[kodablah]

I disagree. But say the option wasn't to disable imessage, but rather break the encryption or stop selling in China? Or stop using your own encrypted icloud storage and use one run by China or stop selling in China?

To buttress your belief, is there any circumstance where they didn't cave to requests from the Chinese government? Or anywhere where they publicly disagreed at least? Honest question as I'm unsure if it has ever happened.

[eridius]

China can't mandate that Apple run an unencrypted messaging system in China. They could demand that Apple not run an encrypted one, but it would be complete nonsense to say "you must operate a message network or you can't sell phones!"

> To buttress your belief, is there any circumstance where they didn't cave to requests from the Chinese government?

I don't see how I could have an answer to that question, because Apple doesn't publicize the times that China asks them to do something and they say no. I would certainly imagine that China has probably asked them to break the encryption on iMessage.