‘China bans Apple products’

China has reportedly prohibited government agencies from purchasing hardware products made by US Corporation Apple due to security concerns.

Unnamed Chinese government officials said Apple devices, such as the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, were excluded from a final state procurement list distributed by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance last month, Bloomberg reported.

They said the ban would apply to all Chinese central and local government agencies.

The move comes amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington over US espionage activities.

Security experts say US technology is riddled with hidden applications installed for spying purposes. China’s Central Television (CCTV) said in a report in June that location-tracking software on Apple’s devices could potentially present a security threat to users.

The climate for US tech companies in China has deteriorated following the revelations by American whistleblower Edward Snowden that US tech companies cooperated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in spying activities.

Classified documents released by Snowden showed that the US put considerable efforts into spying on former Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Chinese Trade Ministry, banks, and telecommunications companies. According to the revelations, a major target of the NSA’s spying operation has been Huawei, which is the world’s second largest network equipment supplier.

In May, the US government officially charged five Chinese military officers for hacking into private-sector American companies for competitive advantage. The US government demanded that China extradite the officers; however, the Chinese government denied the charges.