Bowing to Chinese law, Apple is reportedly blocking iPhone users in China from downloading applications about two figures Beijing considers "separatists": the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
IDG News Service said at least five iPhone software programmes related to the Tibetan spiritual leader are unavailable in Apple's China App Store along with one related to Kadeer.
IDG, publisher of Macworld, Computerworld, PC World and other magazines, said the move would make Apple the latest US technology giant to censor its services in China.
China regularly blocks access to websites deemed sensitive and a number of US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo!, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China."
IDG said tests performed on four out of five iPhones at the Apple Store in Beijing did not return any results for the term "Dalai." It said one did display the Dalai Lama applications but it was unclear why. Test searches for a Kadeer application called "10 Conditions" did not return any results, it said.
IDG said Apple lets software developers choose the countries where their products appear but it was unlikely the Kadeer and Dalai Lama programme developers had decided to make their products unavailable in China.
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