US-China tech war: Tech vlogger’s interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook goes viral amid thawing tensions

In an 18-minute video interview with He, Cook discusses his admiration of Chinese people, history and arts. Absent from the discussion was any mention of censorship or the US-China technology rivalry as the Apple CEO courts Chinese consumers for market growth. — SCMP

Apple CEO Tim Cook staged a virtual talk show with a 22-year-old Chinese influencer last week in an apparent effort to appease young consumers, and it looks like the effort was a success based on the response from netizens across Chinese social media platforms.

The 18-minute video of a discussion between 60-year-old Cook and the young Chinese student, He Shijie, who has six million fans on the Chinese video site Bilibili, has been viewed by hundreds of millions of viewers across different Chinese Internet platforms. At least 250 million users on the microblogging site Weibo read posts about the dialogue since the video was uploaded on Feb 18.