Citing local regulations, Apple has removed The New York Times news app from its app store in China. The incident is the latest in the long history of media restrictions in the country, but also in the ongoing pattern of tech companies getting involved in the efforts.
The New York Times reports that Apple removed both its English-language and Chinese-language apps from the app store in China on Dec. 23, though other prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times as well as the Times’ crossword puzzle and virtual-reality apps remain available.
Along with other websites, the Times has faced restrictions for years. The site has been subject of blocks since 2012 , when the newspaper reported on the wealth amassed by the family of the then-prime minister.
Apple did not explain Thursday what distinguished the Times from other outlets. Spokesman Fred Sainz shared a statement:
“For some time now the New York Times app has not been permitted to display content to most users in China and we have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations. As a result, the app must be taken down off the China App Store. When this situation changes, the App Store will once again offer the New York Times app for download in China. ”
Sainz did not elaborate on what legal standard was applied to warrant the removal of the news apps, but the Times suggested it was under 2016 regulations issued for mobile apps:
“The regulations say apps cannot ‘engage in activities prohibited by laws and regulations such as endangering national security, disrupting social order and violating the legitimate rights and interests of others.’ The cyberspace administration says on its website that apps also cannot publish ‘prohibited information. ”
Over the years, numerous publications have faced blackouts in China, including Bloomberg , Time and The Economist. Users in China sometimes use software to circumvent the government’s firewall to surf the web and access blocked sites.
For tech companies, China is a massive, lucrative market and a major manufacturing hub, but operations there are tricky. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have been restricted. Apple’s own iBooks and iTunes Movies were blocked , as well, not long after they were introduced.
For Apple, China is a key production location and sales market. But iPhone sales have slumped there in recent years. In May, Apple invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing.
The company has, in the past, removed other media apps from its App Store, but none as prominent as The Times , according to the newspaper. And it’s far from the first time when a tech company cooperated with the Chinese government to suppress content, as the industry generally complies with local regulations around the world.
In 2016, The New York Times reported that Facebook quietly developed software that could prevent posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific parts of China, going further than the typical practice by U. S. Internet companies to blocking certain content after it’s posted.
The newspaper also reported , just last month, on “a hidden bounty of perks, tax breaks and subsidies in China that supports the world’s biggest iPhone factory” — billions of dollars’ worth of incentives at the heart of Apple’s phone production.
In 2014, the radio program Marketplace reported on LinkedIn censoring posts from its members that were deemed sensitive by China’s government. In 2010, Google altered how users in China could access the site as it faced possible loss of license to operate in the country.
Perhaps the most notorious case dates back to early 2000s, when Chinese authorities arrested and imprisoned dissidents, including a Chinese journalist, based on evidence provided by Yahoo.
Yahoo settled a lawsuit by the dissidents’ families in 2007. In 2005, Yahoo bought what later became its most valuable asset: a stake in a Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.

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China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday that the two countries should develop ties in the proper direction, amid unease in Beijing over U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s comments on Taiwan and trade.
Trump, due to take office on Jan. 20, has angered China by speaking by telephone to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, casting doubt on the incoming administration’s commitment to only recognizing the Beijing government, and not Taiwan, under a “one China” policy.
Trump has left open the possibility of meeting Tsai if she visits the United States after he is sworn in. He also has rattled Beijing by appointing people in his administration who are critical of China’s trade practices.
Wang told Kerry ties were at an “important stage” and that cooperative achievements were “not easy to come by. ”
“Both sides should take great care to jointly safeguard and ensure the proper direction of development in bilateral relations,” Wang said in a telephone call with Kerry, according to a statement on his ministry’s website.
The ministry cited Kerry as saying maintaining the “one China” policy was the position of both of the main U. S. parties, the Democrats and Trump’s Republicans.
China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, and thinks she wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province ineligible for state-to-state relations.
The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only “one China” and that Taiwan is part of it.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island.
Tsai will transit through Houston and San Francisco during a visit this month to allies in Latin America, a stopover China has called on the United States to block.
Chinese policymakers are also wary of Trump’s protectionist stance on trade, and he has promised a hard line on China, threatening to raise tariffs on its exports to the United States.
The Xinhua state news agency, which usually reflects government thinking, this week chided Trump for his proclivity for criticizing China on Twitter, saying the social media platform “should not become a foreign policy tool. ”
“There will be fresh flowers outside the door to China’s Commerce Ministry, but a big stick hidden behind it,” the paper said.

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By Vin Armani
James Corbett appears on The Vin Armani Show to discuss open source intelligence, the neo-neocon push for Cold War 2.0, and how a false dialectic is pushing us toward more centralized regional governments. Corbett point out that Trump’s appointments so far seem to indicate that China will replace Russia as the next fabricated boogeyman.
Visit CorbettReport.com
Watch the full broadcast here
Hang out with Vin in person Feb 25-28th at Anarchapulco
Vin Armani is the host of The Vin Armani Show on Activist Post , TV Star of Gigolos on Showtime, Author, DJ, and Agorist Entrepreneur. Follow Vin on Twitter and subscribe on YouTube. Get the weekly podcast on  iTunes or Stitcher.
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WASHINGTON — Just this week, President-elect Donald Trump has tackled not only Russian hacking but House ethics, Guantanamo, Obamacare, crime and the auto industry through tweets.
On Monday, he had this this message about North Korea for China:
China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U. S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!
That prompted a response from China’s state news agency: “Twitter shouldn’t become an instrument of foreign policy. Foreign policy isn’t child’s play,” it said.
But Twitter has proven to be an important tool for Trump; A modern way of talking directly to the people.
Trump says his social media power key to victory
Like Franklin Roosevelt did through radio and John F. Kennedy with television, in today’s social media era, Trump’s tweets can dominate a news cycle.
Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” asked him after the election if he would keep it up as president.
“I’m not saying I love it, but it does get the word out. When you give me a bad story or when you give me an inaccurate story or when somebody other than you and another network, or whatever, because of course, CBS would never do a thing like that right? I have a method of fighting back,” he said.
As part of the transition, incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus met last month with the men who have done the job for other presidents, includi…
Two former presidential chiefs of staff, Democrat Bill Daley and Republican Andy Card, told “CBS This Morning” they don’t expect him to walk away from the medium he’s made his own.
“I think the tweet world is going to be our world for a long time,” Card said.
“Think before you tweet or speak. Before, it was before you speak. Now it is before you tweet,” Daley added.
Beyond foreign capitals, Trump’s tweets also are rattling corporate boardrooms. They  have even affected the stock price of specific companies. 
As a result, some corporations are making plans for how to respond if Trump tweets about them.

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