Apple Support in China has published detailed instructions on how local Mac users can utilize Alibaba's Qwen AI with Siri, but the guide was quickly removed.
Back in March 2026, Apple Intelligence was finally launched and available in China, except it wasn't. Apple had released it seemingly accidentally, and certainly without approval from the Chinese government, so it was rapidly pulled.
Now Apple has done a similar thing with a support document. As first noted by Reuters, Apple Support in China published a guide for Mac users on connecting Qwen to get Writing Tools and Siri working with it. There was no equivalent guide for the iPhone or iPad.
Presumably there will be, but as local Chinese sources including news aggregator ReadHub have subsequently reported, the Mac guide is gone. When asked about it, Apple Support reportedly would not comment on the guide having been released.
"We are notified in advance whenever a feature or new project is launched," Apple Support is reported to have said (in translation). "We have not received any such notification, and the feature integrating Apple Intelligence with Qianwen [aka Qwen] has not yet been released in mainland China."
China has extremely complex laws regarding the release of AI features, and to all practical purposes requires firms like Apple to partner with local companies. Apple is working with both Alibaba and Baidu.
Recently, the Chinese government has allowed Apple Intelligence to be officially registered for use on iPhones in the region. It's not clear what steps remain before users can have Apple Intelligence, but it is still coming.
