Apple chief Tim Cook meets Chinese market regulator after Hong Kong protest app controversy

They discussed ‘wide range of topics including expanding investment and business development’ in the country

It came a week after US tech giant came under fire for removing app that tracks locations of police and demonstrators following backlash from Beijing

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Apple chief executive Tim Cook met China’s top market regulator in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:12pm, 18 Oct 2019Updated: 5:12pm, 18 Oct 2019

Beijing’s top market regulator met Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook in the Chinese capital on Thursday, a week after the US tech giant came under fire for removing an app that tracks Hong Kong protests following a backlash from China.

Xiao Yaqing, director general of the State Administration for Market Regulation, and Cook discussed “a wide range of topics including expanding investment and business development in China, protecting consumer rights and interests, and fulfilling corporate social responsibility”, according to a statement from the agency on Friday.

The visit came after Apple was heavily criticised by Beijing over the app, HKmap.live, which uses crowdsourced information to track the locations of police and anti-government protesters in the city, alerting users to police vehicles, armed officers and incidents in which people have been injured.

Four months of increasingly violent protests in Hong Kong – initially over an extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China – have plunged the city into its worst crisis since it came under Chinese rule in 1997.

The protesters’ demands have broadened to include universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality.

Xiao Yaqing discussed topics including protecting consumer rights and interests with the Apple chief. Photo: Bloomberg

The controversial app could help demonstrators evade and attack police officers. Chinese state media accused Apple of protecting “rioters” in Hong Kong and enabling illegal behaviour by making it available on its App Store.