Apple says Apple Intelligence will begin testing in mainland China this month, with a wider rollout expected in December , but regulatory requirements mean users will receive a reduced feature set without the AI-enhanced Siri.
Apple Intelligence has secured approval to launch in mainland China, Tim Cook said in an interview with the state-backed newspaper The Paper in Shanghai on Thursday, 15 October. The Apple chief said the company expects to release a test version later this month, nearly two years after the service was first delayed in the market. He said the initial package would cover Live Translation, Writing Tools and the Clean Up photo feature.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is planning a wider Chinese rollout in December through an iOS 27.3 update, which would bring the first wave of Apple Intelligence functions to users of the iPhone, iPad and Mac on the mainland. That broader release is expected to include writing tools, notification summaries, Genmoji and image clean-up, although the exact scope may still depend on local approval processes.
The Chinese version will be materially different from the one available elsewhere. Reuters-linked reporting and other industry coverage indicate that Siri’s AI upgrade will not be part of the initial release, and that several newer functions, including Image Playground and some image-expansion tools, are also likely to remain excluded. The restrictions reflect regulatory requirements in China rather than technical limitations. Apple has also said on its Chinese website that a number of Apple Intelligence features are still unavailable in the mainland.
The rollout relies on local partners and infrastructure. Reports say Apple will use Alibaba’s models, including Qwen and Tongyi Wanxiang for image generation, with Alibaba providing compliance controls designed for Chinese rules. Baidu is also understood to be working with Apple on search and Siri-related functions. China’s cyberspace regulator reportedly placed Apple Intelligence on a list of approved generative AI services in July, underscoring how tightly the launch has been tied to the country’s licensing regime.
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