Apple Caves To China Again, No More VPNs On App Store

China and virtual private networks have never had a good relationship and Apple hosts a ton of them on its app store. This didn’t go well with the leadership at all. As a result, the iPhone maker was recently put on the spot with a mandate to remove the apps from its shop. As it has done in the past with apps that were similarly unpopular with the Chinese government, Apple caved and removed them.

Among the VPN apps that were taken out of the App Store include ExpressVPN and Star VPN, Engadget reports. Despite what Chinese leaders might say to the contrary, these secure networks are being removed, which falls in line with the government’s rabid hunger for total control of information in the country.

This is not the first time that Apple was forced to remove noteworthy apps from its store in China as well. At the start of the year, the app for The New York Times was pulled due to the strain of relations with the government following critical headlines. As such, this latest development is being considered yet another notch in the censorship belt that the country is making for itself.

What really makes this act problematic, at least for Apple, is the likelihood of the consequences following it home. As Tech Crunch notes, the iPhone maker has been fending off several government entities from accessing information and technology that it holds, and it has been a staunch opponent of censorship. By caving to Chinese pressure, it no longer has a leg to stand on.

If the Trump administration decides to ask something similar of Apple with regards to apps that are inconvenient for the government, the company is going to have a much harder time resisting. The Cupertino giant already allowed China to walk all over it in order to preserve its access to the huge market. What’s to stop the US government from making the same threats?