Apple Bows to China Again, Shamelessly Removes Emoji of Rival Country's Flag
Apple continued its appeasement of China with a shameless deletion of a flag emoji belonging to a rival of the communist nation from some iPhones.
An updated version of the cell phone’s operating system removed the Taiwanese flag emoji from iPhones sold in Hong Kong and Macau, Bloomberg reported.
The flag was previously deleted from iPhones in the People’s Republic of China. Apple made the restriction so strict that those phones are unable to even receive the emoji in a message.
“If users have a device from another region, but they set the region to Hong Kong or Macau, the Taiwan emoji will also disappear,” the Hong Kong Free Press reported.
Taiwanese tech enthusiasts discovered a workaround to display the flag on their phones, although it’s unclear if Apple will close this loophole in the future, according to local Taiwan website Hiraku.
The island nation of Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, is all that remains of the nationalist enemy of the communist People’s Republic of China.
While Taiwan now only wants to maintain its independence, mainland China is hellbent on complete unification. The communist leaders have made it clear that they are willing to go to great and violent lengths to accomplish this goal.
China has been just as aggressive in their efforts to bring Hong Kong under its total control.
But why is Apple, an American company, siding with a foreign communist nation to further the central party’s goals?
At the end of the day, it’s all about the money. China offers a market of 1.3 billion people, as well as a workforce that isn’t beholden to tedious things like labor laws.
The increasingly large consumer market has also caused other American companies to place profits before the country.
The NBA recently sided with the communist nation over one of its general managers, all over a tweet supporting democracy in Hong Kong. The league has even begun targeting fans who dare to speak out about the plight of people in the former British colony.
Left-leaning Hollywood is even changing entire movies for a shot at massive Chinese audiences, edits that sometimes even place the communist nation in the hero’s shoes.
While Apple’s move doesn’t affect Americans directly, it’s a shocking look at how much a U.S. company is prepared to do to please a foreign country.
How far will Apple and similar companies go to assist China?
The communist nation is reported to have internment camps for certain ethnic minorities and those who dare to speak out against the government. Would Apple help China hunt down dissidents if it meant keeping access to the country’s massive population?
The memory holing of Taiwan hints that the company will help China erase the entire notion of a rival country’s independence, so it may not be that far fetched to think they’d do the same with those living under the communist regime.
This should serve as a warning to consumers who may not be aware that by purchasing from Apple and similar China-friendly companies, they are indirectly supporting the goals of an overseas communist party.
