Yes, so much leverage that China regularly forces them to censor the App Store, and forced them to give up control of iCloud in China.
Quite different than say, how Apple handled the FBI demands or AT&T?
What concessions did Apple extract from China with respect to freedom or privacy for the Chinese people that you can point to?
Have they ever gotten VPN reinstated? Can you point to a single instance of Apple even petitioning against the government in Chinese courts?
I’ll go one better: can you find an instance on record of Apple executives like Tim Cook criticizing Chinese government policies like they do the US government? Any instance of push back at all?
Apple definitely has leverage because we now know they have not made any "special accommodations" for China in their products and services. And as far as I know, iMessage remains unblocked unlike other encrypted services like WhatsApp.
That doesn't mean that Apple can do whatever they want. They've had to shut down iBooks and iTunes Movies within months of turning it on. They've had to remove VPN apps and the NYT's app from the App Store.
But they haven't had to fundamentally cripple the security of their products and services. And that's a meaningful concession they've obtained, because they're Apple.
>I’ll go one better: can you find an instance on record of Apple executives like Tim Cook criticizing Chinese government policies like they do the US government? Any instance of push back at all?
We know they pushed back on the data localization regulation because they said so in a statement to Reuters.
Yes, so much leverage that China regularly forces them to censor the App Store, and forced them to give up control of iCloud in China.
Quite different than say, how Apple handled the FBI demands or AT&T?
What concessions did Apple extract from China with respect to freedom or privacy for the Chinese people that you can point to?
Have they ever gotten VPN reinstated? Can you point to a single instance of Apple even petitioning against the government in Chinese courts?
I’ll go one better: can you find an instance on record of Apple executives like Tim Cook criticizing Chinese government policies like they do the US government? Any instance of push back at all?