Apple has been dragged into an escalating confrontation over cyber security and US spying in China after its iPhone was branded a threat to national security by state media.

苹果(Apple)被卷入一场围绕网络安全和美国在华间谍活动的不断升级的对峙。该公司的iPhone被中国官方媒体打上了威胁国家安全的烙印。

The move comes just months after the US technology group struck a deal to supply iPhones to China Mobile, the world’s largest phone company, which was regarded as a key moment in Apple’s attempt to reach a further 1bn Chinese smartphone users.

就在几个月前，这家美国高科技集团与全球最大的移动通信运营商——中国移动(China Mobile)达成了iPhone供应协议。对于苹果靠拢中国10亿智能手机用户的企图来说，那被视为一个关键时刻。

It also comes in the week that the US and China concluded high-level trade talks in which little progress was made to update an 18-year-old agreement that governed the $2tn annual trade in high-tech products between the two countries.

此外，就在同一周，美国和中国完成了一轮高级别贸易磋商。不过，这轮磋商在更新有18年历史的《信息技术产品协议》上没有取得什么进展，这份协议管辖着每年2万亿美元的高科技产品贸易。

Chinese state media broadcaster CCTV on Friday warned about the iPhone’s ability to track the user via its positioning technology, and “view the user’s home address, unit information and whereabouts”.

上周五，中国官方媒体中央电视台(CCTV)就iPhone通过其定位技术追踪用户及用户多种信息的能力发出了警告。这些信息包括用户的“家庭住址、工作单位，甚至每天什么时候去哪，呆了多长时间”。

Citing revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the report claimed that Apple passed such data on to not just advertisers but also US spy agencies.

该报道提到了美国国家安全局(NSA)前合同工爱德华•斯诺登(Edward Snowden)的爆料，声称苹果公司不仅会将这类数据转给广告商，还会转给美国间谍机构。

CCTV said this information would still be recorded even if the feature was turned off, and quoted Ma Ding, head of the department of network security at China People’s Public Security University, saying the mass collection of this “sensitive” data could even reveal “state secrets”.

中央电视台表示，即使关闭定位功能，这些信息仍会被记录下来。该台引用了中国人民公安大学(China People's Public Security University)网络安全保卫学院院长马丁的说法，表示对这种“敏感”数据的大规模收集甚至有可能泄露“国家机密”。

Apple did not immediately respond to the allegations but an explainer on its website about the “frequent locations” feature, which was introduced last autumn, says that personal data “is kept solely on your device and won’t be sent to Apple without your consent”.

苹果并未立刻回应这些指控，但根据其网站上对去年秋天推出的“常去地点”功能的解释文件，用户个人数据“仅存储于每个用户个人的iOS设备上……Apple 从不获取或了解某个用户的‘常去地点’信息”。