Apple Pulls Hong Kong Protest App From App Store Following Chinese Criticism [Updated]

[s54]

Make sure to boycott all Chinese products if you really believe they are wrong. I would say post on here telling us about it but that would be impossible

Funny you should bring that up.

While it's certainly impossible to boycott every Chinese-made product, I have started to boycott them years ago, believe it or not.

I can give you a ton of examples, from the clothes I buy to the pans I cook with, but I'm not going to bore you with it. The first thing I look at is where a product is made. Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that even if the product claims to have been made elsewhere, it doesn't include parts or pieces that were manufactured in China. However, I do think that every little bit helps. If everyone did that, then yes, little by little, China would fold and go back to its roots.

Unfortunately, our society relies too heavily on cheap goods. We live in an Amazon era where cheap = good. I'm of a different mentality, which was instilled in me by my father: if you buy cheap, you're going to buy twice. So while nearly every non-Chinese-made product is a lot more expensive, I really don't mind paying extra for better quality. The hardest part has been boycotting electronics, of course, since nearly all are made in China today.

If there was an American-made smartphone that can even remotely mimic the iPhone, I'd buy it, even at 3x the price.

 

[d0nK]

Bowing to China Communism. Clap, Clap, Clap...

 

[jonnyb098]

Apple and the NBA bend the knee to china.... Who knew they had so much power over US corporations.

When all our products are made there what did you think would happen???

 

[unclemax]

they are not dictating, china didn't put a gun to NBA or Apple's head and tell them to do and say, NBA and apple did it out of their own free will. cause they know otherwise they will lose tons of market in china otherwise. should they sacrifice marketshare and piss off shareholders for a battle that they have nothing to gain from?

hk was given back to china after 100 years of british occupation. as far as i see it its a china's own internal affair. these folks in HK knows their days are numbered since china will assume full control by 2047. the most we can do is help them get political asylum to the west. challenging china on something like this is too little too late.

I concur, Apple is just being real about the situation. Besides, from what I understand there’s a web version of the app which is still accessible to protesters. Also, as a westerner living in China I would hate for Apple to be punished, which the CCP could easily do had Apple chosen to grandstand. At least now I can choose to use iMessages and FaceTime to keep in touch with my loved ones. I cannot choose Telegram, or Google Talk, etc, since they are banned and VPN isn't always reliable. The day Apple services get banned in China (iMessages, FaceTime, Music, App Store, etc) is going to be a very dark day for me.

 

[DevNull0]

As I thought. No one.

It's called the tragedy of the commons. If anyone or any 100,000 people did do that, they'd only be hurting themselves a lot more than they hurt Apple and leave Apple with the real laugh.

The fact that someone as pro-Apple as you is making the taunt in such a condescending way shows that you get it on some level.

The correct thing to do here, is to pressure our elected politicians to punish Apple in a meaningful way. That's also a freedom the Chinese people don't have.

 

[Kobayagi]

We've probably seen this by now:

 

[unclemax]

Great! Now you want the whole HK to move to US? Good job buddy!

Why not? The US (and other Western liberal democracies) should put their money where their mouth is. Every Chinese citizen not from Taiwan should be eligible for asylum on political grounds, if he/she chooses to ask for it. But somehow I don’t see that happening.

 

[Techwatcher]

It's a tough call, I think they did the right thing as controversial as it is

Nothing about this is a tough call. What's crazy is Trump's super tough stance on China that everyone was crying about now makes him look like a prophet. China has been handling USA for years and people are just now realizing it.

 

[mauka]

If nothing changes, the end game for Apple and every other company chasing money in China will be the loss of all their IP and zero market share. This will happen when communist government subsidies make Chinese “competitors“ the only choice for the Chinese market.

 

[russell_314]

Funny you should bring that up.

While it's certainly impossible to boycott every Chinese-made product, I have started to boycott them years ago, believe it or not.

I can give you a ton of examples, from the clothes I buy to the pans I cook with, but I'm not going to bore you with it. The first thing I look at is where a product is made. Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that even if the product claims to have been made elsewhere, it doesn't include parts or pieces that were manufactured in China. However, I do think that every little bit helps. If everyone did that, then yes, little by little, China would fold and go back to its roots.

Unfortunately, our society relies too heavily on cheap goods. We live in an Amazon era where cheap = good. I'm of a different mentality, which was instilled in me by my father: if you buy cheap, you're going to buy twice. So while nearly every non-Chinese-made product is a lot more expensive, I really don't mind paying extra for better quality. The hardest part has been boycotting electronics, of course, since nearly all are made in China today.

If there was an American-made smartphone that can even remotely mimic the iPhone, I'd buy it, even at 3x the price.

You can try to boycott China when convenient but to actually do it you wouldn’t own any electronic device or even an automobile. Made in USA often means assembled in the USA using Chinese made components

 

[ouimetnick]

Funny you should bring that up.

While it's certainly impossible to boycott every Chinese-made product, I have started to boycott them years ago, believe it or not.

I can give you a ton of examples, from the clothes I buy to the pans I cook with, but I'm not going to bore you with it. The first thing I look at is where a product is made. Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that even if the product claims to have been made elsewhere, it doesn't include parts or pieces that were manufactured in China. However, I do think that every little bit helps. If everyone did that, then yes, little by little, China would fold and go back to its roots.

Unfortunately, our society relies too heavily on cheap goods. We live in an Amazon era where cheap = good. I'm of a different mentality, which was instilled in me by my father: if you buy cheap, you're going to buy twice. So while nearly every non-Chinese-made product is a lot more expensive, I really don't mind paying extra for better quality. The hardest part has been boycotting electronics, of course, since nearly all are made in China today.

If there was an American-made smartphone that can even remotely mimic the iPhone, I'd buy it, even at 3x the price.

You would be willing to spend $3000 on a 64GB iPhone 11 Pro?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Not a good look, although Apple’s stuck with two lousy options.

What, Apple's margins aren't high enough that they can afford to make the iPhone literally anywhere in the world?

In a battle between right and wrong, Apple chose wrong. They're no better than IBM siding with the Nazis in World War 2 (that's an actual thing that happened. IBM tries to ignore it.)

 

[480951]

I’m really disappointed and disgusted at Apple over this decision. I don’t buy any of their campaigns anymore (privacy, human rights, etc) they will turn on a dime if it means an extra buck. I’m completely naive and dumb for actually believing they stood for something other then money.

 

[GeneralChang]

Ah, right, there it is. I was expecting that to take a bit longer, actually...

 

[s54]

You can try to boycott China when convenient but to actually do it you wouldn’t own any electronic device or even an automobile. Made in USA often means assembled in the USA using Chinese made components

I disagree. It's not about boycotting everything. Like I mentioned before, it's not possible to boycott certain things, like electronics. But if everyone boycotted as much as they could, then little by little, China would feel it.
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You would be willing to spend $3000 on a 64GB iPhone 11 Pro?

If that 64GB iPhone 11 Pro was made mostly in the US, then yes, I would spend $3k on it. No problem. I'm on iPhone 8 now anyway, which means I haven't upgraded in 3 years.

 

[pika2000]

What, Apple's margins aren't high enough that they can afford to make the iPhone literally anywhere in the world?

In a battle between right and wrong, Apple chose wrong. They're no better than IBM siding with the Nazis in World War 2 (that's an actual thing that happened. IBM tries to ignore it.)

It's not that Apple doesn't want to make things anywhere else in the world. Foxconn and Pegatron, the factories making everybody's electronics including Apple's, have factories in countries like India and Brazil. However, it takes time for the labors to be as skillful as the Chinese.

Take the original iPhone under Jobs. Well, the iPhone originally had plastic screen, and close to the announcement date, Jobs found out that it scratched up easily, and he didn't like it. So he wanted the iPhone to use gorilla glass. Foxconn basically had to wake up their whole workforce at night to redo the iPhone screens so it could be ready for shipment. You simply cannot do something like that in any other countries.

Yes, it is sad that China is holding the world on its balls through manufacturing. But ironically, Trump's trade war with China is waking everybody up bit by bit, and we will see expansions of manufacturing to other countries (eg. India, Vietnam, etc).

 

[Darryl.Jenks]

Watch what happens when push comes to shove over Apple's much-ballyhooed privacy stance.

The number of corporations that care about you as anything other than a potential customer remains zero. To be fair, they're not supposed to care about you. But Apple's incessant virtue signalling is - and always has been - just an ad campaign.

 

[1146331]

Watch what happens when push comes to shove over Apple's much-ballyhooed privacy stance.

The number of corporations that care about you as anything other than a potential customer remains zero. To be fair, they're not supposed to care about you. But Apple's incessant virtue signalling is - and always has been - just an ad campaign.

Which makes it more annoying, because many Apple users are just hipster SJW's that don't actually stand for any cause but like to virtue signal to be cool.

When it comes time to actually stand against a repressive murderous regime, Apple and SJWs keep quiet and buckle.

 

[bigjnyc]

When all our products are made there what did you think would happen???

And you think that only benefits us? They are benefiting from hundreds of thousands of jobs, money for their exports, etc.....

 

[pika2000]

Bowing to China Communism. Clap, Clap, Clap...

Not bowing to China communism, but respecting a sovereign country's rules and laws, even if you disagree with it.

Unlike the SJWs who just yell and scream on the internet, Apple is a real publicly traded business that have to follow rules and regulations wherever they do business. Take the UAE. Tinder is blocked there. Take Indonesia, Tumblr is banned there. On and on.

Oh, by the way, you can just go to hkmap.live and voila, you can have the map on a web browser. No need an app. And every smartphone has a web browser.
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Not a good look, although Apple’s stuck with two lousy options.

Tap Safari, type in hkmap.live and voila.

 

[ilikewhey]

How is that not dictating?

Since we both agree that this is about money and that they will lose tons of marketshare in China, both NBA and Apple were actually forced to comply. And yes, that's like putting a gun to NBA and Apple's head. How is it not? - Since we both know that money talks and that this is all about money and that money always wins, you can conclude that China is dictating what both NBA and Apple should do.

China is rich. Very rich. They dictate what nearly every company should or shouldn't do, whether right or wrong, that's completely irrelevant.



Thanks for the history lesson. I think every level-headed person already knew that. But I fail to see your point.

Did anyone here argue that HK is not part of China? What does that have to do with supporting the HK movement? - Maybe you don't fully understand what the HK people want. They are not anti-Chinese. They are anti-CCP. Big difference.

And just because you feel that this is "China's own internal affair" doesn't mean that others can't voice their opinion on it. There are many so-called "internal affairs" in China, many of which violate simple human rights. Like that of placing all Augers in modern day concentration camps. Any rational being has the right to condone this and speak up on the matter.

because they have the option not to do it. yes they will lose money and marketshare. but ultimately they can choose to stick to their moral principle and not take the chinese money.

there are alot of protesters are arguing hk is not part of china. they even go far as arguing their passport is different and they have their own independent gov't.

if apple and NBA wants to piss off mainland china, why should mainland china keep doing business with someone who keeps bad mouthing them.

 

[frostiex]

I am loosing my faith in YOU Apple..........

 

[pika2000]

I concur, Apple is just being real about the situation. Besides, from what I understand there’s a web version of the app which is still accessible to protesters. Also, as a westerner living in China I would hate for Apple to be punished, which the CCP could easily do had Apple chosen to grandstand. At least now I can choose to use iMessages and FaceTime to keep in touch with my loved ones. I cannot choose Telegram, or Google Talk, etc, since they are banned and VPN isn't always reliable. The day Apple services get banned in China (iMessages, FaceTime, Music, App Store, etc) is going to be a very dark day for me.

This.
People are crying as if there's zero access to the service, which is completely false. People seem to forget about, oh I don't know, THE INTERNET.

 

[Marekul]

Make sure to boycott all Chinese products if you really believe they are wrong. I would say post on here telling us about it but that would be impossible

Don’t worry, we do. Could get every iPhone model I want for free, but instead am on old used SEs that get returned.
Would love to have a larger screen and am sometimes tempted to upgrade to some used iPhone 8... couple of them in the drawer in the office next to me, but Apple always makes sure to remind me not to.
You are really underestimating the value of positiv brand perception.
It’s what kept Apple alive for quite some time.

 

[5105973]

You would be willing to spend $3000 on a 64GB iPhone 11 Pro?

Before we drained all of our IP and manufacturing off to China, it is true that things were more relatively expensive and took a larger chunk of our income to afford. I remember this era. It was the one I spent my childhood and teen years and part of my early adulthood in.

We used to have to save diligently to buy the appliances and gadgets we wanted. They were relatively expensive. Most of the time they were very well made, so it was money well spent.

It wasn’t utopia. Sometimes unions protected shoddy workmanship. We did have to contend with pollution. I remember a great deal more haze and smog in my youth. And the specter of increased automation was always looming over the workforce

What did we get by moving production to China? We did not really solve the pollution problems. We just have people over there living with air unfit to breathe. But that pollution still affects the environment as a whole. We just can’t regulate it at all now.

We haven’t solved the problem of increased automation displacing workers. We just offloaded that problem to China to contend with. Humanity irrespective of nationality will have to reckon with that eventually. Meanwhile we hastened the demise of the blue collar middle class and gave them essentially no chance to transition. Factories were shut abruptly whereas automation was something we could have transitioned our populace to adjust to.

What we did was bleed our IP and our money to empower China into doing what it does so well now, which is influence every free country to bow to its collective.