China Bans Government Purchases of Apple Products

After the Chinese government published a software procurement list last week that excluded foreign anti-virus vendors like Kaspersky Lab and Symantec Corp, which had previously sold software to Chinese agencies, they’ve now also prohibited the purchase of Apple hardware.

China has prohibited government agencies from purchasing Apple Inc hardware products due to security concerns. Ten Apple products including versions of the iPad tablet and MacBook laptop have been omitted from a government procurement-list, distributed by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance. The ban would apply to all central and local agencies in China, Bloomberg News said.

Officials at the NDRC and finance ministry could not be reached and Apple did not respond to the request for a comment made by Reuters.

China, citing security concerns, has increasingly sought to limit the use of U.S. technology over the past year following revelations by Edward Snowden of widespread U.S. government spying.

State-run China Central Television said in a report in June that location-tracking software on Apple’s iPhone could potentially lead to the disclosure of state secrets. Apple said in response that, it has never allowed and will never allow governments access to its servers.

Thank you Reuters for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of Apple