[dewey]

That is such a simplistic view of things. Do you think they'd do it if there was another way? At that scale things are not that easy and you can't just break the law even if it feels "right" to you.

Most users are probably never subject to government intervention and they are still protected by the encryption from thiefs, evil ISPs and other bad actors. If Apple would pull out completely and get banned in the country they'd maybe have to switch to other companies that are not that privacy minded.

[deathhand]

Well traditionally tech companies leave open gaps for the average Joe to do the law breaking themselves. If the concept of Taiwan is illegal then it would be a add-on available from other sources. Given how closed source and how rudimentary text input is to an OS I do not know how feasible this is for an IPhone.