James Kynge

And at the time, I think, we all wondered why that was happening, why that had to happen.

And it was purely because the Chinese state wanted to be sure that Chinese people's user data was not going to be used by Apple and taken abroad.

It wanted control over the user data.

And it seems to me that if you're a Chinese car company working in Europe, let's say BYD, you're collecting data.

If you're a Chinese internet company like Sheen or the other ones, even Alibaba and AliExpress, you're collecting data.

So many Chinese companies are collecting data around the world.

Surely there has to be now some thinking that goes into the security of the data that they collected and whether or not they need to set up joint ventures to allow authorities to ensure that, let's say, European data stays in Europe.

It doesn't go back to China and vice versa for the U.S.

So I think this is a big moment in the treatment of the data that Chinese companies are collecting abroad.

Now, paradoxically, this may be seen as a barrier to entry by Chinese companies into Western markets.

But maybe it's one of those things that once it's overcome, actually smooths the entry of those companies into the European US or other markets around the world.

So it's a big topic.

I think this will run and run for the next few years.

My prediction this week is in more of a general vein.

I don't have any specific numbers or statistics that I'm going to throw at you, Alice.

I would just like to say that I think that in relation to our previous conversation about the way in which the US is trying to control data that Chinese companies are collecting in the US, we're going to see a very

similar effort in the EU this year.

That's the European Union.

In fact, I would say that 2026 will be a landmark year for the European Union, led by the European Commission, strengthening resilience against foreign cyber threats.

And that includes all types of Chinese technology.