Tomas Chlebek Apple has recently decided to store the data of Chinese users directly in China on the servers of the Chinese telecommunications company China Telecom. The transition took place on August 8 after "fifteen months of testing and evaluation". China Telecom is a national company, and according to some, Apple is trying to regain the trust of users in the Chinese market, which is currently the fastest growing for it, with this change.
Last month, Apple was declared in China "a danger to national security", when information about iPhones' ability to track users' location was released. These were interpreted as an attempt by Apple to spy on China.
User data now doesn't have to leave China, and it's managed by a national company that follows customs there about access to security and privacy, which are different from those of the US. However, Apple has assured that all data is encrypted and Telecom has no access to it.
However, an Apple spokesperson refused to admit that the move of iCloud for Chinese citizens to Chinese servers is due to problems with the alleged "endangerment of national security". Instead, he said, “Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously. We have added China Telecom to the list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our users in mainland China.”
Given that the switch has been in the works for more than a year, while news of a "spying Apple" surfaced last month, such a comment seems credible. Apple responded to the problem with tracking the location of users immediately after a report on the Chinese TV station China Central Television.
So I would feel safer if my documents were on Apple's servers than on the state-owned China Telecom.