The day when Lei Jun feared the rumors

Lei Jun, who has always presented a gentle image to the public, rarely "lost his temper".

On the evening of January 3rd, Lei Jun launched his first live - stream in 2026. He and his team disassembled a Xiaomi YU7 SUV on - site, showing every aspect of the car in detail.

However, the real highlight of the entire live - stream was Lei Jun's personal explanation and clarification of the various controversies and rumors surrounding Xiaomi recently. "Negative trolls" became the prominent keyword in Lei Jun's responses.

When talking about the so - called "instant stop at 200 kilometers", he said, "The baseless slander really left a big psychological shadow on me." So much so that he had to think and re - check every word he said. He even prepared a thick cheat sheet for this live - stream, "I almost wanted to just read from the script."

"Sometimes I wonder if this is the goal of the negative trolls, to make me stop speaking, right?" Lei Jun said a bit excitedly. "Do you want to see Lei Jun like this? Do you want me to just read from the script in the future?"

Xu Jieyun, the newly - appointed general manager of Xiaomi's public relations department, smoothly took over the conversation: "I think no one would really like the situation where you have to choose your words carefully on social media, fearing that a certain part of what you say will be taken out of context and distorted."

Hearing this, Lei Jun added, "Then who would dare to speak online in the future? Everyone is maliciously attacked, taken out of context and smeared. It would be very difficult to speak then."

Being good at "speaking" and daring to express opinions has always been one of Lei Jun's most prominent strengths.

With this unique skill, Lei Jun has formed a wonderful emotional resonance with users, gathered tens of millions of fans for his personal IP, and created a "reality distortion field" similar to Steve Jobs. It has also enabled Xiaomi to achieve great success in the fields of mobile phones, cars, home appliances, and IoT devices.

However, since 2025, competitors have been hiding in the shadows, and "negative trolls" have been running rampant. Every word and deed of Lei Jun has been misinterpreted. Even posting a fitness photo has become a target for attack.

How could Lei Jun, who has been slandered to the point of being afraid to "speak", not be angry? How could he just sit back and do nothing?

01

This might be the Lei Jun live - stream with the highest "content" of negative trolls.

For the first three hours of the live - stream, Lei Jun remained calm with a smile on his face. He had a lively conversation with experts from different departments of Xiaomi, discussing in detail the design details, workmanship, configuration, and technical indicators of the Xiaomi YU7. He even tried to pick up the removed engine cover to prove the car's excellent lightweight design.

Lei Jun also showed his usual restraint when it came to some common "points of criticism".

For example, when discussing whether the Xiaomi YU7 is a stretched version of the SU7, Lei Jun invited the designer of the YU7 onto the stage. The designer carefully explained the exterior details of the vehicle and made a comparison with the SU7. Finally, Lei Jun carefully gave a negative answer.

The turning point came after the car - disassembly and at the start of the Q&A session.

Xu Jieyun, the top person in Xiaomi's public relations department, took the stage to respond to the outside world's controversies with Lei Jun. This was an epic "truth - telling" game - every topic hit the sensitive nerves of Xiaomi and its fans.

The first topic that came up was the so - called "green belt god of war". Not long ago, a Xiaomi car had an accident and rushed into the green belt. Gossips and trolls immediately gave it this "nickname" and spread it widely on the Internet.

Xu Jieyun's response was a typical public - relations statement: Some people deliberately collected information, maliciously edited it, labeled it, and led the public opinion. Lei Jun was more specific: "It was just a few people manipulating thousands of accounts to spread all kinds of rumors and slurs."

Lei Jun said that Xiaomi is determined to seriously report, complain, and even sue the negative trolls. It will never tolerate the behavior of those who spread rumors and slander and attack Xiaomi car owners. "I fully support the crackdown on negative trolls."

He also reminded KOLs that while criticizing Xiaomi may bring traffic, they must be objective and not deliberately smear or take things out of context. This is illegal.

In addition, Lei Jun, Xu Jieyun and others also responded one by one to questions such as "charging only once for 1300 kilometers", "seven thousand lawyers", and "not allowing farmers to sell Xiaomi products".

According to Lei Jun's explanation, "charging only once for 1300 kilometers" was taken out of context - "The self - media wrote 'Lei Jun claimed'. It wasn't Lei Jun who claimed it. It's the CLTC range."

The latter two rumors even made Lei Jun and others burst into laughter: "Seven thousand lawyers - everyone should know how many people there are in Xiaomi as a whole. How could there be seven thousand lawyers?" "I grew up in the countryside. How could I not allow farmers to sell Xiaomi products? I was really angry when such hot - search topics appeared."

"I believe that everyone has a discerning eye. Everyone can tell what is imitation, what is joking, and what is malicious slander and attack," Lei Jun said.

02

For a low - level rumor like "not allowing farmers to sell Xiaomi products", anyone with a bit of common sense won't believe it. But for other rumors mixed with facts, Lei Jun and Xiaomi obviously can't just laugh it off.

For example, the closure of the comment section. Previously, many people noticed that Xiaomi selectively closed comments on some platforms during the Xiaomi 17 Ultra press conference, which sparked a lot of discussions.

Xu Jieyun said that this was actually to prevent attacks from trolls and to avoid affecting the experience of normal users watching the press conference. Lei Jun said, "We are not afraid of any real users putting forward various opinions. We will definitely correct our mistakes if there are any." But since the attacks from trolls are overwhelming, sometimes they have to close the comment section.

"On this point, I hope everyone will support us and fight against those trolls together," Lei Jun said.

More sensitive than closing the comments is the issue of "fine - print marketing".

The cause of this issue was that some people noticed that on the PPT of Xiaomi's press conferences, slogans and selling points were printed in large fonts, while the limitations of the slogans were noted in almost invisible small print. This kind of marketing approach made many people feel deceived.

When talking about the controversial "fine - print marketing", Lei Jun said that using fine print is indeed a bad industry practice, and "Xiaomi will start to change it right away." But he also emphasized that using fine print is a compromise to ensure compliance. Calling it false marketing or excessive marketing is a huge misunderstanding of Xiaomi.

Overall, in this live - stream where Lei Jun "responded to everything", he basically answered every question directly without evading or being vague.

However, Lei Jun also made some choices. For example, he didn't directly mention "the car door couldn't open after an accident", which is a very safety - related point of criticism.

After a Xiaomi car accident, the biggest controversy was that in some cases, the car door was difficult to open from the outside. This is a common problem for models with hidden door handles, and this design may be completely banned in the latest national standards.

Lei Jun didn't directly mention this, but some clues indicated that he and Xiaomi actually cared a lot about it.

During this live - stream, when introducing the exterior design, the interior, the seats, the frame, the battery and other parts of the YU7, Lei Jun mainly let the technical experts from different departments of Xiaomi do the explaining, while he played the role of a supportive listener and backed up the experts.

Only for the door handle - the most sensitive part, Lei Jun "supervised" the entire introduction process. He interrupted three times to give direct instructions, reminding the staff to clarify how many batteries there were, demonstrate unlocking from the inside handle, and summarize the technical features.

Obviously, Lei Jun won't tolerate any mistakes regarding the extremely sensitive but inconvenient - to - talk - about issue of the door handle.

03

This live - stream was originally scheduled for New Year's Eve, but it was postponed to the evening of January 3rd because Lei Jun was ill. The originally planned New Year's Eve live - stream became the first live - stream of 2026.

The live - stream lasted for four hours, from 7 p.m. to after 11 p.m., and the popularity remained high. On the Bilibili platform alone, the simultaneous online viewership reached over two million. It also got four or five hot - search topics on Weibo.

This was also a live - stream that was bound to put "pressure" on Lei Jun.

In recent months, Xiaomi cars have been involved in several accidents causing serious personal injuries, and the abuse and attacks from "trolls" have damaged the images of Lei Jun and Xiaomi.

Lei Jun and other Xiaomi managers tried to respond to everything. It's right to fight against "negative trolls", but Xiaomi's deep - seated problems can't be completely resolved by just saying "we've been slandered".

For example, in the first half of this year, the engine cover of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra was suspected of false advertising, which triggered a refund wave. Xiaomi offered a time - limited service to change the configuration and a bonus points program as compensation, but many car owners were not satisfied.

By the end of the year, the negative effects began to show. According to third - party data, the monthly sales of the SU7 Ultra dropped from thousands to less than 100, and the popularity declined significantly. This figure has not been confirmed by Xiaomi.

Another example is that although the Xiaomi YU7 is selling well, the delivery cycle is still as long as seven or eight months. Xiaomi still needs to work hard to break through the production - capacity bottleneck.

However, at the beginning of 2026, although Lei Jun is angry about the "negative trolls", he is generally in a good mood.

The good mood mainly comes from the sales of Xiaomi cars. Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi delivered 410,000 cars in 2025, while the original plan was 350,000. He also completed 125 fitness sessions himself, fulfilling the goal he set at the beginning of the year.

For the new year, Lei Jun has set three new goals: do fitness 100 times; learn to drive a forklift - he thinks it's cool; and focus more on Xiaomi cars to achieve the annual delivery target of 550,000 cars. According to him, this goal is neither too high nor too low, but still challenging.

When talking about fitness, Lei Jun recalled the fear of being chased and scolded by "negative trolls" in the past year, but he also tried to seek "reconciliation" with himself and his fans.

"I don't understand why I was scolded for posting that fitness Weibo, so I made it visible only to myself. If you want to see it, I can take a screenshot of the fitness record for you later," he said. "I plan to continue to clock in 100 fitness sessions this year. Is there anyone who wants to clock in 100 times with me? We can form a group and encourage each other."

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zimu PRO", author: Yan Fei. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.