Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to visit Beijing later this month to meet high-level government officials, reports Reuters. He plans to meet senior government and Communist Party leaders – including officials in charge of propaganda, the article adds, quoting an unnamed source “who declined to be named as the plan is not public yet.”
The visit is probably designed to allow Cook to address several issues as Apple facing declining revenues in China. Last month, Apple’s iBookStore and iTunes Movies services were shut down in the country on the orders of the government’s media watchdog, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The two online stores were only launched six months previously, and their closure comes as China’s President Xi Jinping seeks to consolidate government control of the web and media.
Cook doubtless will address this issue and perhaps the company’s retail store initiatives. Apple’s goal is to have 40 retail stores open in China before the end of 2016.
