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The Chinese App Store alarming observers, Apple remove thousands of games
Apple's Chinese operation â including millions of Apple customers and a large part of its production operationsâ could be jeopardized as tensions rise between the USA and China. The information's new report states that China could, starting with the recent removal of thousands of applications from the Chinese App Store, already close the loopholes that Apple had been using in previous years. This may be a problem for the future of the company in the country.
As first reported by AppInChina, Apple pulled over 47,000 apps out of the Chinese App Store earlier this month.
That move was not unforeseen, as Apple recently laid out a policy change aimed at eliminating a loophole which previously allowed in-app shopping paid games and games to be sold, although the Chinese regulators were still awaiting approval.
This was not the first time Apple was strongly equipped to make major changes to its Chinese services. As an example , Chinese regulators forced Apple, just six months after Apple launched its shops on China, to shut down iBookstore and iTunes Movies in April 2016.
But the report also claims that the whole of Apple's App Store operation in China depends on its own loophole.
According to the report, foreign app stores in China usually have to be joint ventures with a Chinese partner who is the majority owner and operator, but Apple runs the app store on its own.
Apple also has apparently avoided sharing iOS sources with China so far because the Chinese Government negotiated an exemption from doing so.
The Trump administration recently took substantial actions against Chinese technology companies, making it more difficult for some to do business in the US. Earlier this month, President Trump sent executive orders banking on the Chinese tech giants TikTok and WeChat, ByteDance and Tencent.
The Trump administration has also tightened restrictions on Chinese phone maker Huawei.
