Chinese government agencies, from national to local, would no longer allow Apple equipment. This would concern the iPhone, but also the MacBook laptops and the AirPods earbuds. The reason: China is said to be afraid of sensitive information that could end up in the hands of the US government via Apple. Beijing does not confirm the reports, and government officials contacted by RTL News do not comment.
Teslas banned
Apple isn’t the first company to face spy fears: Teslas have recently been banned from several locations. In June they were prevented from entering the seaside resort of Beidaihe because of the annual Communist Party conference held there. Teslas have multiple cameras all around that monitor traffic. China fears that the cameras could also send sensitive images to Washington. That is why Teslas were banned earlier this year when party boss Xi Jinping visited the cities of Chengdu and Hangzhou.
Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, is doing everything he can to convince China of his good intentions. He previously told the Reuters news agency that Tesla does not spy, ‘not in China and not outside of it’. According to Tesla, all data collected by its cars in the country is stored in a location in China.
And for Tesla, there is a lot at stake. The ‘gigafactory’ that the company runs in Shanghai is very important: this week the two millionth car rolled off the production line there since it opened in 2019. Not only the production of cars themselves, but also Tesla’s batteries are dependent on China for raw materials. Musk regularly visits the country for this reason and praises the country’s leadership.
Important sales market
Apple is also highly dependent on China. According to analysts, it is the third most important market for the iPhone maker. And it is the only market where the company still has significant growth to achieve: in 2021, the Chinese market grew by 70 percent, many times more than other markets. For Apple, almost all production of iPhones and MacBooks takes place in China.
So the news about the ban for government employees hits hard: Apple shares fell by 3.6 percent after the revelation. Analysts fear further measures against Apple, and also against other Western tech companies.
According to Hu Xijin, a well-known nationalist blogger, both China and the US are becoming increasingly vigilant when it comes to national security: “With so many people working for the Chinese government and the possibility that the public will follow suit, Apple will suffer,” warns he.
Under the magnifying glass
While Western companies are under a magnifying glass in China, the reverse is also the case. The popular app TikTok has been under fire for years in both America and Europe. There are fears that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, may share sensitive data with Beijing. So far there has not been a complete ban, but Dutch politicians, for example, are advised against using the app.
Electronics giant Huawei is also having a hard time. Due to American sanctions, the company cannot obtain advanced chips. But the company is now celebrating a victory on that front: against everyone’s expectations, Huawei is launching a new smartphone with an advanced 5G chip this week.
Chips from China
Surprising, because it was assumed that Huawei could not have this technology due to the sanctions. Experts point out that the chips really come from China, from the company SMIC in Shanghai.
At the same time, ‘made in China’ seems to be on its way out. Nowadays more and more is made in Vietnam. In this video we explain how that works:
2023-09-09 17:54:29
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