Is China Trying to Take Apple Down?

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By: Benjamin Carlson March 19, 2013
CNBC




Every year on March 15 — World Consumer Rights Day — China's state television runs widely watched exposes on companies it alleges are guilty of some seamy practice.

China Central Television, or CCTV, usually does such a good job of ginning up outrage that companies are forced to apologize, and their stocks take a huge tumble. (Just look at the program they ran on food safety at McDonald's last year.)

This year, CCTV really stepped in it. Their program on Apple raised concerns that the company has less fair phone-replacement policies in China than in other countries. But it all backfired when Taiwan-based star singer and actor Peter Ho posted a message on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that blasted Apple and ended with the off phrase, "post around 8:20."

Netizens immediately pounced, accusing Ho — and a bevy of other celebrities — of participating in an astro-turfing campaign against Apple. Ho deleted the post, then claimed it had been sent by a hacker.

Then another celebrity, internet icon Kai-fu Lee, came out and said he had been approached by CCTV and asked to join in the Apple bashing.

Since then, the hashtag #PostAround820 has gone viral on Weibo.

Some users have theorized that CCTV was trying to pressure Apple into buying advertising, as many have noted that some companies that were previously attacked, such as internet giant Baidu, then went on to buy huge sponsorships of CCTV's New Year Gala, which would be equivalent to a Superbowl ad in the US.

As venture capitalist Xue Manzi wrote in a translation by Ministry of Tofu, "The difference between its Chinese New Year Gala and 315 Evening Show is, you can pay money to appear in one and pay money to avoid appearing in the other.

In fact, it's raised suspicions that this may be the tip of an orchestrated campaign against Apple, which competes against Chinese companies like Huawei. The iPhone has huge cachet in China as a luxury product, and perhaps more importantly, it's brought on a wave of smartphones that have given people unprecedented power to share information. This is something that the Communist Party would like to have under control.

Of course, this is highly speculative, but it has some precedent in Google, which came under such pressure that it pulled out of China in 2010.

If Apple starts to encounter unusual roadblocks in China in the near future, people may look on this little CCTV debacle as prophetic.


Is China Trying to Take Apple Down?
 

nimo_cn

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when did Google pull out of China?

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Lol, these chicoms go to any lengths to protect their turf.
 

nimo_cn

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Lol, these chicoms go to any lengths to protect their turf.
it is a fact that Apple is discriminating against Chinese customers, to protect the interests of Chinese customers, CCTV is doing the right thing.

by the way, Apple is not the only company that was targeted, Chinese companies were also listed for not taking care of the interests of consumers.

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it is a fact that Apple is discriminating against Chinese customers, to protect the interests of Chinese customers, CCTV is doing the right thing.

by the way, Apple is not the only company that was targeted, Chinese companies were also listed for not taking care of the interests of consumers.

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How about pull-up to the courts as to why this discrimination?. If there is discrimination is it due to lowered price or due to other concerns?. By simply doing propaganda against a company to push your own state-sponsored company products is unethical.
 

nimo_cn

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How about pull-up to the courts as to why this discrimination?. If there is discrimination is it due to lowered price or due to other concerns?. By simply doing propaganda against a company to push your own state-sponsored company products is unethical.
Apple's products are being sold at a higher prices in China than in other countries.

CCTV is not the customer, why a lawsuit initiated by CCTV?

CCTV is a media, whose responsibility is to tell people the truth, which in this case is that Apple is discriminating against Chinese consumers, going to court or not is up to Chinese buyers.

how do you figure out CCTV is doing that to push Chinese products? you should know that the best selling brand in China is not Apple but Samsung.

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Apple's products are being sold at a higher prices in China than in other countries.

CCTV is not the customer, why a lawsuit initiated by CCTV?

CCTV is a media, whose responsibility is to tell people the truth, which in this case is that Apple is discriminating against Chinese consumers, going to court or not is up to Chinese buyers.

how do you figure out CCTV is doing that to push Chinese products? you should know that the best selling brand in China is not Apple but Samsung.

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Even apple is sold at a higher price in India owing to additional taxes and customs duty.

CCTV is not customer but it might be bidding at the behest of other Chinese mobile manufacturers like - ZTE, Huawei etc. As it clearly seen from the outrage by other Chinese netizen, it seems all this bashing by CCTV is a propaganda

Then another celebrity, internet icon Kai-fu Lee, came out and said he had been approached by CCTV and asked to join in the Apple bashing.
As far as I know Apple has straight forward replacement policy anywhere in the world and anywhere you buy. I bought my Mac in US and then moved to India and then it had a problem while updating a firmware. I took it to the local apple service centre. They repaired it free of cost (replacement of motherboard). In some case that I know, they even replace the whole product of its not repairable. This is applicable within 1 year (when warranty still holds).

So, from the article it is not clear as to how the Apple replacement policies are unfair. Are they similar to other mobile manufacturers replacement policies (say ZTE, Huawei)?.
 

nimo_cn

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Even apple is sold at a higher price in India owing to additional taxes and customs duty.

CCTV is not customer but it might be bidding at the behest of other Chinese mobile manufacturers like - ZTE, Huawei etc. As it clearly seen from the outrage by other Chinese netizen, it seems all this bashing by CCTV is a propaganda



As far as I know Apple has straight forward replacement policy anywhere in the world and anywhere you buy. I bought my Mac in US and then moved to India and then it had a problem while updating a firmware. I took it to the local apple service centre. They repaired it free of cost (replacement of motherboard). In some case that I know, they even replace the whole product of its not repairable. This is applicable within 1 year (when warranty still holds).

So, from the article it is not clear as to how the Apple replacement policies are unfair. Are they similar to other mobile manufacturers replacement policies (say ZTE, Huawei)?.
my advice to you, figure out what is really going on before making a judgment only based on this article.

since it is kind of late and i am on a phone, i may go to detail tomorrow.

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Daredevil

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my advice to you, figure out what is really going on before making a judgment only based on this article.

since it is kind of late and i am on a phone, i may go to detail tomorrow.

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Sure.

But the co-ordinated propaganda and smear campaign of CCTV against Apple is clear

All seems fine and fair up to this point. In fact, many Chinese netizens were already ready to bite, with many claiming that they will never buy Apple products again given its unequal treatment to Chinese consumers. Sina Weibo, the country leading micro-blogging platform which is similar to Twitter, is where the story got a sudden twist. During the broadcasting night, a Taiwanese celebrity, Peter Ho, was caught to post a message on his Weibo that he would soon regret. He wrote, "Apple played so many tricks in customer service ? As an Apple fan, I am really hurt "¦ Is what you've done worthy of Steve Jobs ? Worthy of the young man who sold one kidney ? So you bully customers just because you are big ! To be posted at around 8:20." The last sentence, "To be posted at around 8:20," sounds very much like an instruction to him about timing of his attack on Apple. It's properly a careless copy and paste from a PR person and forget to leave out the telltale message.:rofl: :rofl:


The original post from Peter Ho's weibo account, in Chinese.

Peter Ho has about five million followers on Sina Weibo. Two hours later, he deleted the post and claimed that his account was hacked and it was not him who post the Apple-bashing tweet. During the airing of the show, at least five other similar posts were published at the same moment by various influential people on Weibo which only lead more to believe that Apple had been set up in a carefully orchestrated smear campaign that ended in a fiasco only because of this Peter Ho who let the cat out of the bag. And guess what, the biggest iron is that all these people used Apple products to send out their Apple-bashing posts. Seeing the sudden turn, many people started to question the credibility of the consumer rights show which produced by the state broadcaster. The authorities abused its media power by mobilizing so much manpower behind the scenes to beleaguer one corporate. The gathered of local journalists to visit Beijing Apple store on the spot were to echo the criticisms of Apple.


Chinese journalists were gathered outside the Apple store, waiting for the Apple's story to be aired.


After the section was aired, they rushed in to the store to question Apple's employee.


Local journalists complained Apple refused to answer them while visiting to the Beijing head office, on a Sunday where no one is working. :rofl:

Kaifu Lee, the former president of Google China, admitted he had been invited by show organizers to post appointed comments on his Weibo. He didn't accept the offer because the topics was not as important as the air and food safety in China. Recently Kaifu Lee was banned for three days from posting on his Chinese micro-blogging sites because he was speaking too much of the truth on controversies. According to insider source, professionals with million of followers will be paid up to 100,000 yuan (US$16,030) per day for posting appointed comments on Weibo.

During 2008, the China Central Television reported on Baidu.com for running ads paid by illegal and unlicensed pharmaceutical companies. Baidu's stock price took a terrible tumble afterwards. But in 2009, Baidu plunked down US$5.7 million as the sponsor of the Chinese New Year Gala, one of the most watched TV program in the world produced by China Central Television. It was noted as a public relations campaign to repair its reputation. But that led to accusations of media corruptibility–that either Baidu was paying for positive coverage or the state broadcaster was extorting companies for advertising spend. The smear campaign against Apple might be another extorting of advertisement.

In an official statement responding to China Central Television's report, Apple said that they have been striving to exceed consumers' expectations, and highly value every customer's criticism and suggestions. Apple's repair policies led to a number of complaints last year and caused some provincial consumer watchdogs to include the brand on a "company integrity" blacklist. Apple fine-tuned parts of the controversial repair policies but some unfair practices still remain. Apple is a bit of a shitty company, but China Central Television just can't use its public power to get rid of big clients who don't buy their ads. CCTV is a highly influential Chinese state broadcaster that frequently influences both government and corporate policies. Seems like it was a coordinated effort to wreck Apple's business in China.
The Inside Story of China’s State Broadcaster in Smear Campaign Against Apple (Video) » M.I.C. Gadget
 

huaxia rox

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Apple issues apology following attacks in China - The Times of India

BEIJING: Apple issued an apology to Chinese consumers on Monday after government media attacked its repair policies for two weeks in a campaign that reeked of economic nationalism.

A statement Apple posted in Chinese on its website on Monday said the complaints had prompted "deep reflection" and persuaded the company of the need to revamp its repair policies, boost communication with Chinese consumers and strengthen oversight of authorized resellers.

State broadcaster CCTV and the ruling party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily, had led the charge against the iconic American company. They accused Apple of arrogance, greed and "throwing its weight around" and portrayed it as just the latest Western company to exploit the Chinese consumer.

The attacks quickly backfired, though, and were mocked by the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers who revere Apple and its products. State-run media also inadvertently revived complaints over shoddy service by Chinese companies.

Nonetheless, Apple responded with an apology from CEO Tim Cook.

"We've come to understand through this process that because of our poor communication, some have come to feel that Apple's attitude is arrogant and that we don't care about or value feedback from the consumer," Cook's Chinese statement said, as translated by The Associated Press. "For the concerns and misunderstandings passed on to the consumer, we express our sincere apologies."

Although Apple enjoys strong support from Chinese consumers, the vehemence of the attacks and the importance of the Chinese market appeared to have persuaded the company to smooth its relations with Chinese consumers and authorities.

The People's Daily newspaper ran an editorial last Wednesday headlined "Strike down Apple's incomparable arrogance."

"Here we have the Western person's sense of superiority making mischief," the newspaper wrote. "If there's no risk in offending the Chinese consumer, and it also makes for lower overheads, then why not?"

Chinese observers accused People's Daily of gross hypocrisy and pointed out that the newspaper had maintained a stony silence when Chinese companies were implicated over food safety, pollution and other scandals. Meanwhile, CCTV was shamed when it emerged that celebrities had been recruited to blast the company on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, in what had been billed as a grassroots campaign.

"The public responded in two ways to this incident," popular commentator Shi Shusi wrote on his Weibo account. "One group supports this criticism but quite a number of people felt that there are state monopolies which have severely violated customer's rights, but which are not being exposed."

Popular business magazine Caijing said its readers identified a long list of abusers, including state banks that lend to those with political connections while stiffing ordinary savers with low rates on deposits; a government oil company that sets gas prices and other rates as it sees fit; and state telecom providers notorious for their lack of customer service.

"If media is going to go after Apple, let's hope they spare some thought for those big Chinese communications companies and other monopolies, the ones that enrich special interests in the name of being publicly owned," Cai Tongqi, a lawyer from the eastern province of Jiangsu, wrote on Weibo.

Consumers thus far seem unfazed by the state media's attacks on Apple Inc.

Perusing the wares at an Apple reseller in Beijing's tony China World mall, recent college graduate Zeng Lu said she considered the controversy a sign of the Chinese consumer's growing maturity.

"It's great to see Chinese consumers standing up for their rights, but it's ridiculous for the People's Daily to get involved," Zeng said. "They should be criticizing state companies instead."

Apple's popularity flies in the face of China's ardent attempts to push its own brands and develop internationally competitive companies. The company also has resisted trends to enter joint ventures and move research and development to China. It also ignores big state media such as CCTV and People's Daily. Apple relies on Chinese factories, though, to make iPads, iPhones and other popular products.

Despite the government's pressures, sales of Apple products in the region, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, grew 67 percent to $6.8 billion in the first three months of 2013, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the company. Apple sold 2 million iPhone 5s during the first weekend it was available in China, in December.

The region is Apple's third largest market, accounting for 13 percent of all sales last year. More than 17,000 outlets sell its products in mainland China, a figure that includes 11 Apple stores and 400 premium resellers. In January, Cook said he expects China to replace North America as its largest source of revenue in the foreseeable future.

The attacks on Apple center on complaints over Apple's repair policies in China _ specifically its practice of only replacing faulty parts rather than providing new iPhones, as it does in other markets. Critics say that allows Apple to avoid having to extend its service warranty by another year. Until Monday, the Cupertino, California-based company had kept silent apart from issuing a statement March 23 explaining its repair policy and pledging its deep respect for the Chinese consumer.

Yet consumers and analysts say the complaints hardly justify Beijing's campaign of vilification. Such nationalist outbursts are not uncommon, although previous campaigns against foreign companies have often been tied to perceived national slights, as often befalls Japanese firms. Beijing accused Google of being an arm of American "information imperialism" after the company announced in March 2010 that it would cease censoring its search responses inside mainland China and instead send visitors to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong.

Beijing is also angry over Washington's efforts to exclude Chinese high-tech firms including Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp. from the U.S. market, amid worries over security. A spending bill signed by President Barack Obama two weeks ago includes a clause barring NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Justice and Commerce Departments from contracting with firms tied to the Chinese government.

Washington and Beijing have also sparred over more recent hacking attacks, including a highly influential report by cybersecurity firm Mandiant that tied Chinese hacking to a unit of the People's Liberation Army based in Shanghai.

Apple, however, may have been singled out simply because it is "the biggest open target," said Jim McGregor, senior counselor at consultancy APCO Worldwide.

"We're still seeing a lot of things wrapped up in economic nationalism," McGregor said.

Even before Monday's apology, he had predicted Apple would make some sort of show of contrition to get its relations with the Chinese authorities back on track.

Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing research firm, said the assault probably stems from a combination of factors, including the failure of Chinese companies to make breakthroughs in high-end consumer electronics.

"There's a general sense of frustration that China can't move further up the value chain," Clark said.
 

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China takes aim at Apple. Why? - CSMonitor.com

Tit for tat?

One idea is that Apple has not spoken to the right officials in the right places in China. But that doesn't seem to have stopped the company from making China its second largest market. And anyway, Apple CEO Tim Cook met Li Keqiang when he visited Beijing last year. Mr. Li is now the prime minister. You cannot be much better connected than that.

Another theory is that the campaign is retribution for America's treatment of Chinese flagship telecoms companies. Last year, the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee issued a report urging US telecom companies to avoid doing business with Huawei and ZTE because it said that the two firms were subject to Chinese government influence and thus a potential threat to US security.

The report effectively froze Huawei's and ZTE's business in the US.

The payback theory "sounds more plausible" than other explanations, suggests Mark Natkin, director of Marbridge Consulting, a telecoms and IT consultancy in Beijing.

"Just enough time has elapsed" since the House report "that they can avoid it looking like tit for tat," Mr. Natkin says. "But they can make it plain that if you want to make things difficult for our companies, we can do the same for yours."

Others speculate that state-owned telecom operators have dragooned the state-owned press into battle against Apple. In this view, China Telecom and China Unicom are trying to squeeze more revenue out of the deals they have signed with Apple, and are using the media for a political campaign.

That's the view of Franz Yao, an independent IT industry observer and blogger. "I can't prove that the telecoms firms are using CCTV and People's Daily to attack Apple," he acknowledges. "But in China, state-run companies have close ties to state-run media."

A secondary aim of the campaign, suggests Mr. Yao, may be to tarnish Apple's reputation as part of a government bid to weaken the hold that foreign firms have on the Chinese smartphone market, and make more room for local manufacturers.

But none of those local firms can yet compete with Apple's high-end phones (nor with Samsung's, for that matter.)

In the end, says Xiang Ligang, president of the CCTime IT consulting firm, "it was probably Apple's pretty hardline response [to criticism] that attracted more media attention."

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about China? Take our quiz.

Volkswagen, the German automaker, was also targeted in the CCTV program two weeks ago, accused of selling vehicles with faulty transmissions.

The company quickly announced that it would recall 384,181 cars to fix the problem. No Chinese newspaper nor TV station has since breathed a word about the issue.
 

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It a response to US did to Huawei and things were settled. Happy ending for both countries.
 

amoy

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It a response to US did to Huawei and things were settled. Happy ending for both countries.
dont get what u mean by "settled"

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badguy2000

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CHina needn't take Apple down at alll.

Apple is taking itself down now,with its disreputable postsale service...


well, My wife got a Samsung Galaxy 9308 today.....
and I am going to buy another smart cellphoe for myself....
this time, I will never choose Ipone,but made a choice between
Huawei Mate

MX II
 

badguy2000

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the above two smart phones are similar or better performance than Iphone 5.

but their price is only 60% of Iphone
 

s002wjh

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Lol, these chicoms go to any lengths to protect their turf.
the article says some chinese company also was targets. so its not just apple. also in US or else where, media constantly target chinese brand too. they did the same to japanese in 60-70s.
 

amoy

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Samsung Galaxy ooops just looks huge. For a while I had a crush on Galaxy but one day when I saw a man talking with a super duper Galaxy I lost interest. More like a tablet than a phone



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huaxia rox

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1 i am not seeing apple having any problem of selling more iphones in prc.....its a good product not just because of its performance but its outstanding branding.....so its a long way for huawei and likes to even have the chance to think of taking some of apples share in the market......

2 when the market is big enough the producer will listen......2 years ago this would not have happened for sure.......

3 but users still have to rely on the producer if the producer is very powerful.............other wise prc can even ask for fine from apple because it indeed made some discriminations to prc and probably to some other markets of developing nations..........other wise prc can impose sactions on boeing when it sold weapons to taiwan.......after all the us did this to some chinese companies when they believed these companies sold something to some ones the americans dont like.....
 

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