Apple Bends to China

Apple removed an app late Wednesday that enabled protesters in Hong Kong to track police, a day after facing intense criticism from Chinese state media for it, plunging the technology giant deeper into the complicated politics of a country that is fundamental to its business.
...
Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has become a deft diplomat in China. He has traveled there frequently and attended numerous Chinese government events. In recent months, Mr. Cook has argued for moderation in the trade war between the United States and China. Unlike in the United States, where he regularly speaks out on political issues like gun control and immigration, he has largely remained silent on Chinese politics, including the clashes in Hong Kong.
...
Apple also pulled the app of the news organization Quartz from the App Store in China less than two weeks ago. Quartz, which has been covering the Hong Kong protests, said that Apple sent it a vague notice about removing its app “because it includes content that is illegal in China.” Apple did not clarify what content was illegal, Quartz said. A Quartz editor tweeted that Apple removed it “at the request of China.”

This is what happens when one crawls deeply into bed with a murderous dictatorship. Cook is bleating about gun control, but you'll have to search far and wide to find where he has uttered a single word about China's ethnic cleaning of the Uighurs. (You'll probably find nothing.)

Corporations can be politically bought. In watching ABC News, it seemed that they barely mentioned the kerfuffle between the NBA and the Chinese Communists. A cynic might suspect that the fact that ABC's parent company, Disney, which has a large stake in China (Disneyland Shanghai, for example), doesn't want to incur the ire of the Chinese regime. (There do seem to be more stories on CBS News's website than ABC's.)