[Epoch Times December 08, 2021]On December 7, the paid internet media “The Information”, headquartered in San Francisco, California, exclusively disclosed that Apple CEO Tim Cook (Tim Cook), in 2016 The Chinese government signed a $275 billion secret investment agreement to “pacify threats that may hinder its equipment and services in China.”
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The report quoted an internal Apple document that was exclusively obtained, saying that in order to cancel a series of regulatory actions by the Chinese government against the company, Cook personally visited China several times in 2016 and reached a secret agreement with China. The country’s unparalleled success paved the way.”
In the past six years, Apple’s iPhone has become the second largest market after the United States-China’s best-selling smartphone, thanks in large part to CEO Cook.
The report pointed out that when China suddenly increased its supervision of Apple’s business that year, Cook went to China to “fire” and signed the five-year agreement during his first visit.
According to the “Information” report, the documents show that before Cook acted personally, Apple executives struggled to save the company’s relationship with Chinese officials; at that time, iPhone sales were a result of the Chinese government’s suppression and subsequent bad publicity. linear decrease.
According to the report, China believed at the time that Apple had not contributed enough to the local Chinese economy. Cook therefore lobbied China and promised officials that Apple will try its best to help develop China’s economic and technological strength through investment, business transactions, and worker training. Cook opened up some legal joints in China through compromise.
According to the report, Apple “in order to appease the Chinese authorities” announced in May 2016 that it would invest $1 billion in the startup Didi Chuxing to help the latter gain an advantage in the competition with Uber China.
“Reuters” quoted the original report as saying that as part of the agreement, Apple promised to use more components from Chinese suppliers in its equipment, signed agreements with Chinese software companies, entered into technical cooperation with Chinese universities, and directly invested in Chinese science and technology. company.
After the news was exposed, some netizens commented that Apple “turned over all user data to the data cloud center in Guizhou, to be precise. It was a betrayal.” Another commented, “Who doesn’t share the same thing now?”
VOA sent emails to Apple and the Chinese Embassy in the United States respectively. Apple did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment; the Chinese Embassy only responded by automatic emails and did not respond to reporters’ queries.
Some analysts pointed out that Cook defended the privacy of Apple’s American users almost at the same time when he compromised with the Chinese government, and took a court protest with the FBI. He also became the cover character of Time Magazine on March 28, 2016.
(Transfer from Voice of America)
Editor in charge: Xia Yu#
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