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Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo stores trashed amid ongoing Hong Kong protests
Protesters are targeting Chinese tech after previously going after brands associated with mainland China or seen as favoring the mainland market
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
If you visit one of Xiaomi’s biggest stores in Hong Kong right now, you won’t be able to see the long wooden tables and bright banners on the walls that famously resemble the Apple Store aesthetic. Instead, it’s sealed off by iron walls. The Mi logos are damaged and the outside walls are covered in graffiti.
Some of the graffiti takes aim at Xiaomi. One message accuses the smartphone company of “stealing data from your phone.” Another is just the symbol from V for Vendetta, the popular Alan Moore comic about an anarchist hero and its 2006 film adaptation.
The damage is the result of an ongoing anti-government movement in Hong Kong that has grown increasingly violent. Xiaomi is just one of many Chinese businesses that have been targeted by protesters. Companies with links to mainland China, Chinese banks and retail shops whose owners have spoken out against protests have seen locations vandalized and set ablaze.
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While there isn’t any evidence that Xiaomi is actually “stealing data from your phone,” a growing fear of digital surveillance from mainland China means that Chinese tech companies are facing the heat in Hong Kong, too.
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As it stands, Chinese smartphone brands don’t do well in the city. In 2018, more than three quarters of the city’s 7.5 million residents were smartphone users, and nearly half of them were using iPhones as of September 2019. Samsung came in second with 25 per cent market share. Huawei and Xiaomi were at 11 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. That’s in stark contrast to the 42 per cent market share Huawei now has in mainland China.
As much of Hong Kong shuns Chinese products, some protesters are taking a more blunt approach to showing their disapproval of Chinese tech companies. Huawei and Lenovo have both had locations damaged in the protests. But the extent of the damage to the Xiaomi shop made headlines.
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