• China says it has not banned the use of foreign smartphones for governmental employees.
• A Well Street Journal report earlier this month indicated that China had banned the purchase and use of foreign phone brands, like iPhone.
• Meanwhile, the US continues to hamper local activities of Chinese companies like Huawei and ByteDance.

Despite reports to the contrary from many news outlets, including ourselves, China says it has not issued a ban on the purchase and use of foreign phone brands. This is according to the Chinese foreign ministry, which issued a response to media attention surrounding the so-called ban.

“China has not issued laws, regulations or policy documents that prohibit the purchase and use of foreign brand phones such as Apple’s,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning explained, as per Reuters. The alleged ban was perceived by many to be a counter to America’s hesitance to do business with certain Chinese firms, over fears of Chinese government meddling.

Famously Huawei was hamstrung by the US when it prohibited Google from providing the company access to Android and Google Mobile Services. The ban continues to hamper Huawei to this day and is still a noticeable missing piece of its smartphones.

The original report from the Wall Street Journal detailed how Beijing barred certain government officials from using iPhones and other foreign smartphone brands. In the last few weeks general government staff were also given the order to stop using American phones.

“Recently we did notice a lot of media exposure of security incidents related to Apple’s phones. The Chinese government attaches great importance to information and cyber security and treats both domestic and foreign companies as equals,” added Mao.

The foreign minister said that China hoped all mobile phone companies that sell in the market would strictly abide by its laws and regulation, and “strengthen information security management.”

If indeed there is no ban on foreign phones in China, then this is good news for Apple, which recently launched its iPhone 15 series and relies on the Chinese market for a good chunk of its revenues and manufacturing capabilities, specifically of iPhones.

On the eve of its iPhone 15 launch, Apple made sure to lower prices for its iPhone 14 series specifically in China, in hopes of capitalising on the buzz generated by the new iPhones and perhaps move some product.

Tension persists between the US and China, with relations icy for some time. But paranoia around technological threats and “spying” allegations have mostly come from the Washington side. In March, US Congress made clear its wishes to ban the TikTok app on the smartphones of public officials over fears of the Chinese government “meddling”. Montana executed this ban a month later, being the first US state to do so.

TikTok’s CEO claimed that parent company ByteDance has no connection to the Chinese government, but independent analysts have said that it may not be possible for major companies in the Asian country to not have any governmental ties. However, there is no definitive evidence that TikTok has followed any orders given by the Xi administration.

[Image – Photo by Felix Fischer on Unsplash]