Apples concessions in China reportedly include a secret $275 billion deal and one odd change in M

Tim Cook has pushed Apple’s value within close range of $3 trillion, and a lot of that has to do with the former operations lead’s ability to manage a relationship with China, where many of its products are made and, increasingly, many of them are sold. A report this week from The Information relies on unnamed sources and internal documents to peel back some of the details about Apple’s ties with China.

A 1,250-word MOU between Apple and China’s National Development and Reform Commission reportedly runs for five years and accounted for $275 billion in spending

That includes a request Apple reportedly received in 2014 or 2015 about a small group of uninhabited islands that China and Japan apparently have a dispute over in terms of who owns them. Going by either the Senkaku Islands or the Diaoyu Islands, depending on which side of the argument you’re taking, they inspired a request from China to members of the Maps team to make them appear larger, even when viewers are zoomed out on the map. According to The Information, not only did Apple eventually make the change, but even today, for viewers using its map from within China, the islands are still shown at a larger scale than the territories around them.

A satellite image of the Senkaku Islands located in the East of China on April 01, 2016 in Japan.  Photo by USGS/NASA Landsat/Orbital Horizon/Gallo Images/Getty Images

The report also details disputes over everything from iTunes and iCloud to Apple Pay. The figure that looms over everything is a 1,250-word memorandum of understanding that The Information says Tim Cook signed during a publicized trip to China in 2016. The way it’s laid out, Cook went to China because of repeated regulatory actions affecting Apple’s business. By signing a five-year agreement (with an option to extend to a sixth year) promising investments, business deals, and training in China, worth an estimated $275 billion, the aim was to avoid further disruptions.

After the report surfaced, the South China Morning Post reports (via Apple Insider) that a state-run tabloid in China referred to it as “McCarthyism,” claiming it was an attack “clearly driven by the ‘political correctness’ of Sinophobia.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2lfZn9wfY9oaWtwYmuDeoGOmqeppJVisKm1zZpkpqelYn94gYyboKWkmaS7bsDIpmScp5%2Bgeqqvy6isnQ%3D%3D