App Store Guideline 5: A 2024 China Availability Rejection
Content edited . This editorial update does not represent a new runtime test.
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This is a January 2024 App Store review case, not a current interpretation of Chinese law. The reviewer associated the app’s ChatGPT/GPT references with mainland-China regulatory requirements and asked for changes to the China version or its distribution.
What the historical feedback requested
The recorded feedback offered two paths: suppress the relevant functionality and metadata in the China version, or deselect the mainland-China storefront in App Store Connect. It also invited the developer to provide compliance information if they believed the app already met the requirements.
That feedback is evidence of what this submission encountered. It should not be generalized into a claim that every AI app faces identical restrictions, that metadata edits alone ensure compliance, or that a specific provider’s legal status is unchanged today.
Distribution is a product decision
If you choose to stop offering an app in a territory, check Apple’s availability-management instructions. Understand the consequences for existing users and business commitments before saving a distribution change.
If you intend to keep offering the functionality, obtain advice about the actual service, data handling and applicable requirements. Reply through App Store Connect with accurate implementation and compliance information; do not hide functionality from review.
Prepare a useful review response
- Quote or summarize the exact issue from your own submission.
- Identify the storefront and features affected.
- Explain the concrete binary, metadata or availability changes you made.
- Give the reviewer a reproducible route through the app.
- Keep a record of the submission and final response.
Apple’s Legal guideline is the platform reference. This editorial revision has not verified current local licensing obligations or repeated the 2024 submission. Removing a territory is not a general legal-compliance solution.
For a separate subscription-information rejection, see Guideline 3.1.2.