Tim Cook visits China for 2nd time this year. Is Apple worried about sales in the country?
Tim Cook met with Chinese Minister Jin Zhuanglong to discuss Apple’s investments and data security in China.
Apple Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook discussed investments, data security and cloud services with a senior Chinese official during his second trip to the nation this year.
Cook met China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong in Beijing on Wednesday, according to a post on the ministry’s WeChat account. Cook and Jin talked about Apple’s presence in China, secure management of online data and cloud services, the agency said.
“Apple will continue to grow its investments in China and help the high-quality development of the supply chain,” Cook was quoted as saying in the WeChat post, without providing further details. Jin reportedly urged Cook to continue investing more in innovation in the country.
Cook announced his arrival in China on Tuesday by posting several photos from his trip, including a visit to an Apple store in Beijing and a suburban organic farm. In one of the photos, Cook was seen accompanied by Jeff Williams, his chief operating officer.
The Chinese government has tightened control over the flow of data in recent years. Apple announced in 2017 that it would build its first data center in China to comply with local regulations, which require global companies to store information within the country. Later Apple agreed to shift the storage of Chinese users’ data on the iCloud to server farms operated by Guizhou Cloud Big Data, a company with local government ties.
China, the world’s largest smartphone arena, remains Apple’s most important market outside the US. Apple supports millions of jobs in China.
Chinese officials have been trying to attract investments from global companies to prop up its ailing economy, but foreign investors pulled a record amount of money from China in the second quarter, likely reflecting deep pessimism about the world’s second-largest economy.