Two years after the U.S. got it, China is finally getting Apple Intelligence — but the new Siri stays behind

Apple Intelligence is finally coming to mainland China, two years after it debuted in the United States. Apple executive chairman Tim Cook confirmed Thursday in Shanghai that Chinese regulators have approved the suite, telling Chinese outlet The Paper that a test version will arrive later this month, with the first batch of features including Live Translation, Writing Tools and the Clean Up tool in Photos.

Cook's announcement ends a long regulatory slog. China's cyberspace regulator had already listed Apple Intelligence among registered on-device generative AI services back in July, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology records showed license renewals in late September with model filings for Apple Intelligence, Alibaba's Qwen and Tongyi Wanxiang — covering the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and earlier models, including the iPhone 15 Pro series, MacRumors reported.

Bloomberg reported that the broader consumer launch is targeted for December alongside iOS 27.3, bringing a fuller set of first-generation features — Writing Tools, notification summaries, Genmoji and object removal in Photos. Apple itself has published no China launch date or feature list, so the December timing rests on Bloomberg's sourcing.

There are notable caveats. The rebuilt, AI-powered Siri is not part of the initial rollout, Cook said — Chinese iPhones will ship with the older assistant, not the new one Apple has been betting its smart-home strategy on. Under the hood, the China version runs on local partners, not Apple's own models: Alibaba supplies the large-language-model capabilities via its Qwen model, while Baidu handles search and Siri-related functions, according to China Daily's sourcing.

The stakes for Apple are significant. China accounts for roughly 17 to 20 per cent of Apple's total revenue, and Chinese phone makers — Huawei chief among them — have shipped AI features for years while Apple sold premium phones in the market without them. The timing also lines up with hardware: South Korea's carriers opened preorders for the foldable iPhone Duo on Friday, and the device hits store shelves October 23 — with the MIIT permits explicitly clearing it for the new AI features.

For Canadians, the China rollout is a useful preview of where Apple's AI strategy is heading — and a reminder of the gap. Canadian iPhone owners have had Apple Intelligence since 2024; China waited two years and still isn't getting the full version. And as the iPhone Duo launches next week globally, buyers here will be getting a foldable whose AI playbook was partly written to satisfy Beijing's regulators first.