Asia Tech Wire (July 22) -- Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said TikTok CEO Shou Chew's resignation from Xiaomi had hit him in a recent public speech.

On Friday night, Xiaomi founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun held his 5th annual speech.

During the speech, Lei recalled the past when Xiaomi decided to build a car and mentioned the resignation of former CFO Chew.

Lei said that Xiaomi suffered a blow from the exit of a young executive, Chew, at a time when it was having an eventful year and its high-end strategy was just starting to advance.

He confessed that although he felt very sad about it, he could only send Chew his sincere blessings.

Chew joined Xiaomi as CFO in 2015, when Lei spoke very highly of him, calling him a successful investor with a unique vision and specialized financial skills.

Before joining Xiaomi, Chew served as a partner at Russian investment firm DST Global, where he led the firm's $100 million investment in Xiaomi.

In November 2019, Chew became president of Xiaomi's international division and the following year became Xiaomi's youngest partner at the company.

However, in March 2021, he chose to leave the company to join ByteDance as CFO, a change that also attracted widespread industry attention at the time.

At the end of April 2021, Chew was appointed CEO of TikTok and stepped down as ByteDance CFO in November of that year.

Chew's appearance at a U.S. Congressional hearing in 2023 to discuss security issues at TikTok put him in the global spotlight.