Chinese consumers could boycott Apple Inc if the US bans WeChat, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, as the clock ticks down on a US order to block the popular social app.
US President Donald Trump this month announced a ban from the middle of next month on WeChat and another Chinese-owned app, TikTok, accusing them of threatening national security, further stoking tensions between Beijing and Washington.
However, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) tweeted yesterday: “If WeChat is banned, then there will be no reason why Chinese shall keep iPhone and apple products.”
Photo: AP
Zhao had already on Thursday said “many Chinese people are saying they may stop using iPhones if WeChat is banned in the US,” and accused Washington of “systematic economic bullying of non-US companies” by targeting the Chinese app.
The comments mark a rare direct reference by Beijing to boycotting a US product and come as the superpowers spar on multiple fronts, including military activity in the South China Sea, Hong Kong and blame for COVID-19.
Chinese social media users yesterday responded with mixed feelings to Zhao’s warning on Twitter, which is blocked in China, but accessible through virtual private network software.
“I use Apple, but I also love my country,” one user on Sina Weibo said. “It’s not a conflict.”
“No matter how good Apple is, it’s just a phone. It can be replaced, but WeChat is different,” another user said. “Modern Chinese people will lose their soul if they leave WeChat, especially businesspeople.”
Wechat, known in China as Weixin (微信), has more than 1.2 billion active users.
Trump’s executive order against WeChat forces the platform to end all operations in the US and bans Americans doing business with it.
Apple accounted for 8 percent of China’s smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, according to Counterpoint Research, far behind domestic leader Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
RSS