Editor’s note for Friday, October 15, 2021
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: Apple takes down a Koran app in China; Squid Game in the Taiwan Strait; finance apps similar to RobinHood could be next to be rectified; Moody's and PBoC agree that Evergrande crisis is manageable.
Dear reader,
Yesterday, Microsoft announced its decision to close the China version of LinkedIn. Here two pieces of commentary worth reading:
- Don’t celebrate Microsoft for pulling LinkedIn out of China just yet by Graham Webster
- Chinese professionals say they will miss LinkedIn by Jiang Yaling
Today, Apple “has taken down one of the world’s most popular Koran apps in China, following a request from officials,” reports the BBC. Apple has so far mostly escaped scrutiny for the accommodations it has made with the Chinese government, but how long can it be before someone ends up behind bars in China because Apple was compelled to hand over data?
Other breaking stories from China today:
Until the livestreaming of her brutal murder at her husband’s hands, Lhamo was an internet influencer with a picture perfect onscreen life. He was given the death sentence yesterday.
Squid Game in the Taiwan strait: “Almost every night for the past four months, dozens, often hundreds, of Chinese squid boats have plied the sea off Matsu near the invisible boundary known as the median line, an unofficial buffer between Taiwan and China. Mounted with green LED lights that envelop the islands, the flotilla represents the latest Chinese encroachment on Taiwan,” reports the Washington post.
Stock trading apps similar to RobinHood could be next in line for rectification in China, says the Wall Street Journal.
The Evergrande crisis is manageable and controllable, ratings agency Moody’s and the People’s Bank of China agree.
—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
