War? Like with machine guns, drones and tanks? I didn't realize Apple has those.<p>In all seriousness: why is every little disagreement labeled as "war" by the US media? Does it just make "good" headlines?
Just an opinion, but I don't think Beijing will be too successful in attacking Apple.<p>Chinese people don't look at all foreign brands the same. Sure, Yum foods can be attacked and that can hurt their sales. But don't forget Yum sells a cheap product as well eg. KFC, Taco Bell.<p>Audi, Mercedes, Apple... these are all premium brands Chinese people love. If you have money (or aspire to look like one who does), buying a Chinese brand just makes you look ordinary in a place where every corner is selling some Chinese-alternative lookalike.<p>Disclaimer - I'm Chinese, but raised in America.
As a bit of an aside, Gordon Chang is a frequent commentator on China-related topics.<p>He famously speculated in a book that he wrote in 2001[1] that China would collapse in 2006 due to hidden and non-performing loans of the state banks.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-China-Gordon-Chang/dp/0812977564" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-China-Gordon-Chang/dp/...</a>
Attacking apple is just a way of dealing with their own inadequacies. Apple products have just become way too popular here, making apple a nice juicy target. The people will ignore the uncredible cctv and keep buying iPhones.
Similar story in the German news the last few days. Looks like Audi, BMW and Daimler are being 'attacked' as well. They are being accused of using materials that produce poisonous fumes in their interiors.
This article opens "On Friday, Chinese state media reported that, from January of last year to the end of last month, more than 20,000 college students in the central city of Wuhan applied for 160 million yuan of “high-interest rate loans” from Home Credit China."<p>20,000 sounds high but is only 2% of Wuhan's tertiary student population, the city with the most tertiary students in all of China. According to <a href="http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2011-04/29/content_12420906_3.htm" rel="nofollow">http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2011-04/29/content_12...</a> "The total number of university students in Wuhan has surpassed Beijing and Shanghai since 2008. Up to 1.06 million people in Wuhan's 10 million population are in universities and various labs and research centers."
China didn't invent company-bashing propaganda disguised as "news", that honor probably belongs to the US.
Exhibit A - Ida Tarbell v. John Rockefeller, The History of the Standard Oil Company.
Exhibit B - Anderson Cooper v. Craigslist.
i live in Beijing. word is that CCTV uses the 3.15 expose to exert influence on advertisers. Apple had been moving too much of it's ad dollars off CCTV and onto provincial stations. it's a "we'd hate to see your company on 3.15 next year" sort of thing. guess Apple didn't listen.
Google barely exists in China.<p>Facebook doesn't exist at all.<p>Android in on notice <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/100521504" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnbc.com/id/100521504</a><p>So is Apple.<p>Microsoft seems safe, so far, and until they (or if they) clone Windows.<p>Rules, international agreements and fairness aside: It all makes sense. Why would China want their people spend a month's salary to buy a foreign product (assembly doesn't count)? Or why would the most popular sites be non-Chinese? Block the non-Chinese ones and local ones, totally controlled by China's gov, would pop up. If they could get away with it, a lot of other countries would do the same, they just don't have the 1.x billion people, trillions in Forex and audacity to try it.
>“Post around 8:20”? Ho had goofed. The movie star uploaded not only his sharply critical posting at 8:26 P.M., but he also posted the instructions he received from some other party. He is a Samsung Galaxy spokesman, but no one is fingering the Korean brand as the culprit.<p>So who told Ho to post “around 8:20”? For China’s noisy netizens, there was only one suspect: CCTV. Weibo users immediately pounced, noting that there were other anti-Apple postings around that time. By 8:45 P.M. comments criticizing the inattentive Mr. Ho were overwhelming the anti-Apple postings.<p>Ho, at 10:08 P.M., deleted his original posting and then denied he authored the attack on Apple, claiming that someone had “hacked” his Weibo account. Just about nobody believed the denial. Users began posting acerbic comments with the #PostAround8:20 hashtag. Weibo censors later deleted tens of thousands of postings with that hashtag.<p>Surreal.