Shares of tech giant and iEverything specialist Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) tumbled 5.1% on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET, after multiple news outlets reported that the Chinese government is making moves to ban the iPhone from China.  

Specifically, Beijing has ordered officials working for central government agencies to not use iPhones (or other "foreign-branded devices") for work, or even to bring these devices into the office, says The Wall Street Journal. It's not clear precisely who is affected by the usage ban, or what its precise parameters are. What's more, neither China's State Council Information Office or its the National Civil Service Administration is responding to requests for clarification.

It's also not entirely clear what China's goal is with this ban. The WSJ posits that the government may be aiming to restrict the ability of foreign companies to extract "sensitive information" from China. But the aim may also be to promote usage of domestic manufacturers' devices, to eat away at Apple's domestic dominance of high-end cellphone sales in China, or even to impose tit-for-tat consequences on U.S. restrictions on usage of Chinese tech such as Huawei cellphones or TikTok's apps in government offices here.

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Source Fool.com