Chang Cheng, who left Lenovo at the beginning of the year and started working at Xiaomi, sat on the agenda of China with a joke. While making a statement about the company's new phone Mi 10 Lite Zoom, Cheng set up a sentence that humiliated women.
Chinese technology manufacturer Xiaomi is mostly spoken about smartphones and other technological products, but this time Xiaomi is spoken by a manager's joke. The inappropriate joke, in which numerous consumers reacted, contained sexist elements. This unpleasant development has the signature of Xiaomi's Vice President Chang Cheng. Cheng, who left his position at Lenovo in early 2020 and transferred to Xiaomi, was criticized by a broad audience with a sentence he spoke for women. In the speech by the Xiaomi manager, there were some jokes about how to use the 50x zoom feature of the Mi 10 Lite Zoom. While it is difficult to understand what Chang Cheng's sentence means, Cheng was thought to encourage people to take pictures secretly using the 50x zoom feature.
These statements from Cheng were met with reaction by all users in Weibo. Therefore, this situation directly damaged the Xiaomi brand. Because almost all Weibo users in China have somehow coincided with Cheng's descriptions, and Xiaomi manager Chang Cheng has been criticized by implying that the 50x zoom feature can be 'used for voyeurism'.
Chang Cheng apologized after removing the post, declaring that all criticisms were justified and accepted all criticisms. Not satisfied with this statement alone, Cheng announced that he made a donation of 14 thousand dollars to a non-governmental organization.
This incident also damaged Xiaomi's brand value. So this event also mobilized Xiaomi officials. In the statements made from the official Weibo account of the company, it was once again apologized about the issue, while Xiaomi said it would speed up efforts for staff development. Time will show us whether consumers will forget this event.