Apple Rotten to the Core, Academic Says

By intern reporter Hu Ning

Apple Inc. has been heavily criticized by several state media outlets since mid-March, a campaign that a leading scholar says is a misallocation of media resources and something that can sour perceptions of the investment environment in China.

On March 15, CCTV aired a popular annual consumer protection program that this year was critical of the after-care service offered by Apple. The show also criticized other foreign and domestic companies.

In the days after the show, primetime CCTV news programs continued to criticize Apple for alleged double standards employed in China. Apple responded by saying Chinese customers enjoyed its highest standard of service and the company used a similar repair policy around the world.

The People's Daily, the main newspaper of the Communist Party, published five editorials in as many days in late March that repeated the line of attack on Apple Inc. It also said the American tech giant, maker of the popular iPhones and iPads, was being arrogant beyond comparison. Other national newspapers, including the Guangming Daily and Xinhua Daily Telegraph, reprinted the People's Daily's commentaries.

Fu Weigang an academic specializing property law and vice president of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, is critical of the attacks on Apple.

"So many media resource are devoted to (bashing) a product whose customer experience is relatively good while there are many poor-quality products begging for scrutiny," he said. "This is a misallocation of media resources."

Fu also said the laws Apple was accused of breaking were poorly defined. One key allegation is that Apple provides a one-year warranty for its products while Chinese regulations require protection lasting two years.

Officials from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, a ministry-level government body that is responsible for product quality, among many other tasks, said the popular iPad tablet is in fact a personal computer entitled a two-year warranty.

Fu said the same regulation required that electronic handsets must have a one-year warranty. So which category does a tablet fall into? "The boundaries should be made clearer," Fu said.    

CCTV also said that some services Apple provided in China were inferior to those offered in the United States. One example was that defective iPhones were not being replaced with new phones.

However, Fu said it was unfair to compare Apple's services in the two countries. Every country has its own sets of laws, and companies had to abide by different laws in different countries.

"If we push the double standard question to the extreme, Apple's American employees are paid more than Chinese employees," Fu said. "Does that qualify as discrimination against Chinese labors?"

Fu also said that a media campaign targeting an influential international company could raise questions over the investment environment in China and worry foreign companies.

Product quality and service were key to a company's survival, and consumers voted with their purchases, said Fu. He predicted that as long as Apple kept its edge in these areas, the media campaign would have little effect on sales.

english.caixin.com