The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that China's industry ministry has revised the network permits for the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and several older Apple models. Each permit now names three approved AI systems: Apple Intelligence, plus Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen and Tongyi Wanxiang. Qianwen, also called Qwen, is a family of language models for text. Wanxiang turns text into images and video. Alibaba owns the newspaper.
The paper said China's internet regulator confirmed an Apple Intelligence licence in July, for iPhones only. An Alibaba representative said then that Qwen would supply text and image generation inside Apple Intelligence for users in China. The report gives no launch date. It does not say which feature uses which model. It does not say where the AI runs, on the phone or on remote servers. Apple and Alibaba had not replied to requests for comment.
The permits name each AI system separately, so the model is a listed part, not a hidden one. An Apple feature can therefore rest on a model another company built. If you sell or run software in China, ask which named model sits behind each AI feature. Ask who answers when its output is wrong. Ask where data is processed, since the sources do not say.