Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the newly released Apple Watch Series 3, which added support for the LTE cellular connection, is facing governmental challenges in China. The LTE functionality was available on China Unicom at launch. However, the Chinese government abruptly terminated the LTE access for the new Apple Watch Series 3 subscribers a few days later without explanation. Industry analysts expressed the belief that the Chinese government was concerned about the fact that it could not track who was using the new Apple Watch. Apple’s new eSIM technology used in the Watch made it very difficult to track the user’s identity and China heavily regulates the mobile communications industry. The Chinese regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, didn’t respond to the media’s requests for comment. Not long-ago the Chinese government forced Apple to remove more than 400 VPN apps from the local version of its App Store. VPN technology offers a way to bypass China’s Great Firewall.
Source: Sina, October 20, 2017
http://tech.sina.com.cn/mobile/n/n/2017-10-20/doc-ifymzqpq2652918.shtml