In all its iDevices, and mac with T2 security chip (so all the M1 devices now), Apple offers an anti-theft feature called the "Activation Lock" - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365 - once activated, you can use it to erase all data on your iDevice remotely and ensure that nobody can use it without knowing your Apple ID and password. It's a useful feature.

But if a government (or Apple) wants, this can be abused - for example, tomorrow if your country goes to war to the US, the US government could ask Apple to disable all Apple devices in that country, and Apple could do it, whether you like it or not.

(The conspiracy theory part that others are hinting at is that many believe that this can be easily extended to totally cripple the device and make it unusable.)