Apple removes Taiwan flag emoji from Macs in China

Apple removes Taiwan flag emoji from Macs in China

Apple very much likes to boast of its independence and lack of currents in relation to countries, governments and states. Stories like the one below, however, serve to remind us that even the almighty Apple, at times, needs to bow to the political pressures of places to adapt.

According to journalist Wang Boyuan, from TechCrunch, Apple made a major change to the recently released macOS Mojave 10.14.4: from the new version of the system, Macs purchased from China can no longer display / type the Taiwan flag (??) in no way – not even moving the computer region to another location.

If you remember, this is the same path that iOS followed for some time: iPhones and iPads sold in the Wall Country cannot display the figure of the Taiwanese flag since 2017, regardless of the region in which they are configured. The Mac, in turn, could display the emoji in question if it was configured for another territory up to macOS 10.14.3; not anymore.

The only ways to get around this barrier, as Boyuan speculates, would be to set up the Mac for another region already in its first boot or, alternatively, by editing a system .plist file and restarting the machine – these are only hypotheses, however.

The reasons for this blockade are known: the Chinese government has a very complicated relationship with Taiwan as an independent state. Beijing insists that government agencies and companies operating in the country refer to the country as a Chinese province – even though Taiwan has its own government, armed forces, currency and independent elections.

THE timing of the blockade is curious: as informed by Bloomberg, Tim Cook in person he was recently in China, where he met the deputy prime minister, visited Apple Wangfujing and asked the country to continue opening its economy in a speech at the Chinese Development Forum, held annually in the Chinese capital.

At a time when Apple sales are down there, it seems like a well-targeted speech, doesn’t it?

via AppleInsider