Some Chinese government bodies have banned their employees from using Apple’s iPhone and other foreign devices for work purposes, reported Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.
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The extent of the policy is not yet clear, but it reportedly applied to some central government agencies where employees were told not to even bring foreign branded devices to work.
Apple shares fell by around 3.6% in a day. The premium gadget maker not only manufacturers the majority of its iPhones in China, but also enjoys a strong customer base there.
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The new policy comes as more and more government bodies in the U.S. clamp down on the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok and ban employees from accessing it at work, claiming it poses national security concerns.
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Republican lawmakers especially believe that TikTok is used to spread pro-China propaganda and that it potentially enables American people’s data to be accessed by the Chinese Communist Party.
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TikTok has denied these allegations and claimed that it is free of pressure from the CCP.
The Chinese tech corporation Huawei is also under the scanner, as the U.S. actively barred the distribution of some of its products while the European Union encouraged the removal of Huawei tech from member states’ 5G infrastructure.
Since last year, China has instructed its own government bodies to make the switch to Chinese devices.
China and the U.S. are also grappling to control the flow of advanced AI chips that are used to build complex models, and also have military use cases. The U.S. restricted some Nvidia and AMD chip exports to China while the Asian country hit Micron with restrictions.