But when China wants the Apple’s source code so they can use iPhone to spy on people,
.......Apple happily bends over, grabs its ankles and loudly proclaim, “YES SIR!”
That is a false assertion, PanzeKardinal. The security "audit" that Apple agreed to did not include revealing Apple’s proprietary source code. The primary company which did that, and in fact handed over all of its source code, was Microsoft. Apple merely provided Chinese security specialists an inside look at the security architecture, not the code. This occurred over only a three day period where no code was even available to be compromised. Nice try. . . there is no spyware in iPhones. China uses another approach for getting data from their citizens’ devices in China having to do with open access to required cloud backups.
If you think Apple handed the Apple’s iOS source code to China, where are all the clone iPhones flooding the market? They don’t exist. Ergo, it never happened.
That’s why China requires all cloud services for such devices be on Chinese servers. . . and why Apple, when China passed that law in 2015, was forced to move all Chinese iCloud user data for its millions of Chinese customers from its servers outside China to servers owned by the Chinese government. At least Apple was able to retain possession, under that law, of the data encryption keys, although those keys were required to be within Chinese jurisdiction.
As I understand it, the only change Apple had to make to meet legal requirements for Chinese iOS devices was made in the Chinese version of iOS itself requiring that users in China don’t have an option about not backing up specific data on their iPhone and iPad to their mandatory cloud accounts, it’s the default, nor can they have an option of when. This allows Chinese authorities to use a "legal search warrant," issued by a court, to access to everything in the backup, i.e., everything on the devices. The same is true for all mobile devices used in China. The Chinese law voids any right to privacy one could assume for anything a user puts on or uses their devices for. Apple has no choice about it; they don’t have to like it, but they are required to obey the National law in China.