Apple is removing thousands of games from the Chinese App Store, alarming observers

As tensions between the US and China intensify, Apple’s Chinese operations – including millions of Apple customers and much of the company’s manufacturing operations – could be at risk. A new report in The information China may have already closed the loopholes that Apple has exploited in previous years, starting with the recent removal of thousands of apps from the Chinese App Store. That could potentially pose problems for the company’s future in the country.

Apple pulled more than 47,000 apps from the Chinese App Store earlier this month, as first reported by AppInChina. That move was not unexpected, as Apple recently made a policy change to eliminate a loophole that allowed previously paid games and games to be sold with in-app purchases, although they were still awaiting approval from Chinese regulators.

Nor was that the first time Apple had strongly armed itself to make sweeping changes to its services in China. For example, Chinese regulators forced Apple to close its iBookstore and iTunes Movies in China in April 2016, just six months after Apple launched those stores in the country.

But Apple’s entire App Store operation in China also depends on its own loophole, the report claims. According to the report, foreign app stores in China usually have to be joint ventures with a Chinese partner that is a majority shareholder and operator, but Apple operates the App Store on its own. Apple has apparently also avoided sharing the iOS source code with China so far, after negotiating an exemption with the Chinese government not to do so.

Recently, the Trump administration has taken sweeping measures against Chinese tech companies, making it more difficult for some to do business in the US. President Trump issued executive orders earlier this month to ban TikTok and WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent, in the US. The Trump administration has also tightened restrictions on Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei.