Well yes, if you want to play in China, you play by its Government's rules. It's either that or you go home. This hopefully isn't a surprise to HN readers.

In the US, Apple has no requirement to backdoor/censor their software for the US government, and we've seen lots of evidence that supports that is indeed the case.

Apple only cares about privacy insomuch as it makes them money. In the West privacy is marketable, and in China it's not. It's as simple as that.

This article reeks of a SEO tarpit.

TLDR: Apple is obeying Chinese law, which right now means no VPN apps in their Chinese app store. Then 3500 words of SEO fluff.