4 ms·

> Is the word "Taiwan" such a bad word in China that, instead of some reasonable action, it crashes the OS? From my reading of the article, the intention was

> Is the word "Taiwan" such a bad word in China that, instead of some reasonable action, it crashes the OS? From my reading of the article, the intention was not to crash the device, but to hide the Taiwanese flag emoji - and the crash was because the code intended to do that was buggy. So no - it's not _that_ bad a word. > Is the Chinese government so upset about Taiwan they're insisting manufacturers hide the flag from the keyboard? Yes, it seems this is true - and while I've never needed to deal with requests like that from a nation state, it does seem kinda cowardly on Apple's part to agree to that, and it seems quite at odds with the resistance to the FBI getting a screenlock bypass to that iPhone 5 a while back...

adventured 8y ago
> and it seems quite at odds with the resistance to the FBI getting a screenlock bypass to that iPhone 5 a while back It's not at odds at all. The US isn't going to arbitrarily blockade Apple's market access over the screenlock conflict. At worst you go to court and battle the US Government over that, with a decent chance of prevailing. China will and can do anything it likes, including entirely removing your market access, if you injure their fragile national self-esteem. They're very sensitive about perceived slights, whether due to their history or the inherent fragility of authoritarian regimes, or both. I'm not making a joke about their over-sensitivity, it's a real thing that all companies must deal with there. Apple basically told the US Government point blank: no; on something important to the Feds. What happened to Apple in consequence? Nothing. Try that with China. They'd probably love an excuse to kick Apple out, even if briefly, to bolster their domestic alternatives (doing it briefly is ideal, because it might make it nearly impossible for Apple to recover lost market share, and then China gets to pretend they're still open to Apple's products after the damage is done).
- bigiain 8y ago
  > The US isn't going to arbitrarily blockade Apple's market access over the screenlock conflict. I wonder if people from Huawei and HTC have a different point of view there?
tinus_hn 8y ago
I’d rather they hide some keys in some countries than give away my secrets to government agencies. It doesn’t compare at all.

adventured 8y ago

> and it seems quite at odds with the resistance to the FBI getting a screenlock bypass to that iPhone 5 a while back It's not at odds at all. The US isn't going to arbitrarily blockade Apple's market access over the screenlock conflict. At worst you go to court and battle the US Government over that, with a decent chance of prevailing. China will and can do anything it likes, including entirely removing your market access, if you injure their fragile national self-esteem. They're very sensitive about perceived slights, whether due to their history or the inherent fragility of authoritarian regimes, or both. I'm not making a joke about their over-sensitivity, it's a real thing that all companies must deal with there. Apple basically told the US Government point blank: no; on something important to the Feds. What happened to Apple in consequence? Nothing. Try that with China. They'd probably love an excuse to kick Apple out, even if briefly, to bolster their domestic alternatives (doing it briefly is ideal, because it might make it nearly impossible for Apple to recover lost market share, and then China gets to pretend they're still open to Apple's products after the damage is done).

bigiain 8y ago
> The US isn't going to arbitrarily blockade Apple's market access over the screenlock conflict. I wonder if people from Huawei and HTC have a different point of view there?

tinus_hn 8y ago

I’d rather they hide some keys in some countries than give away my secrets to government agencies. It doesn’t compare at all.