Apple excluded from China's procurement list

Apple Inc opens its first store in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, on Saturday. Meanwhile, the company has become the latest United States technology company to be excluded from Chinese government purchases amid escalating tensions between the countries over claims of hacking and cyberspying. [China Daily]

Apple's iPads and Macbook laptops did not make China's government procurement list, according to media reports citing unnamed officials.

The report said ten Apple products, including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, were omitted in the final list distributed in July.

The models were on a June version of the list drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, the reports said.

There have not been government comments on the reports yet.

Apple products did not appear on the latest list of energy-efficient products posted on the official government purchase website (ccgp.gov.cn) run by China's Ministry of Finance. Products from Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. were included on the list.

The register applies to all central authority departments, government ministries and all local governments, according to the reports. The next review for the list will be in January.

Apple is the latest U.S. technology company to be excluded from Chinese government purchases. China's procurement agency earlier told government departments to stop buying antivirus software from Symantec Corp. and Kaspersky Lab.

China announced in May that it will forbid the use of the Windows 8 operating system in new government computers, a move to ensure computer security after the shutdown of Windows XP.

All desktops, laptops and tablet PCs to be purchased by central state organs must be installed with OS other than Windows 8, according to an online statement by the Central Government Procurement Center, the Xinhua news agency reports.

Also in May, China's State Internet Information Office announced that it would start security vetting of major IT products and services for use by national security and public interests.