Apple's #1 principle is to make the best product in the market. That's what they've done: the alternatives to iPhones in China are much worse in terms of privacy. Apple would not be helping anyone by going to the mat on this.
What a bunch of crap. When I visited China, my iPhone was the thing that worked. I was able to use e.g. Apple Maps, iMessage without having to install spyware like WeChat.
If I were Chinese, I would get an iPhone and disable iCloud Backup. Yes it sucks that I'd have to do that, but it's way better than having spyware built into the firmware like domestic OEMs do (Huawei, etc.). It's good for privacy that Apple remains an option in China.
