Apple sold its soul to China long ago. Apple exemplifies corporate greed overriding national interests -- indeed, national security.
Your iPhone was assembled in China. While the components are made in various locations, many of them are also created in China. It would be straightforward -- not trivial, but not beyond their capability -- for the Chinese assembler to use counterfeit components looking and testing the same as the original -- but with a backdoor hidden, needing a special sequence to be submitted to unlock it. So much for your iPhone’s much vaunted security.
Apple -- like so many multinationals that started life in the USA -- will trade US security for profits. If our politicians weren't so beholden to the tech giants, they would halt all hi-tech imports from China, an avowed enemy. But when corporate greed and politicians’ quests for power come together – security be damned.
3
We stand with you Hong Kong!
Selling my few shares of Apple stock. What a sickening display of corporate greed and cowardice.
3
Never having known democracy, China's population is a vast sea of naive, intellectually underdeveloped fools whose viciously autocratic leaders play like an enormous assemblage of violins. If the planet's democratic nations do not soon move to contain this monstrous nation we will all suffer the grim consequences. China intends to rule the world.
12
On a personal level, operating outside the limits regarding criticism of the ChiComs is not an issue. Professionally, it is business suicide. So make up your mind. If a businessman wants to operate within Chinese constraints in trade, go ahead. However if they want the inside info on your product which makes them a partner in your business, I would decline immediately and go elsewhere.
5
Is it then up to the discretion of individual companies to decide whether or not to comply with local laws wherever they operate, and decide whether the government is legitimate? Surely that cannot be the case. Taken to the extreme, it means companies should only operate in countries where they agree with the mode of governance.
1
You got it. That's exactly what companies need to do (operate in countries where they agree with the mode of governance). For their own long term interests and for the wellbeing of their countries' workers and economies. Global trade without common standards is unsustainable, as we are clearly seeing. International conventions cannot be merely aspirational.
4
China is not Americas friend or ally.
China is for China and that is it.
It's about time all these people see that.
It's about time that all these people are "woke".
China is an enemy of the world.
13
Isn't there an important distinction to be made between the NBA and Apple cases? In the case of NBA, it seems like a simple caving to money. In the case of Apple, it appears that they verified with the local authorities that the app was being used to support unlawful activities before they decided to pull it. Adopting a political stance is quite different from deliberately circumventing the local authorities.
2
@Jake So
The legitimacy of these "local authorities" is precisely what millions of protesters in HK are questioning. Did Apple verify any evidence? Do they not see a reasonable basis to be skeptical of the police's claims?
The question being asked is not wether Apple should respect the law in countries where it operates, but wether these specific "local authorities" (the CCP and its agents) are good faith actors with whom Apple and other global companies should engage with as they do in relatively democratic, rule-based countries.
It strains credulity to suggest Apple's economic exposure wasn't the critical factor behind this decision.
10
@Jake
Protesting against a totalitarian society is not unlawful...except to the Chinese and their supporters.
5
Who decided that democracy is the only right model for every country? Who asked you? I’m glad democracy is working so well in the US. Regular folk in China seem perfectly supportive of their government’s methods.
1
Apple has also removed the Taiwanese flag from their new ios update. This move shows China’s commitment to erasing Taiwanese identity and nationhood. The flag was also first used and promoted in Hong Kong by an organization that sought to overthrow the Qing government in Beijing. I also think China sees the history and a significance of the flag as a threat. I’m sure they don’t want to see it anywhere in Hong Kong.
3
"As China seeks to contain pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, state-run news outlets are increasingly lashing out at foreign companies, accusing them of enabling the protest movement."
Let's unpack that.
1. Hong Kong's democracy was custom designed for it by Britain, which also bequeathed its judiciary, police officers, professoriate and language. The rioters calling for 'democracy' are dog whistling.
2. "State-run news outlets are increasingly lashing out at foreign companies, accusing them of enabling the protest movement"? Yes, because foreign companies are enabling the protest movement. That's what their apps and tweets and public statements are intended to do.
3. Those 'state-run outlets' are, according to Deborah Fallowes, trusted by 80% of Chinese–who are smarter, better educated and more widely traveled than us. And btw, all state-run outlets – from Canada to Britain to Singapore to China – are far more trusted than oligarch-run outlets. Who'd a thunk?
1
Ha. They are smarter and better educated than us? Then how come they think the Dalai Lama is a terrorist? Not only those in China but also the Chinese students in Western universities with access to information, to Wikipedia, seem to think Dalai Lama is a terrorist
That's just one example. So please, while they may be able to better multiply numbers than Americans, I wouldn't equate that with being better educated in the ideals of tolerance, free speech and freedom of religion.
5
China is a rich and powerful country, that is beyond dispute. But while companies may choose to act or react in ways that mollify Chinese leaders, none of this should impact our political discourse here at home. NO ONE should be in a position to stifle political discourse in America that might be viewed negatively by Chinese Communists. I understand the powerful economic dynamics at work here, but either Americans support freedom around the world or they don’t, shareholders be damned.
13
With so many in the federal government following Trump’s lead and Chamber of Commerce types cowering before him, I fear our moment is coming too if we are not careful and resolute.
2
For a "rising world power", they are quite fragile mentally
8
@Kevin - It's more apt to say they are fragile in their political and moral legitimacy. Of course, that can be said about any ruthless criminal enterprise.
3
China's action is a duplicate of Nazi Germany's just before they caused the war and the Holocaust. The people, never having been exposed to freedom, swallow the propaganda, all in the name of love of country.
13
The NBA does no need China. I hope the NBA will not back down. Adam Silver did the right thing.
Apple unfortunately has become reliant on China on several levels. Apple has the money to unwind from it's entrenched manufacturing in China. It's going to take a lot of money but Apple is going to have to get out of China.
7
It makes you wonder if this was always China’s plan. To lure in western companies with a fake economic ‘openness’ and then clamp down on the companies once they’re established in China. I’m not a fan of China, never have been. Why are so many American companies towing the ‘party’ line in China? It’s a disgrace to liberty and democracy. You can’t have it both ways. China is an authoritarian communist regime which is bent on spreading it’s ideology globally.
17
China isn't a Communist country anymore. It's a textbook Fascist state with the fusion of hypercapitalism and government. Their panoptic surveillance systems expressed publicly in Social Ratings is but s more vulgar version of our own. Sneeze the wrong way and you'll be unhireable.
21
If china doesn't like American values like free speech, they can go to-you know where. They don't buy iPhones much any more, and Apple can easily move production to another country, like Vietnam or Taiwan. I'm sure Vietnam or Taiwan would just love to take all those jobs away from China.
6
It's time for the US to decouple. It would be good for our economy.
14
US is in an all-out war with China, Trade with China, Chinese companies, Chinese government, as we can read or hear about them on TVs and NYT. Let's admit it: we have hyped it.
Appeasing China only encourages their infantile outbursts. Sadly American businesses are experts at this because they are addicted to market access even if it means debasing any and all values that don't involve their bottom line. That most Americans are ignorant of what occurs in HK is a sad indictment of a generation of greedy and self-centered citizens. As with Trump, if you enable a bully they only get worse. Good for those who stand up to China, shame on those who fail to do so.
9
The lies and hypocrisy of Chinese leaders and media might be worse than that of Trumps. A scary thought.
I predicted years ago that the wholesale movement of our manufacturing capability to countries able to do it more cheaply, China in particular because if it's size and power, could have significant consequences. And here we are. If this continues to escalate the US might face the seizure and closing of much of the tech industries manufacturing with the corresponding repercussions that that would bring about. Also a scary thought.
3
Isn't the reverse here also true? US nationalism is also being inflamed and turned against China. There seems to be a concerted effort in the American media to demonize China rather than looking at what is happening in the country (including Hong Kong) with the intention of understanding the emotions, economic and political forces that are driving these various conflicts. This campaign is so systematic that it is reminiscent of every other drumbeat to war campaign prosecuted by the US media - including the NYT - before catastrophes such as the Iraq war. It may be wiser to learn a bit more about China's history and understand that different peoples with different historical experiences may view the world in complex ways. Consider the following: WWII cost the lives of between 25-30 million Soviet citizens. The Soviet expansionism that followed that war was driven far more by a sense of insecurity and a desire to protect itself than by a desire to impose an ideology on the world for nefarious purposes. But you would never know this from reading most US media and analyses from the time. That the US position was tainted by its own desire to impose capitalism on the world is overlooked. I see something similar happening here: a complex situation is being reduced to the most simplistic form possible and the demonization of the "other side" is proceeding apace, with little concern for the consequences. Why both with US govt propaganda; the "free" media is happy to do the work.
12
We've always been at war with EastAsia.
1
American corporations seem to be unaware of how American corporations worked with the Nazi government from 1933 to 1941 (and some found work-arounds during WWII)..
As long as it was legal and profitable, they did business with the Nazis despite many groups asking for a commercial boycott.
China is less evil, so of course they will comply.
2
I'm interested to see whether or not those Chinese propaganda articles note that Apple's decision to make the app available was because it already allows these functions under Waze and other apps. Or do they simply assume that standards are "localized" (soft-interpretation) or "subject to the whims of the local authoritarian market"?
An effective response to China's slow strangling of Hong Kong's traditonally open society, its "re-education" of Muslims in western China, is best served by a united front consisting of the U.S., Canada and the European democracies.
Trump has shown no desire to place democracy high on his list of foreign policy goals. On the contrary. But that's another story.
The next president would do well to announce to the world that the time has arrived to treat the Chinese Communist Party as the enemy it is, and go about engaging the other democracies to demonstrate a united front with a single visions.
Enough of the corporate blackmail. Enough of the military expansionism into contested waters. Enough historical amnesia and repression of religions. If China wants to do business with the democracies, it must modify its conduct and become normal nation as opposed to a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist totalitarian regime that has pacified and brainwashed its citizens with cellphones and nationalist speeches.
18
There's nothing Marxist about today's China.
3
@Eben - there was never anything marxist about ANY communist government, they only existed to maintain their own longevity.
1
“Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people’s feelings,”
Over the top Orwellian. The software is not poisonous and this has absolutely nothing to do with anyone's feelings. It is a naked, brazen effort by a dictatorship to enforce its power.
We have to stop propping them up. People around the world have the power to change this - whenever you have a choice, buy products from countries other than China.
30
Yes, businesses have their principles and values, so do their customers....it’s not a smart strategy to tell your customers about your value without caring about theirs...it is a fool strategy for businesses to involve and being used by populist politicians as a political weapon
1
Well @James, any business that takes a moral stand that risks profits may indeed look "foolish" from a business standpoint. That's pretty much how moral stands work.
1
“On Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs weighed in on Apple’s decision to make the app available. “Anyone with a conscience and sense of justice should boycott and object to this instead of supporting and indulging it,” Geng Shuang, a ministry spokesman, said, according to Chinese news reports.”
Actually, anyone “with a conscience and sense of justice” should object to Apple if they bow to Chinese pressure and pull the app. China is a high-tech authoritarian surveillance state. No contrarian free thinking. No true freedom of speech. Defy the party line at your peril.
15