Government agencies in China are not allowed to purchase Apple hardware products due to security concerns, according to a report by Bloomberg, citing government officials "familiar with the matter."
The report says that ten different Apple products, including versions of the MacBook laptop and iPad tablet, have been officially omitted from a government procurements list handed down by the China's National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance.
They were included in a June draft, according to the report.
The ban would apply to all local and central agencies in China, Bloomberg News confirmed.
NDRC and finance ministry have yet to comment as well.
The report comes after the Chinese government published a software procurement list last week. The list excluded foreign anti-virus vendors like Symantec Corp and Kaspersky Lab, which had sold software to Chinese agencies in the past.
China has tried finding ways to limit the use of U.S. technology over the last year or so after the Edward Snowden government spying scandal.
A report was released by state-run China Central Television that location-tracking software on Apple's iPhone could possibly cause state secrets to be revealed.
Apple responded to the accusations by saying that it has never and will never grant governments access to its servers, according to Reuters.
China banned government use of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system back in May.
Chinese news agency Xinhua said the ban was "to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for its Windows XP operating system," which is used by a lot of people in China.
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