Apple exclusion legitimate

China’s alleged exclusion of Apple Inc products from its government procurement list has made a big stir both in domestic and overseas markets, leading to a wild guessing game as to the real intentions of Chinese policymakers.

There are basically two explanations: security concerns and application procedural lapse by Apple.

Regarding the first assumption, it is entirely legitimate and reasonable for China to ban Apple products from government procurement programs using public money because it has been revealed that products from the company have ill-desired backdoors that pose a threat to the user country’s information security.

Moreover, Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence agent who publicized large amounts of US-spying related information, has revealed that a number of US tech companies, including Apple, have cooperated with the US government and allowed government agencies direct access to their servers through the PRISM program, according to report by The Washington Post. While most of the accused companies denied any such access, several of them, including Apple, responded by releasing reports detailing how often they agree to surveillance requests from the US government and law enforcement agencies.

Before the US government stops spying into governments and enterprises of other countries or those big-name companies stop cooperating with the US government over surveillance requests and eliminate backdoors, it is no doubt extremely dangerous for China’s government departments or those of any other country to purchase its products.

It is normal and indisputable for a country — whether it’s China or a European country — to take national security as a top priority when it makes government procurement decisions. They have no choice but to be highly alert when purchasing US-based IT products, considering the US has a notorious record of ruthlessly spying on other countries.

For commentators who accuse China of trying to mitigate the influence of foreign companies, especially US companies, in the world’s largest consumer market, it’s advisable for them to first have a look at the fact that China includes some influential US brands, such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, in its government procurement list, before they point their fingers at China.

As for the second assumption — that Apple products were not listed because the company failed to submit mandatory application materials before the pre-set date, it is doubtful that such a big company with mature procedural management capabilities can have made such a silly mistake.

Even if the exclusion comes from its procedural carelessness, the company should not be listed even if it goes through all the needed procedures — at least for now. The reason is simple: It poses a potential security threat to China.

The core issue here is not procedural completeness, but whether the company can meet China’s security regulatory requirements, get rid of the backdoors in its products and stop its information-sharing cooperation with the US government.

It is intolerable for a company to make huge profits in the Chinese market while refusing to consider China’s national security concerns.