Adidas, H&M, Nike etc were all signatories to the Better Cotton Initiative which were heavily critical of widespread human right abuses in Xinjiang.

They have been subjected to pretty harsh treatment from China including their online stores being disabled, frozen out of third party stores, supply chain disruptions and lots of critical media stories from government mouthpieces.

Thanks, interesting reads.

Google refused to censor search in China, and got the GFE blocked by the GFW.

Later they bent over backwards to get back in with a special censored search (Project Dragonfly) which got "cancelled" due to western and employee backlash (but wasn't really), continued a bit in secret, then really cancelled (so it was reported).

Also, Qwest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

Google also allows app sideloading which is something that becomes critical during civil unrest in the countries mentioned in the article.

Sideloading also allows authoritarian regimes to add apps to your phone. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/02/chinese-border...

As opposed to not sideloading which... does exactly the same thing.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/16/apple-to-offer-governme...

Not at all. I read that story as the suggested apps being on the AppStore and having gone through the normal vetting by Apple. If so, then the government doesn’t have access to any more backdoors than already potentially exists in for example WeChat or Alipay.

Yes, it's a double-edged knife, but let's keep in mind that the government actually has enough power to spy its citizens without tampering the devices, with the social networks, cell locations...

Very true but a side loaded app can do so much more. Possibly even act as a key logger. Definitely provide info about all your whereabouts during protests.

Good thing being able to sideload an app also implies that you can detect and disable or remove offending apps.

Something Apple still doesn't let you do.

You can detect it, but I wouldn't be sure they allow you to remove other apps.

Certainly, once a device enters into China, it should be considered breached and insecure.

Yeah, despite not as free as common linux distributions (can Android even be considered Linux at all?), it is the better choice in these kind of situations.

How about H&M and China?

H&M is a total failure in the Chinese market.

> H&M is a total failure in the Chinese market.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/252187/sales-of-the-hund...

I don't think that's a credible statement.

It happens, but not often - I’m struggling to think of an example. I am sure they exist.

It isn’t that surprising that an authoritarian power structure whose sole purpose is to create wealth for the owners of the structure would ally themselves with... an authoritarian power structure whose sole purpose is to create wealth for the owners of the structure.