Bluetooth, AirDrop and such file-sharing services are crucial tools in China, where the so-called Great Firewall has resulted in one of the mostly tightly-controlled internet regimes. In recent years, anti-government protesters have often turned to AirDrop to organise and share their political demands. For instance, some activists were sharing anti-Xi Jinping posters using this tool on the Shanghai subway last October - just as the Chinese president was awaiting a historic third term as the country’s leader.
I hope Apple will take a stand against this, though I expect them to comply without too much protest. They’ve already been messing with iMessage and iCloud in China by the demands of the Chinese government so I expect they’ll be complying with this too.
How will they ever block Bluetooth, though? Disabling Apple’s special protocol can be done because they only need to pressure one single company, but Bluetooth has been built into every phone for decades. There’s no way they can hope to actually enforce these rules for an open standard like that.
Apple has repeatedly given in to Chinese government’s invasive policies, despite all their marketing on “privacy”; because China is a huge market for them. As much as I hate google for most of their practices, they have the basic decency to volunteeringly leave China when their regulations is against the company value.
Yes, and don’t forget that Apple still depends on Chinese factories to assemble its iPhone devices.