Is the ban on Apple just the beginning?

The Chinese government has banned ministries and central government agencies from buying Apple products. At present, a country-led movement against U.S. technology companies is forming momentum in China.

Bloomberg and Chinese media reported yesterday that the list of government procurement issued in July removed 10 Apple products, including the iPad, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro; these products were still on the list of purchases made in June. China is Apple's second largest market, second only to the United States.

This week, two foreign anti-virus software companies - Kaspersky Lab in Russia and Symantec in the United States - were also excluded from China's government procurement list.

According to Kaspersky, the list of approved suppliers only applies to central government agencies funded by the Central Government, excluding local governments or large enterprises.

At the same time, the pressure on foreign high-tech companies has further increased. The news came yesterday that Microsoft’s operating sites in four cities were raided by industrial and commercial law enforcement personnel as part of an anti-monopoly investigation initiated last week.

According to the information released on the website of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC), the agency also raided the office of Accenture, the consulting company that undertook Microsoft’s financial outsourcing. Microsoft said in a statement yesterday that the company "strictly abides by Chinese laws and is committed to solving the issues and concerns raised by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce".

Since the United States National Security Agency (NSA) former contractor Edward Snowden broke the news that US technology companies had cooperated with the NSA's espionage in certain circumstances, the operating environment of US technology companies in China has deteriorated. In May this year, the U.S. Department of Justice also filed criminal charges against five Chinese military officers suspected of engaging in hacking activities.

In addition to Apple and Microsoft, several U.S. technology brands have encountered bans in China in recent months, have been threatened with imposing bans or imposed large fines, and discredited television, including Google, Cisco, and IBM. Qualcomm.

However, China expressed its dissatisfaction with being portrayed as being deliberately embarrassed by American companies, pointing out that the United States arbitrarily blocked China’s high-tech manufacturers Huawei and ZTE out of the US market on the grounds of security concerns.

Apple's Beijing office declined to respond to requests for comment. Last month, the official CCTV criticized Apple's handling of iPhone users’ location data, saying it poses a security threat to users. Apple denied the allegation. "Apple doesn't track the user's position - Apple has never done this, nor has it planned to do so," the company said.

The list of purchases is a well-kept secret, and Chinese government agencies declined to comment on this.