They had no choice about it in China
The alternative would be to stop selling phones in China. How would that help the privacy of the Chinese people?
Apple did the legal minimum to satisfy Chinese law, and they notified everyone in China via a notification on their phone before they did it and told them how to avoid it - which was to stop using iCloud. If iPhone owners in China want to avoid potential spying by their government they can do what I do and don't use iCloud (the reason I don't use it is because you can't control the encryption key used for it like you can with an iTunes backup, because of this it is possible for Apple to hand over iCloud data in the US when presented with a court order...Apple said they were working on a solution for this but if they've introduced it I haven't heard about it)
So long as they aren't using iCloud, Chinese iPhone owners using iMessage still send messages that can't be read by their government (unless they get physical possession of one of the phones and are able to unlock it or compel its owner to unlock it) You can bet that's not the case if they are using WeChat!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
