By Yoko Kubota in Beijing and Yang Jie in Tokyo
Apple Inc. has joined the list of American companies under fire
in China over the Hong Kong protests.
The iPhone maker triggered an angry response from Chinese state
media and consumers when it approved a map app that allows
protesters in Hong Kong to track police movements.
Apple is among the most recognizable U.S. brands in China, and
it relies heavily on the country for manufacturing and sales. The
Cupertino, Calif., giant was lambasted for approving the app and
accused of showing support for the protesters.
Critics say HKmap.live -- which denotes the presence of police
with an emoji of a dog, a widely used insult for police officers
during the protests -- will help protesters commit crimes and evade
arrest.
The People's Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, condemned
Apple, writing late Tuesday that "such toxic software" betrays the
feelings of Chinese people. "Apple, like other companies, should be
able to distinguish between right and wrong and understand that its
market would only be more promising and substantial if China and
Hong Kong are doing well," the commentary said.
HKmap.live is available in Hong Kong, the U.S. and elsewhere
through Apple's App Store as well as in Google Play Store. It isn't
clear whether Google is also in the Chinese government's sights.
The map app isn't available in mainland China, where Apple has
deleted hundreds of apps in recent years to meet local laws.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. Dow Jones &
Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial
agreement to supply news through Apple services.
Apple is only the latest American business to be hit by
controversy for inflaming Chinese sensitivities. Many of the recent
incidents have centered on the four-month-long antigovernment
protests in Hong Kong, which is a Chinese special administrative
region. Protesters have taken aim at Beijing's rule and in many
cases targeted branches of mainland Chinese businesses.
The U.S. National Basketball Association is in a tense standoff
with Beijing after a Houston Rockets executive tweeted in support
of the protests. This week, New York-based luxury brand Tiffany
& Co. deleted a tweet that some Chinese users said supported
the protests.
Apple hasn't drawn the level of scorn enveloping the NBA in
China. Still, Duncan Clark, a Beijing-based technology consultant,
said the challenge Apple now faces is "how to keep Chinese
consumers onside along with the Chinese government, but not fall
foul of Western consumers and governments, especially the Trump
administration."
Apple was criticized in 2017 in the U.S. after disclosing that
it had removed roughly 700 virtual private network, or VPN, apps
from its Chinese App Store by the fall of that year. VPN apps allow
users to circumvent China's so-called Great Firewall to access
blocked websites. Apple said it was merely following Chinese laws
and regulations.
HKmap.live is a crowd-sourcing app that relies on contributors
who submit live feeds to its database. The app uses different
emojis to give live updates and traffic information about locations
across the city, especially during protests.
Some icons are self-explanatory, like emojis for ambulances or
police wagons. Others require a more nuanced understanding of the
protests. For example, water drops are used to symbolize the
location of water cannons used as a crowd-control tool by police. A
dinosaur emoji warns of the elite snatch-and-arrest police squads
known "raptors."
According to the developer's Twitter account, @hkmaplive, Apple
early this month blocked the app from going on sale on its App
Store, saying that it could be used to evade law enforcement. Days
later, on Oct. 4, the developer said the app had been approved by
Apple.
"I don't think the application is illegal in Hong Kong," the
app's developer said in an interview. The developer, who declined
to give his or her name, citing safety concerns, said the app
merely consolidates information that is publicly available, for
example, on Telegram, an app that protesters have been using to
communicate.
Little is known about the developer, who is soliciting donations
via bitcoin, the anonymized cryptocurrency, to support the app and
other projects.
The Chinese Communist Party's Youth League on Tuesday drew
attention to HKmap.live after it criticized the app, and Apple, on
Weibo, China's Twitter-like service. The post solicited criticisms
from Chinese Internet users. "Support the Chinese brands and time
to take Apple off the shelf," one user said.
On Weibo, a hashtag that accuses Apple of helping publicize the
movements of Hong Kong police had been viewed about 14 million
times by Wednesday afternoon.
Traditionally focused on hardware, Apple in recent years has
increasingly set its sight on expanding services such as the App
Store business, which involves dealing with content.
At Apple, apps made by third parties are generally vetted by
hundreds of the company's reviewers based in the U.S., Ireland and
China. They evaluate apps to make sure they abide by the company's
guidelines and are complete and compatible.
Developers of apps that are rejected can appeal to a review
board, which ultimately reports to Apple marketing chief Phil
Schiller, who oversees the App Store.
Apple's business model has been scrutinized in the context of
the U.S.-China trade war that began last year. A reliance on the
Chinese market leaves Apple exposed should Beijing decide to
retaliate against the U.S. by fanning nationalistic sentiments
among consumers to squeeze sales of American goods.
Apple is already grappling with sliding sales in China, where
domestic rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. sell phones with
similar features to the iPhone at lower prices.
--Joyu Wang and Dan Strumpf in Hong Kong and Tripp Mickle in San
Francisco contributed to this article.
Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 09, 2019 13:35 ET (17:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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