Is it the France Inter podcast on “Xi Jinping, the red prince” that pushed the Radio France app into the undesirable category of the Apple store in China?
In any case, the American digital giant “is in the process of removing” Radio France and France Inter from its application store in China at the request of the authorities, the French public group announced to AFP on Thursday.
“We regret that our listeners based in China find themselves sanctioned by losing simple access to our live broadcasts and podcasts, in particular to our verified information content,” deplores Radio France in a statement to AFP. The Apple brand explains that it is acting “at the request of the Chinese Cyberspace Administration (CAC)” because the Radio France application “includes content that is illegal in China”.
“The app would influence Chinese public opinion,” Radio France’s director of digital and innovation strategy, Laurent Frisch, commented on X. “We suspect that the excellent France Inter podcast” on the Chinese president, entitled “Xi Jinping, the red prince,” is being targeted, he adds.
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“We are obliged to respect the laws in force in the countries where we operate, even if we do not agree. Referring to local cybersecurity law, the Chinese Cyberspace Administration has ordered the removal of these applications from the Chinese storefront,” Apple responded.
Apple and China, a special relationship
China closely monitors its media and internet, subject to strict regulation and censorship of content that portrays state policies in a bad light or is likely to create unrest.
Many sites (Google, YouTube, etc.), applications and foreign social networks (X, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) are therefore inaccessible without IT tools such as virtual private networks (VPN) to circumvent the blocks. In April, Apple removed WhatsApp and Threads from the Chinese version of its App Store, its virtual store where applications are downloaded, also at the request of the Chinese internet regulator (CAC).
Apple products, from the iPhone to the iPad, are immensely popular in China, one of the American group’s main markets outside the United States. Apple has always refrained from taking a position on sensitive subjects or offending Chinese power. Its CEO Tim Cook has been received several times by senior officials, such as a head of state.
