“Apple Inc. has come out swinging in its pitched battle with the government on its home turf,” David Pierson reports for The Los Angeles Times. “But when it comes to its second-largest market, China, the Cupertino, Calif., company has been far more accommodating… [and] Beijing is increasingly tightening the screws on foreign technology companies, having introduced strict laws aimed at policing the Internet and digital hardware.”
“The environment will get even tougher, Apple says, if the FBI prevails in seeking a so-called backdoor to Farook’s phone,” Pierson reports. “That could set a precedent for China’s authoritarian leaders to demand the same in a country where Apple has never publicly defied orders.”
“The last time Apple was in the crosshairs of Chinese negative opinion was after the Edward Snowden National Security Agency leak in late 2013. Chinese state-run media began raising national security questions about the iPhone’s location-tracking feature. Communist party cadres and other officials were also urged to ditch their Apple devices,” Pierson reports. “The controversy underscored how quickly nationalistic sentiment in China can turn on a foreign brand. Amid the furor, Apple announced it was shifting local user data onto China-based servers.”
“‘Whatever data is on Chinese servers is susceptible to confiscation or even cryptanalysis,’ a sort of code cracking, said Jonathan Zdziarski, a leading expert in iPhone security,” Pierson reports. “But it’s not just the servers that pose a risk. Apple’s source codes could be stolen from one of its Chinese factories or during government security audits. ‘Most of the hardware tools that have hacked iPhones in the past all came out of China, and that’s probably for a reason,’ Zdziarski said. ‘”It’d be foolish to think that Apple could form a safe and healthy relationship with the Chinese government that didn’t put the U.S. at some level of higher risk.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The People’s Republic of China is always troubling, as are all one-party communist states where freedom is tightly restricted. As someone with a bust of RFK and a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. in his office, Tim Cook must be wracked with internal conflict daily at having to do business in China at all, must less having it as his manufacturing headquarters and #1 market.
You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.— Apple CEO Tim Cook
SEE ALSO:
In Republican debate, candidates back U.S. government over Apple – February 26, 2016
Donald Trump calls for Apple boycott over San Bernardino terrorist iPhone encryption – February 19, 2016
Obama administration: We’re only demanding Apple hack just one iPhone – February 17, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook lashes out at Obama administration over encryption, bemoans White House lack of leadership – January 13, 2016
Obama administration wants access to smartphones – December 15, 2015
Hillary Clinton wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ to cure encryption; Snowden, Andreessen mock – December 21, 2015
Obama administration’s calls for backdoors into encrypted communications echo Clinton-era key escrow fiasco – December 14, 2015
Eric Schmidt-backed startup stealthily working to put Hillary Clinton in the White House – October 9, 2015
Obama administration war against Apple just got uglier – July 31, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]