On 9 August, Apple’s China website briefly published a Mac support guide stating that the China-version Apple Intelligence would work with Alibaba’s Qwen large model, which the market read as a sign that Apple’s China AI was finally landing. The document was taken down in under a day, and the site now keeps only the guidance linking Apple Intelligence to ChatGPT.
On the takedown, Apple support said Apple Intelligence is still not usable in mainland China, that the supporting services are moving through the approval process and must pass review before launch, and that launch timing and specifics will follow Apple’s official announcements.
A filing done, a product not
Public records show that in mid-July the cyberspace regulator published a generative-AI filing list, and Apple’s China entity completed filing for Apple Intelligence, with scope listed as iPhone products. Around the same time Alibaba confirmed that the Qwen model will serve as the core AI capability inside Apple Intelligence, covering the entire China line of iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. The guide going up and then being pulled so quickly shows that, despite the filing, real commercial use in China still faces procedural uncertainty.
The episode is a live illustration of how US-China AI decoupling plays out at the consumer edge: a global model such as ChatGPT stays in the documentation, while the locally approved path runs through a Chinese partner and Beijing’s review gate.
More from the original report
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original LeiPhone report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.