MCLC: app wiped from iTunes

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Anne Henochowicz <anne at chinadigitaltimes.net>
Subject: app wiped from iTunes
***********************************************************

A sign of Apple's new strategy in China?

Anne

===========================================================

Source: Quartz (4/4/13): http://qz.com/70867

Are iOS apps the next victims in China¹s war on Apple?
By Lily Kuo 

It looks like Another Bad China Day for Apple. The company faces
accusations of kowtowing to China
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/04/04/apple-accused-of-kowtowing-to-china-
as-it-follows-recent-apology-by-banning-app-for-illegal-content/> after it
removed an application from its app store in China today that includes
books banned in the country‹just days after Apple issued a long and
contrite apology 
<http://qz.com/69438/china-shames-apple-into-apologizing-for-its-unparallel
ed-arrogance/> to Chinese customers following near daily onslaughts by
state media. (Apple hasn¹t responded to a request for comment.)

But the removal of  bookstore jingdian shucheng
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chu-ji-hui-ji-kao-shi-bi-bei/id619730951?m
t=8> (or classics bookstore), may just be the beginning of Apple giving in
to Chinese censorship in order to preempt another attack. We asked earlier
<http://qz.com/70291/after-apples-china-apology-is-an-itunes-crackdown-next
/> whether the current scrutiny of Apple by Chinese authorities would mean
a crackdown 
<http://qz.com/70291/after-apples-china-apology-is-an-itunes-crackdown-next
/> on Apple¹s app store. Up to now, Apple has been one of the only foreign
online services that has seemingly gotten away with circumventing the
Great Firewall of China, the country¹s censorship system. The Apple app
store uses a secure connection to users that could make it harder for
censors to block specific apps. And it has so far allowed Chinese users to
access all apps in the store, including those for virtual private networks
used to get around censors. ²This is an issue that we¹ve been waiting to
hit the news ­ there¹s so much foreign content available through the app
store that has not been directly approved by the Chinese government,²
Jeremy Goldkorn, director of Chinese media blog Danwei, told the Financial
Times 
<http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/39e02d6c-9d02-11e2-88e9-00144feabdc0.html?f
tcamp=crm/email/201344/nbe/USMorningHeadlines/product#axzz2PVArzBCC>
(paywall).

The Financial Times reports that the developer of jingdian shucheng, Hao
Peiqiang, said he wasn¹t given a reason for the removal but suspects it
was the inclusion of three titles by the Chinese political activist Wang
Lixiong that are banned in China. These include one on China¹s policies
toward Tibet (Tianzang), the possible collapse of the Chinese government
(Yellow Peril) and a memoir of Wang¹s travels in the western region of
Xinjiang, home to a separatist movement (My Western Territory, Your
Eastern Land), according to the newspaper. The app and the books are
available outside of China.

Here is a copy of the email Hao got from Apple, from his blog

<http://tinyfool.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/apple-start-coordinate-with-china.h
tml> 

and posted on technology news site, the NextWeb

<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/04/04/apple-accused-of-kowtowing-to-china-
as-it-follows-recent-apology-by-banning-app-for-illegal-content/>.