According to a report by Financial Times Apple could get in trouble with US policy because it appears to be working with a Chinese supplier of memory products to use them like other manufacturers’ products in the iPhone 14 and other devices. First of all, it is about the flash memory of the smartphones of the iPhone 14 series.
Marco Rubio, deputy chairman of the so-called Senate Intelligence Committee, together with another high-ranking foreign politician from his party, warned that Apple’s cooperation with the Chinese memory manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) was in danger of being targeted by the US authorities to guess.
Republicans warn in no uncertain terms
Apple “plays with fire,” Rubio said in an interview with colleagues. The group is aware of the security risks that could arise from the use of memory from the production of YMTC. Should the company go ahead with the cooperation, which will see NAND flash memory supplied by the Chinese manufacturer, it will conduct an in-depth investigation on a scale Apple has never seen before.
Products from companies owned by the Chinese Communist Party cannot be allowed into US telecommunications networks and the iPhones of millions of Americans, Rubio said. In fact, until now it has not been certain that Apple is actually working with YMTC and to what extent.
Apple responded with reassurances
However, in response to a query from the Financial Times, Apple has now stated that it has not yet used any memory chips from YMTC in its products. However, a cooperation was examined in which it was about the purchase of NAND flash modules. These should then only be used in iPhones intended for the Chinese market, Apple asserted according to the report. YMTC is the largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory from China and as such supplies various customers who sell their finished products equipped with the company’s modules all over the world. The company is repeatedly criticized for its closeness to the Chinese government and is also said to be close to the military. In fact, YMTC is fully government owned.
Among other things, YMTC is said to be violating US export restrictions by supplying the Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer Huawei with its products. Huawei itself is at the top of the US authorities’ list of sanctions – with the well-known consequences. At the urging of various US politicians, Yangtze Memory is now also to be put on this list, which prohibits American companies from supplying products to certain companies that were developed or produced with the help of US technologies.
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