Congress members demand Apple exit China in letter to Tim Cook

Four members of Congress sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook urging the company reassess its business dealings with China.

The spotlight is back on Apple's relationship with China after a report suggested Apple makes many compromises with the Chinese government to violate the citizen's privacy. Apple relies on China not only for its retail business, but for its manufacturing and supply chain as well.

Four members of Congress, Ken Buck, Scott Fitzgerald, Burgess Owens, and Dan Bishop signed a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking Apple to end its "near total capitulation to the communist regime in China." The letter describes Apples relationship with the Chinese government as a contradiction to Apple's core values of holding privacy as a fundamental human right.

According to a report from the New York Times Apple not only complies with Chinese demands, they actively participate in the violation of user privacy. From giving data center control to a government controlled facility to removing apps that the government doesn't agree with, Apple is complicit.

Apple says that they follow laws of local governments and only hand over data when properly presented with government requests. Apple denies that it has given unrestricted access to user data and in fact uses even stronger data encryption and data control methods to keep the data safe.

Apple's relationship with the Chinese government is extremely alarming. @RepFitzgerald, @RepBurgessOwens, @RepDanBishop, and I sent a letter to Tim Cook today. See below pic.twitter.com/nW6PGDVL6X
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) May 20, 2021

The letter was shared in a tweet from Representative Ken Buck. It concludes urging apple to "consider Apple's position as a pawn in China's malfeasance and take the necessary actions to separate your company from the Chinese government's abuses of its people, international peace and stability, and democratic principles of freedom and equality."

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40 Comments

80s_Apple_Guy 291 comments · 8 Years

About 3 years ago

I get Apple is a business, but they just be honest and stop preaching equality for all, privacy etc when they only mean it if it doesn’t interfere with profit.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

Yep, China is Apple’s Achilles' heel when it comes to their pontifications about human rights, privacy, security, diversity, inclusion. It all rings as hollow when they kowtow to a repressive, totalitarian, genocidal regime. Never mind LGBTQ+ issues there. And yet some here are giddy about the prospect of China overtaking the U.S. as the world’s largest economy. What pressure will that put on republican democracies?

So what does Apple do? Follow the advice of politicians and lose one of their biggest markets, shrink dramatically in size and become the next target on Wall Street for extinction stories?

Or do they keep the status quo and suffer the slings and arrows of their hypocrisy?

foregoneconclusion 2841 comments · 12 Years

All four are Republicans. All four voted against an investigation of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That gives you an idea of how deep their support of "democratic principles" actually goes.

hammeroftruth 1354 comments · 16 Years

This unfortunately is how you do business in China. That is where pretty much everyone’s supply chain comes from.

This is why there is a shortage of chips due to the pandemic. Production stopped in China.

If you really want change, the United States has to figure out if they want to go thru the pain of bringing back manufacturing here. Things will get more expensive like they are with inflation, much more expensive, but the other side of the coin is we aren’t capitulating to China at least when it comes to manufacturing.

Next we would look at buying back the $1.09 trillion in debt they hold in treasury bonds.

This is pie in the sky thinking, but by removing the luxuries the people of China get by being the worlds source of manufacturing will force their government into making changes.

It might be too late for that though.

retrogusto 1139 comments · 16 Years

foregoneconclusion said:

All four are Republicans. All four voted against an investigation of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That gives you an idea of how deep their support of "democratic principles" actually goes.

They’re clearly not big on capitalism, either. They might get better results with authoritarian communism, but it would be tricky to market it to their base unless they can get the TV personalities on the same page.