Apple Needs to Be Held Accountable for Helping the CCP Obstruct Protesters: Author

Police officers confront a man as they block Wulumuqi street in Shanghai on Nov. 27, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Apple needs to be held accountable for obstructing Chinese citizens from using certain iPhone functions to talk, text, and share content ahead of the massive protests against Beijing’s harsh Zero-COVID policies, said Bradley Thayer, the director of China policy at the Center for Security Policy.

“Apple has to answer for what it chose to do, to play a role in aborting the protests, [and] working with the Chinese regime to stop the protests. And so they have to be queried about that and held to account with respect to why they behaved that way,” Thayer told the “China in Focus” program on NTD, the sister media of The Epoch Times.

'Victory Is Possible': Bradley Thayer on Confronting the China Threat. (Epoch TV/Screencap via The Epochg Times)

As co-author of the book “Understanding the China Threat,” he characterized Apple’s conduct as “egregious,” noting the suspicious timing of Apple’s Nov. 9 publication of a new version of its mobile operating system under the rubric of iOS 16.1.1.

The update incorporated a change that affected only China-based users, and provided just a 10-minute window in which to receive messages from others, where formerly a setting was available that allowed messages to come in from anybody for an indefinite amount of time. The imposition of this rule has obviously blunted protestors’ ability to coordinate and share highly time-sensitive information with one another about their locations and activities, as well as those of security forces rounding up protesters.

“By modifying the iPhone’s AirDrop feature, it only shows that [CEO] Tim Cook is working with [Chinese Chairman] Xi Jinping. And that should be unacceptable for all freedom loving people around the world. And there has to be an account for that decision by Apple to generate the support for Xi Jinping at that critical time, where you might have had a movement continue,” Thayer, a contributor to The Epoch Times said.

“What might it have been if AirDrop had been enabled fully? So it might have been able to be an even greater movement than what we witnessed in the last 14 days,” he added.

Thayer called these Chinese protesters “heroic,” for undertaking the demonstrations, “given the stakes and they know what the surveillance state is, and they know how they can be identified, even if they cover their face, or the many other ways of identifying them.”

Ties to the CCP

He further elaborated on other Tech firms’ ties to the Chinese regime.

“But Google and others, many other tech firms, of course, and then manufacturing firms, too work hand in glove with the Chinese regime, and for decades, to suppress human rights within China, and to legitimize the Chinese Communist Party, when in fact, it should be delegitimized,” he said.

Google reportedly has been cooperating with a leading artificial intelligence (AI) research body at Tsinghua University, a prestigious Chinese academic institution that also conducts AI research for the Chinese military.

“So we should expect that the actions of those entities, Apple in particular, is a point that perhaps would be a pivot point for tech firms operating in China. As you know, of course, Apple is attempting, at least to some degree, to get out of China,” Thayer said.

Apple is keeping most of its production in China, but it will shift 30 percent of its classic AirPods and some of its iPad production to Vietnam. The company has also asked its suppliers, including Foxconn, Delta Electronics, and Pegatron, to relocate up to 30 percent of iPhone production.

Disengage From China’s Solar Panel Industry

Thayer noted that with respect to solar panel manufacturing, “There’s an increase, a tightening, of the relationship with China.”

Microvast Holdings, a U.S.-based lithium battery company that does most of its business in China has just been awarded $200 million by The Department of Energy (DOE).

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Dec 7, claiming that the agency’s act “undermines and endangers our national security.

The expert characterized the reliance on batteries produced in China as “imprudent.”

“It’s very dangerous, as we’ve witnessed in so many other areas, pharmaceuticals, personal protective equipment (PPE), of course, that we witnessed at the outset of the pandemic,” he said.

For that reason, Thayer suggested action be taken to disengage from China’s solar panel industry.

“The Biden administration and other Western leaders need to take action here to draw that away. These batteries, essentially, the solar panels can be manufactured elsewhere. And there should be great encouragement of firms to withdraw from China and go elsewhere to make those goods,” he said.

In his opinion, calling attention to human rights abuses in China could also play a role.

“The Biden administration, other Western governments, and human rights organizations should do so to draw away from and to identify what’s actually happening in China, and reduce the incentive to continue this practice of trading with this genocidal regime,” Thayer said.

Andrew Moran, Andrew Thornebrooke and Nathan Su contributed to this report.