It's Official: No Apple product ban in China
August 8, 2014
Remember all that talk earlier in the week about how the Chinese government was banning the purchase of some Apple products over security concerns? It’s not true, according to China’s chief procurement center.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Chinese government officials could no longer buy certain Apple products with public funds. “amid escalating tensions” between the United States and China over “claims of hacking and cyberspying.”
Reuters explains that Apple products weren’t banned. Rather, they weren’t added to a list of energy-saving products, “just one of a multitude of government procurement lists in China.”
According to a fax received by the Chinese Finance Ministry:
Additionally, Reuters confirms "The government can still purchase Apple products, even if they are not on the energy-saving list, according to the Central Government Procurement Centre website." In other words, there was never a ban on Apple products in China. On Thursday, Chinese language publication Caixin said that Apple products were only excluded from a semi-annual “shopping list” of energy-saving products approved for purchase with public money. Furthermore, “A person familiar with the government’s appropriations system said Apple’s exclusion is far from a formal ban, as was widely reported yesterday, and may instead be the result of a simple filing error.” Photo: APEven though Apple has the certification for energy-saving products... it has never provided the necessary verification material and agreements according to the regulations.