Apple Removes (PRODUCT)RED Branding For Red IPhone In China
Yesterday’s announcement of a red iPhone 7/Plus wasn’t just noticeable due to a mid-cycle color addition, but also because it represented Apple’s greatest ever support for (RED), an AIDS-fighting charity.
However, all mentions to the charity seems to have been removed on Apple’s Chinese website, TechCrunch reports. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a language issue — the Taiwanese site has the same PRODUCT(RED) branding as the rest of the world — but instead may be a political decision by Apple. The theory is that Apple doesn’t want to jeopardize its relationship with the Chinese government by endorsing a controversial topic in the country.
Transmission through sex has been rising exponentially, exposing which groups the UN report regards as the 21st century’s most vulnerable: “widespread lack of knowledge and protective life skills, huge internal labour migration, underprivileged minority communities, relative poverty, youth, and gender inequity” […]
Health officials say there are plenty of problems in China’s approach to AIDS. There are frequent reports of police crack-downs on local NGOs involved in AIDS prevention. There have also been reports of police using the presence of a condom in a sex worker’s handbag to justify detention. This has been partially blamed on policy incoordination, and contradictions and conflicts between laws and regulations.
In addition, there are concerns that provincial governments have enough autonomy to sometimes stall the implementation of central government-set guidelines and some officials say there has been a reluctance from many state-owned companies to get involved in AIDS programs.
China has been criticized for a long time now due to its failure to respond to the growing AIDS issue within the country.