The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Apple stopped doing business in Russia after the start of the war. What would happen if China decides to invade Taiwan?

2022-07-03T16:10:31.654Z


China is a key manufacturing hub for the company and its third-largest market after the United States and Europe. But many users fear that their device will be unusable if Apple pulls out of the country.


By Dylan Duan and Ayumi Fujimoto -

NBC News

HONG KONG — The extensive efforts by Apple and other Western tech companies to cut back on business with Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine have raised a question for product users in China: Could the same thing happen there?

Much of Chinese consumer concern has focused on Apple, which, like Google, Microsoft and other tech giants, moved quickly to curb its dealings with Russia after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last week. February 24th.

[Latino Parents Sue Apple in Texas: Their Son Suffered Serious Hearing Damage After Receiving an Amber Alert Using His AirPods]

The company has halted the sale and export of products, limited services such as Apple Pay, and removed Russian state media outlets RT News and Sputnik News from the Apple Store outside of Russia.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the global response, has been closely watched in Asia, where there are long-standing tensions between China and the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said "reunification" with Taiwan is inevitable and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve it, though the Taiwanese government says there are no signs of an imminent attack. 

Ready to repair your iPhone yourself?

Apple will let you do it with this new service

April 27, 202200:32

Chinese officials reject any comparison between Taiwan and Ukraine, claiming that only Ukraine is an independent country.

But some online commentators in China, where social media is dominated by nationalist and pro-Russian sentiment, have criticized Apple's actions in Russia and said China should prepare for similar tactics.

[Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal Holds Until Company Clarifies Number of Fake Accounts]

"If one day China finally decides to liberate Taiwan, who can guarantee that our own iPhones won't be disabled?" asked a user on Zhihu, a Chinese social media platform similar to Quora.

Experts say it would be difficult for Apple to move away from China, which is a key manufacturing hub for the company as well as its third-largest market after the United States and Europe.

"It's a very different story than what's happening in Russia," said Kendra Schaefer, head of technology research at Trivium, a Beijing-based political research outfit.

A Chinese customer looks at a phone at the official opening of the new Apple Store at the Wuhan International Plaza on May 21, 2022. Ren Yong / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Schaefer noted that Chinese regulations require Apple and other companies to store Chinese customer information on servers within the country.

“The question would be: does leaving China mean that Apple not only loses its customers, but all its customer data entirely?” he said.

[Apple employees in Maryland agree to form the company's first union in the US]

Apple did not respond to email requests for comment.

Before the war in Ukraine, China was already pursuing a national strategy of "technological independence," emphasizing indigenous innovation and recruiting foreign talent.

Xi has underlined its importance in recent years as both the Trump and Biden administrations have tightened US restrictions on Chinese tech giants such as Huawei and ZTE that they see as a national security threat.

"US sanctions on Huawei and ZTE during the Sino-US trade war have already rudely awakened Chinese policymakers to the importance of technological self-sufficiency," said Angela Zhang, director of the Chinese Law Center at the University of China. Hong Kong, in a response to email questions.

[How an Apple Tracking Device is Showing Up in Alleged Crimes]

But Zhang said it could take decades for China to catch up with the United States and Taiwan in manufacturing semiconductors and other essential components of electronic devices.

“It is also very expensive, if not impossible, to achieve complete self-sufficiency for many critical technologies, involving a very long and complicated supply chain,” he added.

Russia's growing isolation from the likes of Apple has added to calls for China's technological independence from the West, also known as the "great decoupling."

A commenter on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, noted his reliance on Apple's cloud storage service.

“Now I am very concerned that if something were to happen, a company like Apple would disable my phone and my data,” he said.

"The great decoupling is inevitable," he added.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-07-03

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.