I know, I am an Apple fanboy (my shirt today states “I was a Mac user when Apple was doomed”), but I am more sanguine about this. Apple does seem to want to do the right thing with its device owners, and still be compliant with the local laws. The only way to do both is to find some way to let users know up front what the government will be able to snoop on in the future.
Ideally, the next thing to say would be that whatever back doors the government has, hackers can exploit as well but that the only alternative would be to leave the Chinese market altogether.
