Chinese tech giant Xiaomi confirmed with KrAsia on Friday that the company has laid off Wang Lingming, one of its vice presidents currently in charge of its Africa business because he offended article 44 of China’s law on penalties for the administration of public security and was detained by the police for five days.
Xiaomi did not provide further details about the actions that led to Wang Lingming detention in China. Article 44 covers violations that involve molesting others or intentionally exposing themselves in public and can lead to getting detained for 5 to 10 days.
Wang, who became head of the Africa business in January, was originally hired by Xiaomi in 2017 to be in charge of global smartphone sales. He allegedly failed to meet his target of 140 million units sold in 2018, 36Kr reported, citing an unnamed source.
Xiaomi said in its 2018 annual report that its full-year smartphone sales volume reached 118.7 million units, representing an annual increase of 29.8% against a 4.1% year-on-year decline of global smartphone shipments.
36Kr is KrAsia’s parent company.
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