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It seems like the recent news were off the mark. China didn’t ban Apple’s iPhone after all, reports CNN, in any capacity. As a reminder, a report surfaced claiming that iPhones got banned in central government offices in China, which resulted in a drop for Apple shares.
China didn’t ban Apple’s iPhone in any capacity after all
Well, the ban didn’t happen at all, it seems. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Mao Ning, said during a press conference: “We have always been open to foreign companies and welcome them to seize the opportunities and share the fruits of China’s economic development”.
She added that China has noticed “many media reports” regarding the security incidents of Apple’s iPhone, and that China attaches “great importance to information and cyber security”.
She didn’t go into details regarding that, but she did urge foreign smartphone companies to follow China’s privacy laws and to prevent “any person or organization” from stealing data stored in their customers’ phones.
The US did share its concern after the initial report
The US reacted to the initial report, shared by The Wall Street Journal, by saying that they’re “concerned”. John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, said, at the time: “It seems to be a piece of the kinds of aggressive and inappropriate retaliation to US companies that we’ve seen from the PRC in the past, that’s what this appears to be”.
As a reminder, that was prior to Mao Ning’s press conference, where she cleared the air. It seems like Apple’s iPhone devices are not banned in any capacity in China.
The relations between China and the US are tense, at least as far as the technology aspect is concerned. Huawei has suffered quite a bit since the US ban years ago. And things only went downhill from there.
This report managed to raise quite a few eyebrows, but it seems to have been false. Anything is possible down the line, though. That being said, Apple did announce its new iPhone 15 lineup a couple of days ago, in case you’re interested.