Following news that iPhone use has been prohibited for Chinese government employees, Apple stock has dropped for a second straight day. Over the last two days, the company’s stock market worth has decreased by more than 6%, or about $200 billion.

The third-largest market for the IT giant is China, which contributed 18% of its overall sales in 2016. Foxconn, Apple’s top supplier, also produces the majority of its products there.

According to a Wednesday Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, Beijing had instructed employees of core government agencies not to use or bring iPhones to work.

The next day, Bloomberg News reported that employees at state-owned businesses and organisations with support from the government may also be subject to the prohibition.

According to sources who spoke with the WSJ, officials recently received orders from their superiors not to use iPhones. Other devices with foreign brands also have restrictions.

The article reports that although iPhones were already prohibited in some agencies, the restriction appears to have been expanded. How extensively the directives were circulated among Chinese officials has not been made clear.

The reports were released in advance of the anticipated September 12 release of the iPhone 15. On Chinese social media, some users who identified themselves as employees of state-owned businesses claimed they had received orders to stop using Apple products by the end of September.

One jokingly asked, “What should I use for work?” while joking that they were poor and lacked the funds to purchase a new phone.

Apple produces iPhones in China, one of its largest markets, though recently it has increased manufacture in India.

The Chinese government has not released any formal statements in response to the reports.

There were no comments on the issue from Apple.

With a market value of around $2.8 trillion, Apple has the largest stock market valuation in the entire globe.

Shares of some of Apple’s suppliers also declined, in addition to Apple’s own stock.

The stock of Qualcomm, the largest manufacturer of smartphone processors, fell by more than 7% on Thursday, and shares of SK Hynix, a South Korean company, fell by almost 4% on Friday.

As both sides have imposed limits, tensions between the US and China over technology have been progressively escalating.

This year, Washington blocked China’s access to some semiconductor technology along with the support of its allies Japan and the Netherlands.

China replied by limiting the export of two essential materials for the semiconductor sector.

According to reports, Beijing is also putting together a new $40 billion investment fund to support its semiconductor manufacturing sector.

Last week, Chinese tech giant Huawei debuted the Mate 60 Pro smartphone at an unusual event while US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was in Beijing.

The business began offering the Pro+ form of the phone in advance sales on Friday.

According to TechInsights, a Canadian technology research company, the phone has a new 5G Kirin 9000s processor that was created for Huawei by China’s top contract chipmaker SMIC.

It “demonstrates the technical progress China’s semiconductor industry has been able to make,” TechInsights analyst Dan Hutcheson said.

According to a research statement from the financial firm Jefferies, this is a “big tech breakthrough for China.”

The chairman of the House of Representatives committee on China, US congressman Mike Gallagher, requested this week that the Commerce Department further limit exports to Huawei and SMIC.

A security flaw was discovered on Thursday that was being exploited by unidentified hackers, and as a result Apple immediately published an emergency software update for a large number of both old and new devices.

The upgrade was made available after Citizen Lab’s digital rights investigators found that attackers were utilising a brand-new and unheard-of method to hack into Apple devices belonging to specified targets.

Apple released these patches as part of a quick security response to users after discovering a related so-called “exploit” on its own.

This year, Apple has been compelled to provide significant security patches 15 times.

(Adapted from BBC.com)