More Chinese agencies and state-backed companies across the country have asked their staff to not bring Apple iPhones and other foreign devices to work, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
This is likely to set in motion an unprecedented prohibition that’s likely to block Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. from parts of the world’s biggest mobile market.
For over a decade, China has been seeking to reduce reliance on foreign technologies, asking state-affiliated firms such as banks to switch to local software and promoting domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing.
Multiple state firms and government departments across at least eight provinces have instructed employees in the past month or two to start carrying local brands, the Bloomberg News report said.
Verbal directives
In December, smaller firms and agencies in lower-tier cities from provinces including Zhejiang, Shandong, Liaoning and central Hebei, which houses the world’s largest iPhone factory, issued their own verbal directives, the Bloomberg News report said.
In September, China officials denied reports that it had banned iPhones from being inside any government agency. At the same time, however, officials expressed concern about “a lot of media exposure of security incidents related to Apple’s phones.” The US government called the iPhone ban in China an “inappropriate retaliation.”
As Bloomberg points out, there are still a lot of unknown details about the extent of the iPhone ban in China and how strictly it is being enforced. But it goes without saying, the ban presents a major challenge for Apple and other foreign technology companies like Samsung.
