Don't care, good for Apple, next. You guys have been reading Anti-Chinese propaganda way too much. The people who want to scan your phone, trust me, are already scanning your phone. NSA has the world's largest budget for a reason. The CCP is already scanning people's phones. They don't need Apple's back door to do so.
The only thing that'll really come out of this is less child porn in the world. People who think this will lead to more stuff are idiotic, they assume they're already not giving the government organizations everything they already want to know via - SMS, Phone calls, location, facebook, insta, social, even this forum, everything you do online is trackable, and easily trackable, everything you say or do can be hacked or attacked in. CCP use NSA tools to hack you, NSA are a decade ahead of them.
If someone wants to get you, they'll get you. I work in insurance, the kind of stuff that our independent investigators can find about you is incredible. We've found a person who went to the gym, who claimed they had back problems through some means (I don't even know how the info was found). If we, insurance companies, can be this granular, governments who's job is to spy of individuals are far far better.
I'm in the camp of people that will defend China against some attacks from people here on MacRumors. There's some things I dislike about China and there's some aspects I like about it. There's a lot I dislike about America and there's a lot I like about it. When I say I don't like mass spying programs it's not because I read some NYT propaganda piece about "muh CCP is tyrannical" but rather it's because I know whom the government really serves here in the USA (hint: why do you think NSA chiefs have such close ties with certain corporate behemoths). There's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the CCP have done more for their people in the past 20 years than American has done in twice that, but that's besides the point.
The capability of the government's spying software is not magical. People like you seem to be under the impression that they have hacking tools beyond comprehension which are unavoidable and unlimited in reach. I don't blame you for thinking this way, this is a legitimate propaganda technique they use to convince the public that they're more of an otherwordly force to be reckoned with than they actually are -- precisely because fear of an invisible, shapeless power is a greater weapon than the power itself (go read about the CIA's influence in Hollywood).
Yes, there's a lot they can do to target an individual (laser mics on glass, anyone?) but if you actually read through how their mass spying programs work you'll quickly realize that the majority of their technology only works because corporations help them and invite them in with open arms, either by assisting with the creation of a direct backdoor (Google, Apple, FB via PRISM), or by intentionally downgrading encryption technology because the NSA are capable of cracking older technologies (telecoms in the US intentionally kept old security software around because the government wanted to keep their cracking capability). In fact one of the famous Snowden era leaked documents demonstrates that the NSA can't crack the latest HTTPS encryption schemes but don't need to because Google gave them a direct link to the Google edge servers which is what allows them to intercept web traffic.
I'll say it again for emphasis: mass spying in the USA is only a thing because corporations are complicit by ALLOWING it to happen.
Let's also not forget that the patriot act and other disgusting policies are often not passed behind closed doors, they are often distributed silently as public information which they don't mind publishing because they know most people don't give a s*** about "boring politics stuff lol" (and also because they have a legal requirement to do so because someone accidently passed a slightly democratic law about it).
As for China, you're right, they don't need "Apple's backdoor" because the Chinese people already use enough services outside of Apple's that China has direct control over much like the NSA in the west (not to mention the fact that the CCP have people's iCloud encryption keys, an intentional design by Apple so that they can read your stuff). Like the NSA, China also can't crack TLS v1.3 which is why they outlawed it. The NSA don't need to outlaw it because it's not a threat to them if they can directly tap the source with permission from the company.
In other words, the NSA don't need to crack encryption (for domestic mass spying) because the majority of people spend most of their time using online services that already conspire with the NSA. China don't have this luxury for American companies (obviously) so instead they have to resort to banning certain encryption technology and services.
For that reason it's absolutely worth fighting what Apple are doing here. Bezos' newspaper says "democracy dies in darkness" but that's complete BS, it happens in broad daylight but the general public are too unconcerned to care. In the USA we have a legitimate avenue to stop this BS and end mass surveillance. It's an uphill battle but one that we must fight for. These programs are not inevitable, we consent to them by inaction. We have legitimate avenues to push back. This country is corrupt but there are countless examples of progress being made because people put up enough of a stink about it. The moment everyone goes "oh well, I guess all this is inevitable because the government are all powerful" they have effectively won.