Apple CEO Tim Cook meets China’s information technology minister as Beijing demands app store compliance

Cook said Apple will continue to support its supply chain partners, and will create a better ecosystem for developers in China, according to MIIT
In August, the ministry issued a notice requiring all apps in China to register with Chinese authorities by the end of March 2024

Apple

Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Published: 6:30pm, 20 Oct 2023

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Apple chief executive Tim Cook met China’s information technology minister on his second trip to the country this year after the regulator demanded that all apps on the mainland, including those on the US firm’s App Store, be vetted by authorities.

In a meeting on Thursday with Jin Zhuanglong, who heads the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Cook said Apple will continue to support its supply chain partners in China and help them grow, and that it will create a better ecosystem for local developers, according to a statement from the ministry.

In August, the MIIT issued a notice requiring all apps in China to “register” with mainland authorities by the end of March 2024. Apple later updated its app store rules asking app developers to obtain proper Chinese licensing before they could be available for downloads, a move that fanned concerns that domestic consumers’ access to foreign apps would be denied.

The ministry’s statement about Cook did not mention the new app rules.

According to the statement, Cook said Apple would actively be involved in China’s high-quality development and contribute to building an eco-friendly and intelligent manufacturing industry in the country.

Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Chinese subcontractor Luxshare Precision Industry Co on October 18. Photo: Weibo

Jin said in the meeting that he hoped Apple would continue to invest in China, and achieve a “win-win” by taking part in the industrial upgrade of the country. He also noted China would further open up to the global economy as it recently announced the removal of restrictions against foreign investment in the manufacturing industry.

Cook’s meeting with the tech official followed his visit on Wednesday to manufacturing facilities run by Luxshare Precision Industry Co, a major Apple AirPods supplier that has also won iPhone 15 orders, and was more recently given work to assemble the Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

The tech boss’s low-key visit to China was made public when he spoke at an Apple Store in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, last week. Cook told reporters that he was excited about the work Chinese-based developers have done on apps for the company’s Vision Pro headset, according to a report on Tuesday by state media China Daily.

Cook’s latest visit underscores the importance of mainland China, which has the world’s biggest internet user population and largest smartphone market, as Apple’s manufacturing hub and major overseas market.

It also came as the latest iteration of Apple’s iPhone is facing stiff competition in the premium segment of the country’s smartphone market.

“China’s headline numbers for the [iPhone] 15 series are in the red, and this is a reflection of the broader decline in consumer spending [in the country],” said Counterpoint Research analyst Mengmeng Zhang in a report published on Monday.

The first 17 days of iPhone 15 sales were down 4.5 per cent in China compared to the launch of the iPhone 14 last year, according to data from Counterpoint.

In addition, the iPhone 15 is competing with a resurgent Huawei Technologies, which recently released its new Mate 60 Pro and Mate 60 Pro+ 5G handsets that are powered by an advanced, made-in-China chip, igniting patriotic fervour among local consumers.

Cook’s last trip to China was a week-long whistle-stop tour in March, when he met Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and other top officials as part of a delegation of C-level executives and scholars from overseas who attended the government-organised China Development Forum in Beijing.