BlackBerry CEO John Chen met with the heads of Xiaomi and Lenovo in Beijing to discuss possible ways to partner to speed up its expansion into China, where it hasn’t focused its attention in the past.

Chen (pictured), who was in China earlier in the week attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit, told Bloomberg that partnering would be a more efficient way to move into China and there may be opportunities for working together with the vendors on technology licensing, distribution or manufacturing.

The Chinese firms are the country’s top two smartphone makers. In Q2 Xiaomi became the top selling smartphone brand in China, which is the largest smartphone market in the world. It also is ranked fifth in the world with a 3.9 per cent share, according to Strategy Analytics. Lenovo, together with recently acquired Motorola Mobility, now has an 8 per cent global share (giving it a ranking of third).

A month ago Lenovo was rumoured once again to be preparing a bid for BlackBerry.

Chen told Bloomberg that his trip to China doesn’t imply the company is for sale. He also met with HTC’s chairwoman Cher Wang in Beijing.

BlackBerry is holding meetings today in San Francisco with mobile operators and service providers to outline its strategy for returning to growth. The company has reported net losses for the past three years as its shipments dropped from more than 50 million in 2011 to less than 20 million last year.

By sharply cutting costs and refocusing on the business customer with classic BlackBerry designs, Chen has started to turn the firm around, but urgently needs to expand the portfolio to appeal to a wider audience.

The Canadian firm reported a net loss for Q3 of $207 million, compared with a prior year loss of $965 million, on revenue of $916 million, down from $1.57 billion.

In September it launched the Passport targetting the mobile professional user, which Chen has said is a vital step in turning the company’s fortunes around.

He also noted that BlackBerry has a “very strong” device roadmap and intends to provide an update on its plans at Mobile World Congress 2015.