Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai attend Chinese state-run internet conference
Tech chiefs make first appearance at event used to push Beijing’s arguments in favour of heavy censorship
Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, appeared at a state-run internet conference in eastern China on Sunday.
Cook told the event that “the theme of this conference – developing a digital economy for openness and shared benefits – is a vision we at Apple share” adding that Apple “is proud to have worked alongside many of our partners in China to help build a community that will join a common future in cyberspace”.
His attendance comes after Apple this year agreed to Chinese government requests to remove dozens of virtual private network (VPN) apps – services that allow Chinese users to access blocked websites – from its local App Store. Skype, the calling app, was removed from its mainland App Store this autumn.
Google’s Pichai later told delegates that “a lot of work Google does is to help Chinese companies. Many small and medium-sized businesses in China take advantage of Google to get their products to many other countries outside of China.”
The Google website and most of the company’s products – including YouTube – are banned in mainland China, although this appeared to have been relaxed at the conference venue with attendees being permitted to access Google.com. Google shut down its Chinese search engine in 2010 after a direct confrontation over Beijing’s censorship policies.
