Apple CEO Cozies Up to China

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently met with Chinese Communist Party members and praised China’s “innovative and inspiring” app developers in a cozy interview with Chinese state-owned media.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Chinese Communist Party members and propagandists this month. Speaking from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Cook praised the “innovative and inspiring” app developers of China in an interview with China Daily. The publication is a state-owned CCP mouthpiece that regularly defends the government and spreads disinformation about china’s genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
Tim Cook speaks in China ( NG HAN GUAN /Getty)
Apple CEO Tim Cook poses for a goofy selfie ( Justin Sullivan/Getty)
This move shows Cook’s readiness to compromise Apple’s core values around privacy and user data in order to continue operating in China. Apple has previously stated its dedication to human rights and privacy in the U.S. while complying with Beijing’s national laws around access to user data and ignoring the country’s human rights record.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R‑FL) told the Free Beacon: “This further underscores the hypocrisy of corporate America, which preaches social justice at home and turns a blind eye when it comes to its profits. It’s absolutely shameful an American CEO would sit down with a communist, genocide-denying propaganda rag like China Daily.”
Cook noted that Apple’s app store has 5 million China-based apps, an increase from 4.4 million last year, and praised China’s developers as “at the cutting edge” and said he was “inspired” by their innovation.
Apple regularly blocks apps from its tore that might offend Chinese leaders and shares its Chinese customers’ sure data with authorities in the country. One China expert said that Cook has had to “kiss the ring” of Chinese government leaders as he “is desperate to hold onto any remaining scraps of the China market.”
In 2021, it was revealed that Apple had sig …