[Shivetya]

Okay, while I am in full agreement that no back door is warranted why does Apple get a pass of their actions with regards to China? The rumor mill claims it means possibly handing over source code used to drive devices. If true, how would they not do the same for US officials?

I certainly don't believe they should write the code request by the government but at the same time are they going to keep that stance in all markets?

[bhhaskin]

There is a big difference between handing over source code and pushing signed patches to a device. A key principle in modern Cryptography is that if your algorithm has to stay secret in order to remain secure then it is inherently insecure. The same could be said of source code. Handing over the source code to China should not effect the security of the platform, otherwise it is inherently insecure. Handing over signing keys however is completely different.

[Tloewald]

Apple showed the Chinese its source code so they could verify that it had not been back doored (per Snowden's accusations). Since this did not entail revealing their signing keys, it's a completely irrelevant comparison (in fact, it's exculpatory).