Apple Intelligence reaches China in December, with Alibaba's Qwen answering part of Siri
Apple's China newsroom confirmed Friday that Apple Intelligence testing in mainland China starts November 4th in the next iOS developer beta, with a public launch in December alongside iOS 27.3. Apple says it has partnered with Alibaba to add Qwen to parts of the system: some requests in the improved Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. The first wave includes Live Translation, Genmoji, Clean Up in Photos, natural-language photo search, notification summaries and Smart Reply, on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer, with Siri set to English or Simplified Chinese.
What is missing is most of what Apple shipped this year. The new Siri AI is excluded, and Macs and iPads in China wait for further regulatory approval. Apple Intelligence launched in the US two years ago; in its third-largest market it arrives with a Chinese model doing part of the reasoning, and every future model update there needs its own sign-off from Beijing. SourcesBBC
Sources
- BApple confirms iOS 27.3 beta is coming next week with Apple Intelligence in China (9to5Mac)9to5mac.com
- BTwo years later, Apple Intelligence makes its way to China (AppleInsider)appleinsider.com
- CConfirmed: Apple Intelligence in China will be powered by Alibaba (GSMArena)m.gsmarena.com
This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of October 31st 2026.