That happened due to the China-South Korea trade war following the installation of THAAD in SK in 2016 [0]. Notice how the Chinese OEM spike and Samsung's decline happen following the 2016-17 diplomatic crisis. It was also during this period that Korea Inc began shifting to Vietnam [1][2] and India as a result.
Additonally, that spike for Xiaomi and other Chinese OEMs also happened right when Chinese OEMs expanded their India business in 2015-17 [3][4][5]. On that note, notice how all those Chinese OEM saw sales dropped and then flatlined from 2021 onwards. While the pandemic did play a role, India began lawfare against Chinese companies following the Galwan Crisis in 2021 [6][7][8] with the Indian government de facto forcing Chinese firms to "indianize" [9] - which ironically is similar to how the Chinese government operated in the 2000s and 2010s with Western firms and what the Chinese government leveraged against Korea a decade previously.
[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-12/china-sai...
[1] - https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20181122001200320
[2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/s-korea-d...
[3] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/baxiabhishek/2017/09/12/the-ris...
[4] - https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-techn...
[5] - https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oppo-grew-...
[6] - https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-seizes-725-mln-xia...
[7] - https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-accuses-chinas-opp...
[8] - https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-enforcement-direc...
[9] - https://etplay.com/business/why-chinese-cos-have-been-indian...
>> That happened due to the China-South Korea trade war following the installation of THAAD in SK in 2016 [0]. <<
Not really. THAAD really plays no part in Samsung's fall in China. Samsung's smartphone sales in China was already down by -70% by the time THAAD broke out in 2016 from its peak in 2013 and still went down further to less than 1%. Samsung packed up and closed the last Chinese factory in 2019 -- went to Vietnam instead.
Patrick McGee recently released Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company: it better describes the anti-foreign political situation in China at the time and what it meant to the smartphone industry. And how Apple avoided Samsung's fate, but is now captured by it. See Chapter 26 "Despot" and on.