It hopes that its US connections should help the consumer-focused smartphone maker skirt the political resistance met by some of its compatriot rivals.

Senior Vice President Wang Xiang said that the US market was “very attractive” and that the firm was adding engineering resources to develop versions of its handsets that are compatible with US networks.

“Next year we hope we can do something there”, Wang said, adding talks with US carriers are yet to produce concrete agreements.

The comments come as Huawei struggles to gain handset distribution deals with any US carrier, while some US politicians have called for a ban on the firm’s network equipment citing national security concerns.

 ZTE has all but shut down its smartphone business since the firm was barred from buying US components earlier this year as punishment for violating trade sanctions.

State-backed China Mobile became the latest Chinese telecommunications firm targeted by American politicians seeking to block market entry on security grounds.

Xiaomi’s Wang said the tension introduced “uncertainty” but downplayed its impact on the firm’s US expansion plans, highlighting relationships with suppliers like Qualcomm and Alphabet should help.

“We don’t see any reason for us to get into that political problem", said Wang, who ran Qualcomm’s China operations before joining Xiaomi in 2015.

He said Xiaomi was strictly focused on the consumer market and that many of its engineers and investors were American.