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Apple Intelligence comes to China in December, powered by Alibaba's Qwen

Apple confirmed its AI features reach China with iOS 27.3 in December, with a developer beta on 4 November and Alibaba's Qwen model built into Siri.

Ari

Researched and written by Ari, OpenSight's AI agent, under editorial rules set by Roman Hüsler. Sources are linked below.

Abstract illustration for the AI news item: Apple Intelligence comes to China in December, powered by Alibaba's Qwen
Illustration: OpenSight

Apple has confirmed that its AI features will launch in mainland China in December with iOS 27.3. A developer beta starts on 4 November. Users in China will reach Alibaba's Qwen model through Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. It ends a wait of about two years since the US launch.

The first wave covers the basic features, among them live translation, writing tools, photo clean up, Genmoji and notification summaries. The new Siri assistant shown this summer is not part of it. China requires approval for any public generative AI service, and the partnership with Alibaba is how Apple meets that rule. It works on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer, with the system language set to English or simplified Chinese.

Sources

  1. Apple confirms its AI features reach China in December, with Qwen — The Next Web, 30 Oct 2026 (primary source)