China is angered by Apple's big iPhone event mentioning Taiwan and says it could hurt sales

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apple event china taiwan hong kong

Apple; Business Insider

• On Wednesday during its annual iPhone event, Apple mentioned Taiwan and Hong Kong without using China's preferred terms.
• Chinese state media and citizens lashed out at the tech giant for not acknowledging Chinese sovereignty over those two places.
• The state-run China Central Television suggested that Apple could lose its market demand in China and that its actions could "cause unnecessary political and legal troubles."
• Taiwan for decades has operated as its own country, but Beijing insists that Taiwan belongs to it.
• Hong Kong is a special administrative region that belongs to China.
• Apple has a lot to lose from alienating China.

China is lashing out at Apple after the tech giant failed to use Beijing's preferred name for Taiwan during the company's annual iPhone event on Wednesday.

While introducing where its new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max devices would be available later this month, Apple listed China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan separately alongside the three nations' flags.

Multiple news outlets run by the Chinese state have since published posts demanding explanations from Apple, with China Central Television suggesting that Apple's actions could "hurt" its market demand in China and "cause unnecessary legal and political troubles."

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Xi Jinping

REUTERS/Guillermo Granja

"People with a little bit of common sense will list 'Hong Kong, China,' and 'Taiwan, China,' on official occasions," China Central Television wrote on Thursday. "How can such a serious and professional occasion like the Apple keynote not do this?"

It added: "A company known for its rigor and service excellence must be very sophisticated in every detail. Details about a country's territorial sovereignty must go through rigorous verification before they can be released to the public.

"If this kind of sloppiness is allowed to continue, it will not only hurt the company's reputation and market demand but also cause unnecessary political and legal troubles."

The broadcaster noted that while Apple listed the US Virgin Islands separately from the US, the company made clear the US's sovereignty over the region.

US Virgin Islands, however, is the official name of the US-administered island chain, used to differentiate it from the British Virgin Islands.

Additionally, Apple listed Puerto Rico, a US territory, without describing it as belonging to the US.

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Tim Cook China

Reuters

Still, the state-run Beijing Daily wrote on the popular microblogging site Weibo: "How difficult is it to add a 'China' in front of 'Taiwan'?"

The state-run tabloid Global Times added: "Apple, what do you mean by this?"

Apple's official Weibo page was also flooded with comments demanding explanations and saying the company was "ill."

Other commentators on Weibo accused Apple of disrespecting China and threatened to return all their Apple products.