“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook is scheduled to attend China’s state-run internet conference next week, the most prominent executive from a U.S. company to participate in an event that promotes China’s vision of closely regulated cyberspace,” Yoko Kubota and Tripp Mickle report for The Wall Street Journal. “The annual World Internet Conference that kicks off Sunday in Wuzhen is organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the powerful internet bureau whose job includes censorship of content and blocking access to unapproved sites, including Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.”
“Mr. Cook joins the list of foreign executives and officials set to attend the internet conference, which includes Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai, Facebook Inc.’s Vice President Vaughan Smith, LinkedIn Corp.’s Co-Founder and Vice President Allan Blue and Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Harry Shum, according to the conference’s website,” Kubota and Mickle report. “Their presence at the state-led event highlights the importance they place on China and its massive consumer power, as they face a tough operating environment in a country where the Communist Party maintains tight control on communication tools.”
Kubota and Mickle report, “Behind the chilly environment in China for technology firms is a new cybersecurity law that went into force June 1. The law has imposed tougher standards on companies running internet platforms in the country as the government sought to block content that ‘endangers national security, national honor and interests.’
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The filament that Apple CEO Tim Cook, newly-minted recipient of the Newseum’s 2017 Free Expression Award, walks in China is increasingly tenuous.
SEE ALSO:
Skype vanishes from Apple’s App Store, other app stores in China – November 21, 2017
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy blast Apple CEO Tim Cook for removing VPN apps from App Store in China – October 20, 2017
Apple issues statement regarding removal of VPN apps from China App Store – July 31, 2017
Apple removes VPN apps from China App Store – July 29, 2017
Apple sets up China data center to meet new cybersecurity rules – July 12, 2017
Analyst: China iPhone sales are pivotal for Apple – June 26, 2017
In bid to improve censorship, China to summon Apple execs to discuss stricter App Store oversight – April 20, 2017
Will Apple CEO Tim Cook stand up to China over App Store censorship? – April 19, 2017
Beijing cyber regulators to summon Apple over live streaming apps – April 19, 2017
Apple goes on charm offensive in China with red iPhones and a visit by CEO Tim Cook – March 24, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook defends globalization, walks tightrope on privacy in rare public speech in China – March 18, 2017
Apple to spend $507 million to set up two more research centers, boost investment in in China – March 17, 2017
Apple removes New York Times apps from App Store in China at behest of Chinese government – January 4, 2017
China dethrones U.S. to become the largest market in the world for iOS App Store revenue – October 20, 2016
Apple to set up second R&D center in China – October 12, 2016
Apple’s first R&D Center in China will develop hardware, employ 500 – September 29, 2016
Apple CEO Cook ‘pretty confident’ of soon resuming movie and book sales in China – May 3, 2016
Apple’s biggest China problem: iPhone’s strong encryption – May 2, 2016
The New Yorker: What Apple has to fear from China – April 30, 2016
Carl Icahn out of Apple over worries about China’s ‘dictatorship’ government – April 29, 2016
China could slam door on Apple, says top global risk expert – April 25, 2016
China’s increasing censorship hits Apple, but Apple might punch back – April 22, 2016
China shutters Apple’s online book and movie services – April 22, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook joins Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ board of directors – April 6, 2016
Communist China. Where everything is state run.
It’s not much different now in US. Is it? Wait until Net Neutrality, or lack of neutrality, starts to bite.
Remember there are now 6 companies that control what you hear and see…… and all of then are aligned with the CIA, FBI, NSA etc. (aka the Deep State) and they really control your “democratically elected” figurehead presidents. There used to be 600, when once the US was the bastion of freedom.
Sorry to read you fell off your rocker …
“It’s not much different now in US. Is it?”
…go shoplift some sunglasses and report back to us.
fúcking dolt.
@ “Paul”:
Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex. All that he warned voters about has come true. However you have it exactly backwards. The pentagon’s endless wars are not directed by a group of bureaucrats hellbent on using military power to crush communism. All the puppets in DC are bankrolled by multinational corporations. Corporations that have spent the last 3 generations hollowing out US industry and propping up communist cheap labor providers like China.
What company is at the forefront of profiting by selling Chinese produced gadgets for high prices and stashing the money via shell companies in the Jersey Isles? I assure you it is not the US Army.
The US Army will, however, defend oil pipelines (ahem, “American Interests”) all over the world so Exxon can continue to make record profits year after year. What party is owned by the oil industry and has placed presidents and secretaries of state etc to ensure the taxpayers, not the oil industry, act as security services for them?
The REAL Paul, indeed …
Wow, all the conspiracy theorists have come out to play today. What, no connection to Comet Ping Pong?
with marketing, as they rebrand the internet to Inner-net.
“We all have to work to infuse technology with humanity, with our values.” Keep in mind, he’s saying this at the Chinese Conf on the Internet/Inner-net, to politicos that see govt as a centralized clamp. Mr. Cook, of which values to you speak? Mine, yours, the Politburo’s, the Chinese citizens?
He later used the word “decency” in the same context. Ass-kissing in this context and at this level is disingenuous as least, but it embodies a naive recklessness as it excuses Chi-com tyranny & exploitation on a grand scale and aligns me, you, and American citizenry with these “values.”
Only a wise & clever negotiator could enter into such talk with the hope of someday softening/opening such a govt. TC isn’t that person…just look at his past “success(es)” with “friendlies.” Another area where a dose of SJ’s ruthlessness is imperative.
Cook is a technocrat piece of shít, without principle or loyalty.
Like republican/russian puppet botvink, we see
One post equals ALL?
I have to say I never read your posts for non partisan facts fair to both sides. I enjoy them for the clever promotion of Democratic Dogma you are blind and addicted to, fine.
BTW, “all the conspiracy theorists” you mention mostly amount to you and Paul …
If you think that NBC is controlled by the Deep State, or even that somebody who believes that particular “alternative fact” isn’t a conspiracy theorist, more power to you.
As for partisanship, I am simply not the sort of Republican that you are. Like Jeff Flake, the intellectual heir to Barry Goldwater and a founder of the Tea Party, I am not willing to support a pedophile, even if I believed the accusations were true, over a Democrat. I’m pretty sure that my sort of Republican doesn’t molest little girls. What about your sort of Republican?
Barry Goldwater wouldn’t piss on Jeff Flake if his ass was on fire…your revisionist history gets a little old, comrade.
Barry Goldwater recruited Jeff Flake to run his foundation, worked with him for years, and urged him to run for public office. I will trust Sen. Goldwater’s judgement over somebody who would apparently vote for a pedophile Republican over any Democrat.
Jeff Flake is as phony as you are…that is precisely why he is not running again..he cannot get re-elected.
Off topic and deflecting again I see, with the NBC comment to name one.
No way do I believe you are a Republican in any shape or form. You do not even qualify for RINO because you demonize the right, EVERY POST, EVERYDAY! And you never criticize Democrats. You support PC, social justice and defend all Democrat identity groups, but a big fat ZERO defending Republican groups.
Give it up already, sheesh …
The modern GOP positions are largely indefensible, GoeB. Massive tax cuts when the economy is in decent shape and the country is running annual deficits in the $600B range? A return to failed trickle-down economic policies when concentration of wealth is even more skewed to the 1%? Destruction of medicare, health care, environmental protection, attacks on national parks and monuments, lip service to supporting the working class, an Administration with a revolving door policy on its own appointees, a POTUS that is pretty much incoherent and endlessly lies, …what exactly are we supposed to defend??
If the Republican Party retained its commitment to responsible taxation and spending, then I could provide some support and defense. But increasing military spending while decreasing taxes, especially on the rich, is ridiculous.
I fully support reasonable and logical tax reform. But, under the current conditions, tax reform should either be revenue-neutral or modestly revenue positive – not a major tax cut. I support eliminating deductions/loopholes and reducing the corporate tax rate, but to 25%…not to 20%. I support increasing the inheritance tax exemption from $5.5M to $10M, but not phasing it out completely.
The news is talking about the $1T to $1.5T that the GOP tax cut will cost this country in terms of additional debt. What they fail to emphasize is that this will be *in addition to* something on the order of $6T in entrenched deficit spending over the next decade. If you are a true Republican, you will see the fundamental flaws in the proposed tax cut strategy. If it passes, it will push this country even more quickly towards insolvency, and the self-proclaimed party of fiscal responsibility will be to blame.
For the umpteenth time, I’m a lifelong independent and most closely aligned with Libertarians these days.
Obviously everything in your post is cast in the “sky is falling” narrative and no good comes from Republicans, EVER. Got your extreme position loud and clear.
Lot of points you make are more false Democrat talking points than facts and that’s to be expected. I’ll only entertain one and good to see your’re now concerned about the national debt.
Where were you when Obama nearly doubled debt in eight years — MORE than ALL presidents before him COMBINED, hmmm?
If the Republicans spend and add just over 10% to the debt, compared to Obama, while helping out 75% of working families — that sounds like a good investment to me.
Unlike under the Obama stimulus where his chronies, unions, companies that were party loyalists reaped all the benefits — NOT the American people. Infrastructure pristine, top notch education, inexpensive gold star healthcare come of it? Yeah right.
When the tax cuts kick in over the next several years and dynamic scoring takes place a lot of naysayers will be eating crow …
where you have the freedom to do & think anything, until you don’t.
Aren’t the NBC (in US), ABC (in Oz) and BBC (in UK) media outlets state-run and paid for?
Right, because it is so obvious that NBC News (NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC) produces nothing but pro-Trump Administration propaganda.
/s
The outlets you mention produces nothing but anti-Trump Administration propaganda.
There, I fixed it for you …
Fact based news outlets do cut through the smokescreen that Trump spews on behalf of the Kochs and Putins of the world. Imagine how much better the world would be if people like you called out the 50% of the corruption your partisan faction is responsible for. Fucking hypocrite just like botfuck
As soon as someone puts Koch and Putin in charge of Trump, your fantasy bogeymen, are just that. You lose …
It is not “propaganda” when it is true, GoeB. If you could at least open up to the fact that Trump and his officials are fallible and that they can and have told lies, then we might be able to have a reasonable conversation. However, when you defend and support every action taken by the right and support and defend every candidate, no matter how vile they appear, then you are closed to reason.
You assert that others on this forum have never supported Republican groups, which is untrue. It may not happen that often, but I and others have supported GOP officials, groups, and policies when it was warranted.
In contract, you have been a straight, hyper-partisan Republican voice on this column for years. You attack others for your own failings. That is called hypocrisy, and that disease has infected far too many people in politics.
However, when you defend and support every action taken by the right and support and defend every candidate, no matter how vile they appear, then you are closed to reason.”
You should know better than to use ABSOLUTE statements directed toward ANYONE or ANYTHING. Has more to do with drama than fact.
I don’t defend anyone in any party when they are dead wrong.
You should remember that …
China’s American puppet visits his masters.
fawn all over the Supreme Leader and his comrades, or firmly tell them his most deeply held convictions about equal rights, freedom of speech/the press and religion?
I thought Cook was going to China, not Washington.
Oh my that’s funny, clever and confused.
Sad, but true.
The world’s most high profile SJW is totally neutered in China bowing to his masters that pour billions into Apple’s coffers.
And because the Apple board of directors blood is green, same old story. Feign outrage, accomplish nothing and go back to filling out deposit slips.
Yes, a bit cynical today, sorry …
GeoB,
You have identified a problem—the lack of democracy in China. You object to Apple’s response to that—creative engagement. As usual, you propose no alternative solution other than for Tim Cook to take steps that will destroy his company without helping a single Chinese citizen.
A couple of posts down this thread, I ask “What, exactly, do you want Tim Cook to do?” You refused to answer the question, just as you have refused to answer whether you would vote for a confirmed pedophile over a Democrat. I stand well within the historical mainstream of the Republican Party. You don’t even come close.
“A couple of posts down this thread, I ask “What, exactly, do you want Tim Cook to do?” You refused to answer the question …”
Ahhhh, you posed that question to Herself, not me.
Right back at you, what, exactly, do you want Tim Cook to do?
Here is a case to unmask social justice warriors as timid little men kowtowing to fat and pregnant markets.
What, exactly, do you want Tim Cook to do? Get Apple thrown out of China, which would shut down 90% of their manufacturing capacity for at least a couple of years? How would that help free expression in China? Alternatively, Cook can can try to engage the Chinese leadership in dialogue that might promote free expression while also keeping the company in business.
Tim Cook is doing exactly what his Board of Directors and his stockholders expect him to do—retain the vital China market. As for me, I expect nothing different. My remark was somewhat opaque but was aimed at the anti-SJW contingent who want Cook keelhauled for hypocrisy or venality. They can’t nail him on running the company into the ground—to the contrary, it’s highly profitable, despite any number of purported distractions and missteps. In my view, Cook is mainly guilty of two things: (1) not being Steve Jobs, and (2) not taking Steve Jobs’s advice never to ask what Steve Jobs would do. It’s a bitter feeling and one that I share. But it is too much to expect a dynasty to accurately reflect a founder’s vision, personality, and determination. Everything evolves, whether we like it or not.
“What, exactly, do you want Tim Cook to do?”
You have it backwards after reading the rest of your post.
What you are really saying is what, exactly, do you NOT want Tim Cook to do. And you pointed out the obvious not losing billions of bucks and 90% manufacturing capacity. Green is good.
What is glaringly ABSENT in all your posts, what is the role of Cook as the world’s most high profile SJW speaking in China, hmmm?
I expect your typical deflective response since you are incapable of a straight, white male, conservative answer …
Exactly right, Herself. Good to see you back …
I’ve missed both you and Txuser sparring. Had to spend some time back in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Enjoyed clopping along familiar trails and visiting old friends who laughed about me going rogue. Life is a beautiful and shining thing. 🐴🦉🐤🐷🐮
Yes, I missed your safe wisdom, as well. Trip sounds wonderful and I can see it your words a post full of life … ☺️
Sage wisdom, did not notice the autocorrect …
I’m sure they’ll be rolling out the Rainbow Carpet for him.
You all do recognize that homophobes are generally men who are uncertain about their own sexuality, don’t you?
No one except the ignorant should make fun of others’ sexuality, who depends on logic, art, computation, science, mathematics, engineering, economics or philosophy.
Try to imagine modern technology without Alan Turing.
Are you calling Manco a homophobe?
Yes or no will do …
I don’t know Manco. The comment about the Rainbow Carpet was homophobic. In my experience, people who make homophobic comments are homophobes, just like people who make racist comments are racists. If the cap fits, wear it.
…just like people who make idiotic comments are idiots.
Leave it to botfuck to demonstrate.
“I don’t know Manco”
That’s painfully obvious. But using the word “rainbow” didn’t stop you from a swift trial and conviction branding him instantly homophobic. That word is well used in and out of the gay community and is not homophobic in your obvious rush to judgement …
Hey Pipeline Timmy – might’ve been a better choice to stay in Cupertino and put some actual effort into fixing the ever growing list of stupid f$ckups that seem to be increasing in frequency and scope. The whole ‘it just works’ mantra is becoming a distant memory & the software bugs are getting to be pretty freaking embarrassing, not to mention dangerous in some cases.
As CEO you’re the captain – now fix your damn ship!
Have fun Mr. Cook. Boil in your own soup.