<story><title>iPhone crashing bug likely caused by code added to appease Chinese government</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/iphone-crashing-bug-likely-caused-by-code-added-to-appease-chinese-govt/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>parliament32</author><text>I thought Apple was supposed to be the great government-resistant pro-user-rights stronghold.&lt;p&gt;Why is this code even present on US devices? Is the word &amp;quot;Taiwan&amp;quot; such a bad word in China that, instead of some reasonable action, it crashes the OS? Is the Chinese government so upset about Taiwan they&amp;#x27;re insisting manufacturers hide the flag from the keyboard?&lt;p&gt;All aspects of this are mind-boggling.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bigiain</author><text>&amp;gt;  Is the word &amp;quot;Taiwan&amp;quot; such a bad word in China that, instead of some reasonable action, it crashes the OS?&lt;p&gt;From my reading of the article, the intention was not to crash the device, but to hide the Taiwanese flag emoji - and the crash was because the code intended to do that was buggy.&lt;p&gt;So no - it&amp;#x27;s not _that_ bad a word.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is the Chinese government so upset about Taiwan they&amp;#x27;re insisting manufacturers hide the flag from the keyboard?&lt;p&gt;Yes, it seems this is true - and while I&amp;#x27;ve never needed to deal with requests like that from a nation state, it does seem kinda cowardly on Apple&amp;#x27;s part to agree to that, and it seems quite at odds with the resistance to the FBI getting a screenlock bypass to that iPhone 5 a while back...</text></comment>
<story><title>iPhone crashing bug likely caused by code added to appease Chinese government</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/iphone-crashing-bug-likely-caused-by-code-added-to-appease-chinese-govt/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>parliament32</author><text>I thought Apple was supposed to be the great government-resistant pro-user-rights stronghold.&lt;p&gt;Why is this code even present on US devices? Is the word &amp;quot;Taiwan&amp;quot; such a bad word in China that, instead of some reasonable action, it crashes the OS? Is the Chinese government so upset about Taiwan they&amp;#x27;re insisting manufacturers hide the flag from the keyboard?&lt;p&gt;All aspects of this are mind-boggling.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>NamTaf</author><text>According to the CCP, there is no Taiwanese flag. Taiwan is just part of China.&lt;p&gt;Qantas just folded over CCP pressure to change their stance on calling Taiwan a nation rather than a territory. [1] China is really sensitive about this and pushes its influence heavily on this particular point.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2018-06-04&amp;#x2F;qantas-to-refer-to-taiwan-as-territory-following-chinese-demands&amp;#x2F;9833606&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2018-06-04&amp;#x2F;qantas-to-refer-to-tai...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>