China says “No!” to Apple products in government agencies

posted by Peter K.

Aug 06, 2014, 4:40 AM

China says “No!” to Apple products in government agencies

From this day onward, Apple will have a pretty hard time penetrating Chinese government structures and agencies, as the most populous country in the world has prohibited the purchase and use of all of Cupertino's products. The ban has been made official by the National Development and Reform Commission of China and the reasons behind it are the country's fears and doubts that Western hardware might be used for government spying and the uncovering of state secrets thanks to their location-tracking abilities.

All of Apple's devices, including all renditions of the iPhone and the iPad, are now unapproved by government employees. Interestingly enough, said Apple products reportedly made it to the draft of the approved devices list back in June, but its final version is devoid of them.

This is not the first time China has turned its back to US-made technology, as Edward Snowden's disclosures about NSA's purported spying habits has multiplied China's fears and that the USA might be trying to get hold of their statewide secrets. Several months ago, it was confirmed that the NSA has spied on Huawei, one of the largest local smartphone manufacturers, which greatly unsettled China's government agencies.

Neither the local branch of Apple, nor the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission have commented on the matter yet, but Cupertino claimed multiple times that it has never allowed any government institution to retrieve information from its servers and never will.

source: Reuters

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17 Comments

17. javy108

Posts: 1004; Member since: Jul 27, 2014

Great for China.

posted on Aug 07, 2014, 10:16 PM 0

16. ManusImperceptus

Posts: 724; Member since: Jun 10, 2014

Hey, a thief will believe everyone steals...

posted on Aug 07, 2014, 12:42 AM 0

15. -box-

Posts: 3991; Member since: Jan 04, 2012

"US-made technology"?! They're MADE in China (mostly, some in Brazil, and one small line of mac pros are assembled in the U.S.). US-owned is more accurate. Plus china has millions of other phones being made there, many for intra-national consumption.

posted on Aug 07, 2014, 12:23 AM 0

11. JunitoNH

Posts: 1946; Member since: Feb 15, 2012

This, has nothing to do with Apple or any other company. Simply, China knows the know hows of espionage, and don't want the tables turn on them. http://www.phonearena.com/news/Former-CIA-chief-has-seen-hard-evidence-of-Huawei-spying-on-behalf-of-China_id45500

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 9:02 AM 0

10. meanestgenius

Posts: 23049; Member since: May 28, 2014

Well, looks like there's one place (an entire country that is!) where the Apple-IBM duo won't be selling their "enterprise solutions".

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 8:34 AM 0

9. superfans

Posts: 155; Member since: Jul 30, 2012

but phone like xiaomi or huawei isn't safe too

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 6:43 AM 1

8. N-fanboy

Posts: 543; Member since: Jan 12, 2013

You gotta love the chinease

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 6:29 AM 0

7. BigBoss10

Posts: 280; Member since: Aug 31, 2012

Good decision... Apple you'RE FIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRED!!!!!!!!!! :D

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 6:12 AM 1

6. TruthSpeaker unregistered

Another example of the irony of the NSA, initially being used to support American commercial interest, an ultimately doing the opposite.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 5:19 AM 0

5. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

NSA....making the USA safe .... from profits.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 5:10 AM 3

4. Lt.Green

Posts: 397; Member since: Mar 13, 2014

...enters Blackberry.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 5:09 AM 4

3. sip1995

Posts: 1771; Member since: Feb 07, 2014

Tech giants in USA should blame and sue NSA, cuz they're losing ground because of the stupid N$A sh1t...

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 5:09 AM 5

12. AfterShock

Posts: 4147; Member since: Nov 02, 2012

I agree somewhat. They have tainted NA OEM.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 9:08 AM 0

2. RebelwithoutaClue unregistered

"Cupertino claimed multiple times that it has never revealed any government institution to retrieve information from its servers and never will." Oh please, like the NSA never has retrieved information from their server.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 5:00 AM 6

1. engineer-1701d unregistered

ha ha

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 4:47 AM 4

13. The-Sailor-Man

Posts: 1095; Member since: Mar 25, 2014

Do not laugh! US Big Brothers(MS-windows, Google-android, Apple-iOS, plus Facebook) actually control the ppl of whole World , with their "back-doors" given open to CIA, NSA, FBI....and so. They will not give this total dominance to be broken. That's why they use any dirty methods to destroy Samsung , (because Samsung scare the sh...out of them, by getting bigger and bigger ). Like they did with Nokia.

posted on Aug 06, 2014, 10:59 AM 0

14. androtaku

Posts: 246; Member since: Dec 12, 2013

i wonder if the rest of the economy giant of the world say no to "made in china" product. shift the production to brazil,indonesia, mexico and anywere else