Bloomberg: Alvin Tse to serve as general manager of Xiaomi India

Xiaomi Corp. has named Alvin Tse as the new head of its India business as the Chinese smartphone company grapples with government challenges in its second-largest market by users, Bloomberg reported on June 3. Xiaomi said Tse, a former executive at Xiaomi Indonesia, will take over as general manager of the company's Indian unit, but did not give an exact timeline.

Tse's appointment comes at a time when Xiaomi is facing a new round of crisis in the Indian market. In April this year, Xiaomi's Indian branch was seized more than $700 million by the Indian government for no reason. Since then, the move has been shelved and awaits the final decision of the court.

India's Enforcement Directorate said Xiaomi illegally transferred funds to three entities abroad in the name of royalties, and as a result, $725 million in assets were frozen in April. But after Xiaomi challenged the asset freeze, an Indian court shelved the decision. According to Reuters, Xiaomi said in its court documents that the royalties were paid to companies such as Qualcomm and that relevant disclosures had been made to Indian authorities. Xiaomi believes that Indian authorities are targeting Chinese companies, while Bloomberg reported in late May that India's Ministry of Corporate Affairs is investigating ZTE and Vivo for alleged financial improprieties.

According to reports, before the assets were frozen, Xiaomi's offices and production facilities were raided in December 2021, and the Indian government asked Xiaomi to pay $84.5 million for suspected import tax evasion in January. Currently, Xiaomi's momentum in India seems to be declining. IDC data shows that although it has maintained its top position in the Indian smartphone market since 2018, its market share gap with Samsung Electronics has been narrowing recently.