Apple devices from China: Tough blockade by Apple Intelligence
Anyone who buys a Mac, iPhone & iPad in China cannot start Apple Intelligence on it, even with a suitable account. Apple apparently uses hard geoblocking.
Apple Store in Beijing: Own iPhone models for China on sale.
(Image: dpa, Mark Schiefelbein/AP/dpa)
When Apple Intelligence was released as a beta last summer, it was initially difficult to use the AI system within the European Union. Apple prevented this with strict geoblocking. A short time later, it was relatively easy to test the software: all you had to do was create an American App Store account and log in. Apple Intelligence has now fully arrived in the EU with iOS 18.4 and there are no longer any restrictions. In the People's Republic of China, however, the situation is very different: As users report, it is currently impossible to use Apple's AI system if the hardware was purchased in the Middle Kingdom.
iPhones with dual SIM slots popular as souvenirs from China
Apple itself has also announced this: "Apple Intelligence is currently not working for supported devices purchased in China (mainland)," it says in a support document. If you visit the People's Republic with a device that was purchased outside of China, there may also be problems. The same applies if the Apple account is set to "China (mainland)" as the region.
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Apple sells special iPhone models for China, which can be identified by the model number marking "CH/A". – Unlike iPhones in the West –, they also have a slot for dual physical SIM cards, a feature that many users would like to have. In the West, however, a physical SIM plus E-SIMs are standard. However, if you want to use Apple Intelligence, you should not currently consider buying a Chinese iPhone.
Local AI partners for China
It is unclear when the hard geo-blocking will be lifted. Apple is pursuing a different AI strategy in China than in the West. While OpenAI is a partner here and develops most of the language models and image generators in-house, the company will cooperate with Alibaba and its Qwen models in China. This also has to do with the regulation of AI in China, which only allows Western companies to implement it with local partners. In addition to iPhones, iPads and Macs also appear to be affected by the Apple Intelligence block.
As mentioned, this can be recognized by the model number. For Chinese hardware, this ends with the aforementioned "CH/A". An interesting question remains as to what will happen as soon as the Chinese version of Apple Intelligence is available. Presumably, the Western AI system will then remain blocked, even though Apple has not yet commented on this. Chinese AI models such as DeepSeek are known for their censorship.
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