I think it's hollow self-serving drivel to feign mock indignation that Tim Cook doesn't go over to China & become loathed by trying, as an outsider and foreigner, to claim they should change all their country's values to align with his.
It would be REALLY weird to start a dialogue about transgendered bathrooms there... because that's not a topic that's currently in the public eye there. Surely one can see the VAST difference between simply weighing in on one side or the other in a national debate & actually starting the debate yourself (and not even in your own country, no less!).
Similarly, there is NO public national debate going on in China over consumer privacy vs. government right to information.... so it would be EXCEEDINGLY odd, for a foreign company to come over & try to push that, in the country they are guests in. Obviously- if the debate was already taking place & all Apple would have to do is throw in on the side of consumers, that would be ENTIRELY different.. but that is not the case here.
However, I'll tell ya what actually IS a topic being bandied about in corporate China right now: the possibility of new, more lenient policies in the current US administration encouraging Chinese investments, on US soil. Now, since that isn't something that would be super weird for the largest consumer electronics company the world has ever known... that likely spends more production capital in China than any other company on the planet, to weigh in on- indeed, it is perfectly normal for them to comment on this, commits no international faux pas, nor alienates any investors, nor customers; of COURSE they will plug international investment. It would be odd if they didn't, in fact.
