Partner Robert deBrauwere, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s Digital Media Group, spoke to The Wrap for its March 21, 2016 article, “Why Apple’s Big iPhone Event Today Won’t Include Much Talk of China.”

iPhones are the cornerstone of Apple’s business and China is the source of its greatest potential growth. Apple’s actions to enter the Chinese market such as conforming to China’s WiFi standards and placing data centers there complicate its battle with law enforcement in the United States.

Apple has said it must stand up to the U.S. government in the San Bernardino case or it will heighten the risk to privacy and safety of customers in authoritarian countries. But the U.S. has questioned whether Apple has compromised some principles to protect its sales in China. Apple has stated that it uses the same security protocols everywhere in the world and follows the same standards for responding to law enforcement requests, no matter the country.

deBrauwere told The Wrap: "Apple’s fight against the U.S. government raises the stakes for its business in China. Apple is fighting the U.S., where civil liberties are strong, partly to avert sliding down a slippery slope in countries like China. If the perception is Apple allows governments and other agencies to hack into people’s devices, because China’s an authoritarian state, people have an even lower expectation of privacy in general. Any interference in that could be a significant factor in their decision to buy their devices.”