piled into the stock of companies that Xi or other senior Chinese officials highlight during public appearances.
The Xiaomi handsets featured curved displays from a South Korean supplier, a staffer is heard saying in the video, underscoring collaboration between the two nations’ engineers. Beijing-based Xiaomi is a longtime Samsung Display Co. customer. Xi’s and Lee’s banter coincided with hints of warming relations between the two Asian nations.
