Did China Just Legally End iPhone Sales In China?

SpamSandwichSpamSandwich
Posted:
in AAPL Investors
According to the text of the article below, it appears that China just unanimously passed an anti-terror law that would make the security and privacy features of the iPhone completely incompatible with any further sales in China. Can anyone who actually lives in China unravel this story and confirm or deny this apparent "extinction level event" for Apple sales?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/12/27/world/asia/ap-as-china-anti-terrorism-law.html?referer=https://news.google.com/
gatorguy

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Here's a second source on this story. None of their information appears to be favorable to Apple either:

    http://www.ibtimes.com/china-passes-anti-terrorism-law-amid-us-concerns-snooping-2240346

    What will be the fallout for Apple?
  • Reply 2 of 4
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    And a third story, by Bloomberg, which mentions Apple but goes no further:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-27/china-passes-counter-terrorism-law-that-triggered-u-s-concerns
  • Reply 3 of 4
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member
    The law appears to refer to telecommunications companies and ISPs. Since Apple is neither of those the implications are unclear. Might be a problem for iMessage, but I don't see anything that would prevent the sale of iPhones.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    It think it was reported in a since-deleted Chinese government report months ago (at least I don't see it now) that Apple was the first Western company to comply with the now legally mandated Chinese OS access requirements. According to the news Apple gave the Chinese what they required if Apple wanted to do business there early this year., maybe Jan-Feb/2015.  Couple that with the news that Apple had put Chinese users data on Chinese controlled servers instead of their own a few months earlier. That too was a China demand at the time if Apple wanted to continue selling products there. So now it's the law.

    EDIT: Here's a second-hand article discussing the original China reported news.
    http://en.yibada.com/articles/19013/20150312/apple-chinas-cyber-security-requirements.htm

    As Apple execs have said repeatedly, China is very important to their business. If you remember Mr Cook went on a high-profile media tour here in the US about that same time putting the focus on other companies and their privacy policies compared to how seriously Apple treats it. Connected?
    edited December 2015
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