HONG KONG — The extensive efforts of Apple and other Western tech companies in order to reduce their business with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine have raised the question for product users from China: Could the exact same thing happen there?
Many Chinese consumers are concerned about Apple. Apple, along with Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants, moved quickly to reduce its Russia business following the invasion of Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin on February 24. Apple has stopped product exports and sales, and limited services such as Apple Pay. It also removed Russian state news outlets RT News (and Sputnik News) from its Apple Store.
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The global response to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and its immediate aftermath have been closely monitored in Asia. There are long-standing tensions between China, Taiwan, and Taiwan, the self-ruling island that Beijing claims as its territory. Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, has stated that “reunification with Taiwan” is inevitable. He has not ruled it out using force to do so. However the Taiwanese government claims there are no imminent threats.
Officials in China reject any comparisons between Taiwan and Ukraine, stating that only Ukraine is independent. Some Chinese online commentators have criticised Apple’s actions regarding Russia, pointing out that China should be prepared for similar tactics.
One user asked Zhihu, a Chinese social-media platform that is similar to Quora, “If China finally decides liberate Taiwan, who can assure that our iPhones will not get deactivated?”
Experts believe it would be difficult to leave China for Apple, which is the third largest market for Apple after Europe and the United States.
Kendra Schaefer is the head of tech research at Trivium (a Beijing-based policy research group).
Schaefer noted that Chinese regulations require Apple to store Chinese customers’ data on servers within the country.
She said, “Is Apple losing its customers and all its customer data if it pulls out of China?”
Apple didn’t respond to email requests for comment.
China had a national strategy for “tech independence” before the conflict in Ukraine. This included promoting indigenous innovation and recruiting overseas talent. Xi stressed the importance of this strategy in recent years, as both Trump and Biden administrations tightened U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech giants such as Huawei and ZTE they deem to be threats to national security.
“The U.S. sanctions against Huawei and ZTE during Sino-U.S. Trade War already abruptly awoke Chinese politicalmakers about the importance of technological independence,” Angela Zhang, director of Center for Chinese Law at University of Hong Kong said in an email response to questions.
Zhang stated that China could take many decades to catch up with Taiwan and the United States in manufacturing semiconductors and other components for electronic devices.
She said that it is difficult, if not impossible to attain complete self-sufficiency with many hardcore technologies. This requires a long and complex supply chain.
Russia’s isolation from Apple and other companies has led to increased calls for China to be tech independent from the West. This is sometimes called the “great decoupling.”
One Weibo commenter, China’s equivalent to Twitter, mentioned his dependence on Apple’s cloud storage services.
He stated, “Now, I’m really concerned that if something happened to my phone and data, a company such as Apple would deactivate it.”
