“Chinese nationalists are reportedly taking to boycotts and destruction of emblematic U.S. consumer goods, like the iPhone, to protest an unfavorable UN decision over disputed territory in the South and East China Sea,” Mike Wuerthele reports for AppleInsider.
“Videos circulating on social media depict protesters wearing patriotic apparel and smashing iPhones in protest,” Wuerthele reports. “China’s ruling Communist Party spoke through the People’s Daily newspaper and demanded ‘rational patriotism’ in response to the protests, which appear to be mostly undertaken by college-aged citizens.”
“‘The Chinese public, as optimistic and positive as they are, are deeply patriotic and nationalistic, especially people who are younger,’ said James Roy of the research firm China Market Research Group,” Wuerthele reports. “Apple is one of the brands that is ‘just very closely associated with the United States, and you are seeing people picking the closest symbol they can think of to demonstrate against,’ according to Roy.”
Read more in the full article here.
“State media have fanned public anger with a torrent of criticism of last week’s ruling by a U.N. tribunal, which found no legal basis for Beijing’s claim to most of the South China Sea,” Joe McDonald reports for The Associated Press.
“An Apple spokeswoman responded to a request for comment by pointing to CEO Tim Cook’s positive comments in April about the company’s future in China,” McDonald reports. “Cook said Apple was ‘really optimistic’ and planned to open five more stores in China during the current quarter for a total of 40.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If only human IQs were 10 points higher across the board. God’s cruel joke.
Ummmm, if you are going to smash that iPhone, may I have it? A free backup phone wont’t hurt….
They already paid for them..we got more..to sell..😃
The obvious irony is that the iPhone is actually MADE in China! Physically, it’s much more Chinese than American. Oh well, it’s their money… (maybe they’re insured 🙂 )
Exactly; for Chinese smashing iPhones is incredibly pointless.
Well, they are pretty darn stupid people.
They’re Fake iPhones
Indeed so! No Chinaman would smash a true iPhone. All of them are cheap knockoffs and a paid government stunt at that!
EXPENSIVE TEMPER TANTRUM
The more you smash, the more Apple sells to replace them… 🙂 It does not hurt Apple when you destroy an iPhone that was already sold. Morons…
Makes… no… sense. They could have bought an American flag and done all sorts of stuff to it if they don’t like America. The flag is a true representative of America. The iPhone isn’t.
It’s like a monk setting himself on fire in protest. Like, why? Just to prove a point.
Apple should move the factories to another country and see if they prefer that.
Sorry but China is out of control and it’s time to start weaning our way off China’s imports.
The most important point in this whole story is that the unfavorable decision was made at the United Nations, not by the United States. The iPhone is not owned by the United Nations. Nor was the United States exerting any pressure on the ICJ over this decision. The UN tribunal, with judges from various countries, came to their decision in a quite transparent way. The Chinese didn’t like it and decided that it was the Americans’ fault. Talk about deeply confused….
It’s always America’s fault.
It’s getting harder and harder to tell Democrat and Communist protesters apart.
Ho hum. Yet another cultural revolution in the making.
Better a purge of iPhones than people, methinks.
Methinks the real reason for the purge is that they cannot penetrate iOS’s security and listen in to what people are saying about them—read no back doors.
Hawaiians should be doing the same thing. I love Apple, don’t get me wrong, but, as I have always said, they are based in a country that has no respect for international law. The US invaded my islands and these wrongs still haven’t been repaired. I hope things will work out between the Kingdom and the US.
Nearly every culture, people, tribe, or clan can bitch and moan that someone took their land away which they took from someone else who had it before them. Take a number, fella.
As long as they pay for them first.
“The Chinese public, as optimistic and positive as they are, are deeply patriotic and nationalistic, especially people who are younger”
There is no optimistic public. You think what the Chinese government tells you to think or you wind up as a Falun Gong organ donor.