HONG KONG — Extensive efforts by Apple and different Western tech companies to curtail their enterprise with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine have raised a query for product customers in China: Could the identical factor occur there?
Much of Chinese customers’ concern has been centered on Apple, which like Google, Microsoft and different tech giants moved shortly to curb its Russia enterprise after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The firm has stopped product gross sales and exports, restricted providers like Apple Pay and eliminated the Russian state news shops RT News and Sputnik News from the Apple Store exterior Russia.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in addition to the worldwide response, have been intently watched in Asia, the place there are long-standing tensions between China and the self-ruling island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. Chinese chief Xi Jinping has mentioned “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable and has not dominated out using drive to attain it, although the Taiwanese authorities says there aren’t any indicators of imminent assault.
Chinese officers reject any comparability between Taiwan and Ukraine, saying solely Ukraine is an impartial nation. But some on-line commenters in China, the place social media is dominated by nationalist and pro-Russian sentiment, have criticized Apple’s actions in Russia and mentioned China ought to put together itself for related ways.
“If one day China finally decides to liberate Taiwan, who can guarantee that our own iPhones won’t get deactivated?” one person requested on Zhihu, a Chinese social media platform much like Quora.
Experts say it could be tough for Apple to stroll away from China, which is a vital manufacturing heart for the corporate in addition to its third-largest market after the United States and Europe.
“It is a very different story than what is happening in Russia,” mentioned Kendra Schaefer, head of tech analysis at Trivium, a coverage analysis group primarily based in Beijing.
Schaefer identified that Chinese rules require Apple and different companies to retailer Chinese clients’ information on servers contained in the nation.
“The question would be, does pulling out of China mean that Apple not only loses its customers, but all of its customer data completely?” she mentioned.
Apple didn’t reply to emailed requests for remark.
Before the struggle in Ukraine, China was already pursuing a nationwide technique of “tech independence,” emphasizing indigenous innovation and the recruitment of abroad expertise. Xi has harassed its significance lately as each the Trump and Biden administrations have tightened U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech giants like Huawei and ZTE that they deem threats to nationwide safety.
“The U.S. sanctions on Huawei and ZTE during the Sino-U.S. trade war already abruptly awoke Chinese policymakers about the importance of technological self-sufficiency,” Angela Zhang, director of the Center for Chinese Law on the University of Hong Kong, mentioned in an emailed response to questions.
But Zhang mentioned it may take a long time for China to catch up with the United States and Taiwan within the manufacturing of semiconductors and different important parts of digital gadgets.
“It is also very costly, if not impossible, to achieve complete self-sufficiency of many hardcore technologies, which involve a very long and complicated supply chain,” she added.
Russia’s rising isolation from companies like Apple has added to requires China’s tech independence from the West, which can be known as the “great decoupling.”
One commenter on Weibo, China’s equal of Twitter, famous his reliance on Apple’s cloud storage service.
“Now I’m really worried that if anything happened, a company like Apple would deactivate my phone and my data,” he mentioned.
“The great decoupling is inevitable,” he added.