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Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#21

Post by Barrin92 »

DataWorker wrote: post #13
golem14 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... because the current admin is not exactly in the habit of thinking ahead. I see no reason they intentionally want to hurt the goose laying golden eggs. I’d be happy to learn valid reasons why though.

You just described the past few decades of the whole of the DC elites thinking about China. The goose is a Trojan horse as any idiot can see. Sell out the future of democracy to keep apple stock price soaring. Short sighted indeed.

>The goose is a Trojan horse

the moral of the story was that the Greeks brought the horse to Troy, I'm unsure how forcing Apple to exist the Chinese market helps the US?

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#22

Post by draw_down »

golem14 wrote: post #2

It would be trivial for the admin to say that Apple only has to block wechat from the US app store, and trivial for Apple to implement it. There's little to gain from blocking wechat in china, so I don't think they will cut in their own flesh. Unless there are ways (via VPN etc) to temporarily switch a phone to the Chinese appstore and install wechat for a US phone this way.

Whenever an engineer (we're on HN so I'm assuming) uses the word "trivial", my spidey senses start tingling.

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#23

Post by mywittyname »

valuearb wrote: post #8
PeterisP wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the administration could say that Apple only has to block wechat from the US app store, it's not what they have done and they have not indicated that they want to go that way; the currently announced prohibition, as far as I understand, would prohibit Apple to support WeChat anywhere no matter if it allows installing WeChat for a US phone this way or not.

The administration doesn’t have the constitutional authority to make such a demand.

The administration has not let constitutional limitations hinder any of their decisions.

The problem with Constitutional "authority" is that it relies on good faith, as the government is really just policing itself. If a President asks 'who is going to stop me?', they will quickly find out the answer is 'nobody.'

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#24

Post by sbahr001 »

analyst74 wrote: post #3
golem14 wrote: post #2

It would be trivial for the admin to say that Apple only has to block wechat from the US app store, and trivial for Apple to implement it. There's little to gain from blocking wechat in china, so I don't think they will cut in their own flesh. Unless there are ways (via VPN etc) to temporarily switch a phone to the Chinese appstore and install wechat for a US phone this way.

Would it be legal for American companies to ignore American laws on foreign land? It doesn't sound plausible

It depends on how intense the law/sanctions are. Example, no US company can trade/do business with Iran,even indirectly. The Trump administration also made it difficult for other countries to do business with Iran, makes it almost impossible for any other country to business with them.Hence, Iran's economy is in the toilet, and it can only trade with Russia, China and the middle eastern countries they have high-influence over(which are typically poor). Their oil can be sold to western countries, due to OPEC, but money that ends up in foreign accounts are inaccessible.

Plus, most of Trump's policies of late with China has to do with the new Silk Road. The new Silk Road is seeing China expand(land grabs) into other countries, and take over strategic points. Since, a lot of China's economy is from foreign trade, the more US makes trade difficult the harder it is for China to expand. Time, will tell if this strategy works or not, when China becomes the #1 superpower/economy in the world(speculation, but is looking more likely).

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#25

Post by archibaldJ »

This is meaningless. If Wechat is really banned Tencent (or a shell company owned by Tencent) will just spring up another app with a different name that connects to the same data centers and put it on the App Store. Wechat is pretty much the RPC-equivalence of Facebook+Whatsapp with Paypal integrated, used by pretty much everyone on the mainland as well as RPC who are overseas but still want or need to be part of the social networks, or just anyone that wants or needs to do business with people in China.

If people actually believe enforcing a ban like this will in any way hurt Tencent or CCP then that is just ridiculous. This will only accelerate the already growing Anti-American sentiment in China. And the new Wechat app with a different name will be out maybe in a week or something.

Wechat is a very different case as compared to TikTok with vastly different use cases and user groups. The reasons behind why people use the two apps are fundamentally different.

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#26

Post by benrbray »

abc-xyz wrote: post #18
leptoniscool wrote: post #12

This is a very short-sighted move, it will lead to lower investments from China to US in tech and other sectors.

Does that mean western organizations will finally stop censoring western people living in western countries? Will they finally stop banning people for voicing support for democracy in Hong Kong? Or for condemning concentration camps in Xinjiang? Will they finally stop ruining their products in their attempt to be granted access to the Chinese market? Will western employees finally be able to ‘like’ a tweet thanking t…

I sure hope so. I have not agreed with this administration on hardly anything else, but I agree with this. The United States has its own dark history of censorship and oppression, but authoritarianism poses an even bigger threat.

At the moment, China is a huge market for technology and entertainment, and companies who refuse to do business with them, accept investments from them, etc. on moral grounds clearly cannot compete with companies who are willing to bend over backwards for the chance to dip their hands in the infinite money bucket.

We cannot let an authoritarian government exert so much control over our technology, movies, television, games, and social media. If we do, democracy is already lost.

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#29

Post by valuearb »

scarface74 wrote: post #17
valuearb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The administration doesn’t have the constitutional authority to make such a demand.

You mean like the four “executive orders” (really just one) he issued in response to the Congressional stalemate to Covid. Who is going to reign him? The Senate? Federal judges who he appointed?

He will have to go to court to get them enforced. That will take into next term, at which point Biden will repudiate them.

Re: Trump's WeChat ban threatens Apple's smartphone sales in China

#30

Post by valuearb »

mywittyname wrote: post #23
valuearb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The administration doesn’t have the constitutional authority to make such a demand.

The administration has not let constitutional limitations hinder any of their decisions. The problem with Constitutional "authority" is that it relies on good faith, as the government is really just policing itself. If a President asks 'who is going to stop me?', they will quickly find out the answer is 'nobody.'

He will have to go to court to enforce them. And he will lose.
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