[chucker]

There's a story making the rounds with various clickbait-y titles such as "Apple made secret 5-year $275B deal with Chinese government".

It really made me go "aw, crap" at first, fearing that Apple was tasked to help set up a surveillance apparatus, modernize the Great Firewall, add state-requested features to iOS, … and, nope. Instead, the crux of the story is this:

A report on Tuesday claims that, during a period when Apple was dealing with a rash of regulatory activity in China, Tim Cook paid a visit to the country in 2016. During that visit, he signed an agreement with the Chinese government, according to The Information. The deal would have Apple working to improve China's economy and technological profile with investments, training up its workforce, and various beneficial business deals. It is alleged that the total value of the five-year agreement was worth $275 billion.

That's it. That's… the entire story. It's "secret" because, uh, yeah, most business deals aren't exactly broadcast on Twitch, it involves Tim Cook and the Chinese government (juicy!), and it's about… investing in the local economy. Oh noes.

Like, am I missing something? I've seen criticism that Cook should've made this contingent on human rights improvements, and I suppose that's a fair angle, but beyond that, I just don't really see the story here? Why shouldn't Apple invest in their third-largest market?

(Is this in the US's interest? Maybe not. Would it be in the US's interest to curtail Apple's ability to make such deals? I don't know. It would have ripple effects, including on other tech companies. How would Microsoft feel if the US compels them to no longer build Xboxes in China?)

[PB PM]

Deal also includes a mandatory spy chip installed in every machine sold in the Chinese market.

[chucker]

Could be, and that would be an actual scoop.

[PB PM]

You’d think that someone would find said chip fast, I’m sure there is a Chinese version of iFixit out there. Of course those who aren’t savvy enough to get around the great firewall wouldn’t know it was different from what is sold elsewhere.

[chucker]

Well, we know for a fact that Chinese iCloud is run by a different company.

So, region-specific differences in the software do exist. (See also: ECG only works in some countries.) Do hardware differences exist? My guess is no. Too easy to detect. Do surprising software differences exist? Could be.