Apple and Google CEOs Embark on Critical China Business Trip

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Some of the technology industry’s most powerful executives are embarking on a trip to China to explore ways that they can do more business in the country, says Bloomberg.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google boss Sundar Pichai and IBM head Ginni Rometty are among the influential technology leaders travelling to China this weekend to strike up new investment opportunities.

The news comes as US President Donald Trump recently announced that his government will be introducing a $60 billion tariff on products imported from China.

Politicians right around the world have slammed Trump’s decision, saying that it will cause a trade war between the US and China. But it doesn’t seem like the president is going to change his mind any time soon.

Despite this, the trip is still going ahead. The executives will be attending the China Development Forum, which is essentially an opportunity for foreign firms to improve ties with Chinese businesses and politicians.

At the 2018 gathering, Cook will serve as its co-chair – signalling that Apple is one of China’s biggest Western investors. Over the past few years, the iPhone maker has ploughed billions into the Chinese economy.

However, regardless of the fact it continues to invest heavily and sell loads of products in the country, analysts believe that its market share will fall short this year.

And earlier this week, human rights organisation Amnesty International launched a social media campaign encouraging Apple to do more to improve privacy rights in China.

It accused the company of making the personal data of its Chinese customers “vulnerable to the arbitrary scrutiny of the Chinese government” by forming a partnership with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data.

The Chinese tech firm is now handling Apple’s iCloud platform in the country. Amnesty said this partnership “affects any photos, documents, contacts, messages and other user data and content that Chinese users store on Apple’s cloud-based servers.”

Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia Director at Amnesty International, said. “Tim Cook is not being upfront with Apple’s Chinese users when insisting that their private data will always be secure. Apple’s pursuit of profits has left Chinese iCloud users facing huge new privacy risks.”

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