Tencent is the 10th largest company in the world, making it larger than (eg) Samsung, and they already have their own OS as well (Tencent OS), which is an Android fork. I expect it's a matter of time before they either arm-twist Apple into compliance, or Apple becomes irrelevant in the Chinese market when better integrated and shinier alternatives leave it in the dust.
Up until now, no known Chinese companies has ever achieved any phenomenal success in developing an operating system for the mass market from scratch. Most of them have a small team to hack and maintain forks of existing open source OSes. Alibaba tried to sell their Android replacement[1] but perhaps it has not reached any tipping point yet.
There are some stellar smartphones designed and made in China. I'm certain similar things were said about their smartphone ambitions. It's only a matter of time before smart, dedicated and focused people achieve what they are after.
