A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman warned on Friday that Chinese consumers could boycott Apple if the United States (US) bans WeChat, a popular Chinese social networking site.
This information was mentioned in a Jakarta Post report citing AFP on Saturday.
According to the report, US President Donald Trump announced that the US would ban Chinese-owned WeChat and TikTok from mid-September. Trump accused the apps of being a threat to national security. Since then, tensions between Beijing and Washington have escalated.
“If WeChat is banned, there can be no reason for the Chinese to use iPhone and Apple products,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted yesterday.
Chinese social media users have reacted mixed to Zhao’s comments.
“I use Apple,” one Chinese citizen said on Twitter. However, I also love my country.”
Another Chinese citizen said: “No matter how good Apple is, it’s just a phone. So Apple can be changed, but WeChat is different.”
“If WeChat is shut down, modern Chinese will lose their identity, especially the merchants,” he added.
WeChat is known as Weizin in mainland China and has more than 1.2 million active users.
If Trump’s executive order against WeChat goes into effect, the platform will have to wind down all its activities in the US, along with a trade ban for US citizens.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple dominated the Chinese smartphone market by eight percent in the second quarter of 2020. And it is much less than the Chinese brand Huawei.
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Categories: Technology
Source: vtt.edu.vn