【经济学人】【双语】苹果中国 傲慢品牌的致歉

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苹果老板Tim Cook 对于持续攻击已经向中国消费者道歉：我们惊觉我们缺少与消费者的沟通导致产生苹果品牌傲慢和不重视消费者的后果，库克在发表在中国苹果官网的信中写道“我们向关注及误解的消费者给予最真诚的的歉意。他表示会改善苹果的售后服务。

  苹果和中国其实很像。他们都是高度封闭独裁一个产生了惊人的经济增长体，另一个创造了科技奇迹，而且只有那些愿意遵循他们规则的才能够存活。苹果是在中国最成功的品牌之一，中国是苹果最大的市场之一。

  中国政府的媒体对这家美国科技公司的持续攻击令人费解。在世界消费者维权日315节目上，这个CCTV中国年度非常受关注的节目中，官方主播攻击了苹果在中国的政策。暗示这个贪婪的公司歧视中国消费者。本周内，人民日报发表了一系列尖酸的报道指责苹果公司的傲慢无礼。

  外国公司在中国受到这样的待遇并不是偶然，这显然是设计好的。去年肯德基因为供应链缺失导致供鸡质量不过关。但是央视针对苹果的曝光，远没有伤害到苹果的核心利益。这背后究竟是什么呢？

一个可能性是苹果的竞争者采取一系列手段攻击苹果企图获得商业利益。在微博上有很多庆祝者加入了CCTV对苹果的攻击。其中的一个被付费发言者，发微博攻击苹果但却在过程中出现了失误，将设定好的时间暴露了--说明了这并不是他写的。这是很尴尬的，但是这并不证明有一个公司在背后支撑这一切--尤其是这些名人攻击者并不承认是付费攻击。

  这次对苹果的攻击更像是一次政治性攻击，但是形式目前并不明朗。有人认为这是CCTV的一次勒索旨在让苹果在其频道上投放广告。有些人认为这是官僚主义虚荣作怪。曾经傲慢的苹果可能会在北京政府的压力下低头。

  但是如果苹果是一个替罪羔羊该如何？有些人认为近期冲突是对国外攻击中国品牌的反击。例如欧盟对中国太阳能的双反，电信巨人华为在没有证据的情况下被美国认定为中U哦间谍。

  对苹果的攻击有可能只是将国外手机品牌赶出中国手机市场的一个序幕。鉴于苹果系统和安卓系统在中国的重要地位，这个举动看起来很荒唐。但是，官方白皮书确实明确指出中国对安卓系统的依赖是危险的。国家监察或者安全局可能会提升本土操作系统，以便于更好的渗透，监视及控制。

  还有更奇怪费解的理论来解释对于苹果的攻击。很容易联想到中国对像大众这样公司的长篇评论，这种现象可能标志着这些品牌会成为行业的新领导者。从这个观点来看，这就好像是中国对钓鱼岛的强烈维护以及其他军事事件上。

  说实话，除了政府内部没有人知道将会发生什么。唯一确定的是这个品牌需要高度注意了。”当前中国是我们的第二市场，库克在曝光前对新华社说，他预测市场走向说：“我相信它会成为我们的第一大市场，我很坚信。”

Update (April 1st, 10pm GMT): Reacting to the repeated attacks, Tim Cook, Apple's boss, has apologised to the firm's Chinese customers. "We are aware that a lack of communications...led to the perception that Apple is arrogant and doesn't care or attach enough importance to consumer feedback," Mr. Cook wrote in the letter, which was published on the firm's Chinese website. "We express our sincere apologies for any concerns or misunderstandings this gave consumers." He vowed to improve Apple's customer-service policies.

APPLE and China seem a perfect fit. Both are secretive autocracies that have produced spectacular economic results and technological marvels—but only for those willing to abide by the strict rules imposed within their great firewalled gardens. Apple is one of China’s most successful brands and China one of Apple’s most important markets.

So it is quite surprising to see the American technology firm come under repeated attack in recent days by mouthpieces for the state and Communist party. On March 15th, World Consumer Rights Day, a much-watched annual programme on CCTV, the official broadcaster, attacked Apple’s policies and practices in China. The suggestion was that the greedy firm treated locals as second-class citizens. This week, the People’s Daily, a party mouthpiece, launched a series of vitriolic attacks that accused the firm of “unparalleled arrogance.”

It is not unusual for foreign companies to come under occasional attack in China. Sometimes, this is well deserved—as when, last year, KFC was exposed for supply-chain lapses that led chickens of dubious quality to be served in its restaurants. But the CCTV exposé, which discussed warranty-repair policies, did not find anything remotely as rotten at the core of Apple’s China business. So what is really behind all this?

One possibility is that the attacks are being orchestrated by a commercial rival that could gain from Apple’s misfortune. A number of celebrities rushed to join the CCTV attack on Apple by posting rude comments on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. One of them, known to be a paid spokesman for a rival smartphone manufacturer, made the mistake of including in his Weibo posting the instruction to post the attack at a certain time—making clear that it was not written by him. Embarrassing, to be sure, but that does not prove a firm was behind this—especially since the other celebrity attackers are not thought to be on a rival’s payroll.

It seems more likely that Apple is the target of an officially-sanctioned attack, but which bit of officialdom might be pushing it remains unclear. Some think it might be a shakedown by CCTV, in order to encourage Apple to advertise on its channels. Others think that it is the vanity of bureaucrats at work. The ever-arrogant Apple may have failed to kowtow to the right officials in Beijing.

But what if Apple were merely a convenient whipping boy? Some think that this recent skirmish is in retaliation for foreign powers’ attacking Chinese firms abroad. The EU, for example, is currently taking a hostile stance towards China’s solar exporters. And American politicians have all but declared war on Huawei, a telecoms giant that stands accused—on no public evidence, it must be noted—of spying for the Chinese state.

It is just possible that the attacks on Apple are a prelude to pushing foreign firms out of the Chinese mobile-phone market. That seems ridiculous, given how popular Apple’s operating system and Google’s Android are in China. However, an official white paper did recently make the extraordinary claim that China’s reliance on Android was dangerous. The country’s censors or security enforcers may want to promote domestic operating systems that they can more easily penetrate, monitor or control.

There is another, even more troubling, theory that could explain the bizarre and unexpected attack on Apple this month. Taken together with other recent tirades against foreign firms like Volkswagen, this could mark a radically different approach to foreign companies being tested by China’s new leadership. Such sabre-rattling could be seen, on this view, as the natural complement to the belligerence seen over the Senkakus and in other military matters.

Truth be told, nobody outside the official inner circle has a clue what is really going on. The only certain thing is that the famously aloof technology firm is surely paying attention. “China is currently our second-largest market,” Tim Cook said to Xinhua, the official newswire of Chinese propagandists, before the attacks. He then perhaps tempted fate by going on: “I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will.”

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