China Bans Govt Purchases Of Apple’s Gadgets – Report

Reuters/Aly Song

China has removed products by American techno giant Apple Inc, including iPads and MacBooks, from the government procurement list amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington over snooping and hacking claims, reports Bloomberg.

All in all, ten Apple devices – such as the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro – were excluded from a final state procurement list distributed last month, unnamed government officials told Bloomberg News.  The ban applies to all Chinese central and local government agencies, which are not allowed to use public money to buy these products. The now prohibited hardware had appeared in a June draft of the list prepared by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, the sources said. The register will be reviewed again in January 2015.   

So far, there have been no official comments on the restrictions.