Several agencies had begun instructing employees not to bring iPhones to work and the ban was expected to be further extended, Bloomberg reported. Nikkei reported at least one state-owned company had told its employees that anyone working with trade secrets could not bring their iPhones, Apple Watches or AirPods into work from next month.
The ban on the use of Apple products is believed to be a sign of Beijing pushing back on its reliance on US tech. Central government has imposed some restrictions on the use of foreign-designed tech in workplaces linked to government since at least 2018, but last week it was reported the rules were expanding to smartphones.&nbsp;Many Chinese employees of affected organisations have a separate phone for work. China has more than 150,000 state-owned companies, according to state media, employing more than 56 million people in 2021.
The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that China had widened curbs on the use of iPhones at work by state employees.
Greater China - including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - is Apple's third-largest market and accounted for 19% of its $394bn in sales last year.
Apple production remains centred in China, with about 90% of its products made there. Among others, the Taiwan-founded Apple supplier Fox-&nbsp;conn has factories in China, employing more than 1.2 million people. But after political instability and pandemic disruptions, Apple has accelerated plans to move some production elsewhere, including Vietnam and India. IPhone 14 production was moved to India, the second-largest smartphone market.
Apple had not assembled an iPhone model outside China in the same year it was released before and the move was widely seen as the big step in moving manufacturing operations from the country.
Apple is the latest tech industry victim of geopolitical tensions between the US and China. Some analysts suggested Beijing's bans on Apple were part of tit-for-tat measures, after Huawei bans by the US and others from national 5G networks. The US continues to restrict China's access to vital equipment needed to keep its chip industry competitive.
The US government has banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Chinese telecoms companies Huawei and ZTE because they pose "an unacceptable risk" to US national security. It has also banned the Chinese-owned video app TikTok from government-issued phones and has imposed restrictions on the export of some sophisticated computer chips to China.
Beijing has told operators of important infrastructure in China to stop buying products from the US chipmaker Micron Technology, while ramping up efforts to be more self-sufficient in making semiconductors known as the "brains of electronic devices".
Apple was contacted for comment.

'Bad' Apple? Smartphone ban may signal wider backlash against US tech

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