Apple plans to debut AI features in China in December

Apple plans to roll out its first AI features in China in December. That ends a wait that has stretched since Apple Intelligence first arrived in the US in 2024. China is one of Apple’s most important markets, and local rivals have spent that gap shipping phones with AI baked in. Apple, meanwhile, has been selling iPhones there with one of their headline features switched off. How Apple got through the gate The first major hurdle fell on July 15, 2026. That day, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) registered Apple’s generative AI service. Apple was the only foreign entry on that approval list. CAC registration is effectively a license to operate. Without it, a generative AI product can’t legally serve the public in mainland China. The second piece came on October 14, 2026. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) updated network-access permits to include Apple Intelligence models. Those permits cover the upcoming iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro. Apple’s models weren’t listed alone. The same permits named Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen, better known as Qwen, and its Tongyi Wanxiang AI models. That pairing is no coincidence. Apple has partnered with Alibaba for ...