If they did it for China, it will be the same of UK. The cat's out of the bag.

They will probably comply with some backdoor in partnership with Five-Eyes NSA & GCHQ. This is just PR posturing to build consumer trust.

Or America, as we have seen with PRISM.

Basically, it's as usual a financial calculation of what PR can brings vs what you can lose in the market.

And fanboys believe it's because they are the good guys.

Yep in that case let’s just close down the company because every country will want some privacy breaking rules imposed on you

China had all the bargaining power, in that non-compliance meant no more iPhones, and Apple going out of business. Apple wasn't ready to move production entirely to India or another country.

Google, Meta (Oculus) are banned in China and still produce their HW there.

It was about getting a slice of hugely lucrative pie of customer market.

It's very strange because like OP, huge fanboy. Early on it felt wrong to also burden Cupertino with being a cultural leader, but somewhere around $1.0T+ market cap, that has evolved.

Vaguely remember a charity used to have a thing where they'd auction off a dinner with Steve, then later Tim. Given time with a leader who has literally revolutionized supply chain in CN and a CEO who made Apple his own following the most notable CEO ever, going after various gotcha points would feel like a wasted opportunity. But think I'd have to ask why a company designed in California of the 1960s and 1970s doesn't have line in the sand policies when dealing with a genocidal government and perpetual backdoors in software and politics, but will take a move like this. Would hope for something more than a canned answer.

Capital. Once you grow to a certain point, politics and ideas are only good for marketing. Companies will happily work with banana republics and dictators if it outweighs the losses from paying your PR team a little more for a few months. Companies are not your friend, as in the end they only care about your money.