Chinese twist to Apple's privacy stand-off

San Francisco

IT TOOK six years for Apple to persuade China's largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, to sell the iPhone. Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, made repeated trips to China to meet top government officials and executives to woo them personally.

The persistence paid off. In 2013, China Mobile relented, a moment that Mr Cook later described as "a watershed day" for Apple.

Today, China is Apple's second largest market after the United Sta…