Government officials in China asked to shift from iPhone

Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources to claim that China has made a push to prohibit the use of iPhones in government offices. It is reported that these directives are being communicated to the employees through meetings and via official online groups. It is being said that this change was being prompted informally even before 2020. Huawei is said to be the preferred option among employees. 

Security concerns are being stated as the reason for the bans. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc had stated in March during his visit to China that the country contributes to 19% of the collections for the company. Apart from being a market for its products, China contributes in a major way to the company in terms of the manufacturing process. 

A similar set of restrictions have been placed by the government of the United States of America (USA) on Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE. In November 2022, the Biden government had disallowed telecommunication equipment from the companies. They too had stated security concerns. 

This has however had a negative impact on the stock prices of Apple. It experienced a decline of 3.6% after the report was published. This was the steepest decline for the company in over a month’s time.