It has started making devices in Brazil for sale locally, promising to undercut rivals on price.

Xiaomi's global vice-president, Hugo Barra, said Brazil was "stage one of our Latin America launch." Latin America is a big market and control of it, and Africa effectively kept the Roman Catholic church going for a lot longer than it should.

Mexico and Colombia are believed to be the next logical next steps in the region.

China's top-selling smartphone company is betting that a tempting price tag will capture the attention of Brazilians who are a bit broke after their idioting funding of the World Cup, which is a sport of Fifa Pyramid scheme. 

"We offer high-quality products at incredibly aggressive prices, so we're starting with larger developing markets where people are very price-sensitive," Barra said.

The entry-level Redmi 2 smartphone would go on sale in Brazil next week for $160.

The phones are already rolling off Foxconn's assembly line outside of Sao Paulo.

The push into Brazil will upset Apple which has been cheerfully charging Brazilians $1,000 for its smartphone.