Thread by @ThisIsWenhao

For the past week or so, India has become a target of misinformation, contempt and racist jokes on China's internet for its growing role in Apple's manufacturing network. Ahead of the new iPhone release on Friday, some netizens are calling for boycotting India-made iPhone 15s. 1/

For the first time, Apple will sell iPhones made in India on release day. India now makes about 7% of iPhones while China is still the dominating force in Apple's manufacturing. But India's role will only increase in the next few years. 2/
theverge.com/2023/9/12/2386…

Some Chinese netizens found issues with Apple giving India the limelight. Rumors started to spread that this year's iPhone models have experienced quality problems. A widely shared misinformation claims that the Europe has rejected India's iPhones.

The misinformation has a few variations. But most of them are roughly along the lines of this: iPhones made in India could not pass Europe's standard. So China-made ones were sent to replace them and India-made iPhones were instead sent to China. 4/

I could not find any basis for this misinformation. The origin of it seems to come from a blogger/commentator on Weibo. The account's claim includes very specific numbers, stating that only 34% of India-made iPhones passed Europe's quality test. 5/

The misinformation has spread across social media platforms. On WeChat, there are at least dozens of articles and videos repeating or even improving upon this unfounded claim in the past few days. 6/

The claim's popularity is built on a broadly held belief by many in China that India-made goods have low quality. A Financial Times article from earlier this year about high rejection rate of iPhone casings made in India is often mentioned.
ft.com/content/0d70a8…

What's interesting is that China's state media had previously debunked the rumor that India-made iPhones were to primarily serve the Chinese market. Regardless, new misinformation keeps popping up. 8/
chinadaily.com.cn/a/202309/13/WS…

For the past week, many netizens have been discussing how to avoid India-made iPhone 15s. Some even published tutorials on how to identify India-made iPhones and how to return them to Apple. 9/

Many netizens proclaim that they will not buy India-made iPhones. A popular comment on China's Quora-like platform Zhihu says that Apple was politically motivated to produce iPhones in India and that Chinese consumers should let them know this is not okay by boycotting them. 10/

But the discussions have been soaked in a heavily racist tone. A popular joke shared by Chinese netizens says that new iPhones will reek of curry. 11/

Some even wrote that the best way to identify India-made iPhones is to smell it. Others made fun of India-made iPhones being dirty because they say Indian people don't use toilet paper. 12/

And of course, "Ah San" (阿三), the derogatory nickname for Indian people have been used a lot in these discussions 13/

This round of hostility towards India-made iPhones has a few layers to it. Huawei's new phone has evoked a wave of tech nationalism on the internet. China and India's geopolitical conflicts have created a strong anti-India sentiment. And some people just hate Apple users. 14/