Well the options from China's perspective is: Come to the table and meet some/all of our demands or stop doing business here.
Since Apple devices are now on the Chinese Governments poopy list, I assume Apple is only meeting some, not all of China's demands. I assume if Apple did everything the Chinese govt wanted, they wouldn't be on the poopy list. Personally I see being on the Chinese govt poopy list as an endorsement that it's probably a net positive for privacy and security compared to those not on the list. :)
Around WhatsApp, it's probably part of the whole compromise mess above. WhatsApp now does E2E and that's something China is not a fan of, so it's probably China's doing that it's not in the app store in China any more. Apple is just following the laws China forces them to follow.
It should be noted I've never been to China(yet) and have zero 1st hand knowledge.
It's a silly oversimplification that nothing in China is ever allowed to have privacy ever. China has privacy/data protection laws just like other countries do. Even an authoritarian government doesn't want other random private actors getting to see everything.
I agree, but I was talking specifically about the govt.
The govt basically requires total access doesn't it? I mean every govt basically wants it, and the US has tried many times, but so far hasn't quite gotten complete access everywhere.
