If you are a corporate CEO and you receive a pointed letter about your business practices from two U.S. Senators, it will command your attention, right? And if one is a liberal Democrat and the other a conservative Republican, evidencing broad concern about whatever they are complaining about, don’t you just rivet straight up?
Apparently not if you are Tim Cook and your company is Apple. After all, Apple has a market capitalization approaching $900 billion and is the most admired brand in the world. Maybe you don’t have to pay much attention at all, even if the Senators are raising serious — and potentially explosive — questions about your relationship with the Communist government of China.
On October 17, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote Cook about the removal in July of Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps from the Apple store. VPNs allow users in China to circumvent censorship. The Senators pointed out that China has “an abysmal human rights record, including with respect to rights to free expression.”
To read the rest of the piece in the Daily Caller, click here.
To download 5-page pdf of Apple’s response, click here.