Tim Cook Visits China, Fans Post Pics

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited China on Monday, meeting with unspecified Chinese officials and making at least one stop in the company’s Xidan Joy City Apple Store in Beijing, where several fans took pictures of Mr. Cook and posted them online.

Tim Cook & Fan

Tim Cook Posing with a Fan - Posted to Weibo

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Cook was in China on Monday, and a local Apple spokesperson told the newspaper that Mr. Cook, “had great meetings with Chinese officials today.”

She added that, “China is very important to us and we look forward to even greater investment and growth here.”

China is Apple’s second largest market outside the U.S. these days, and Mr. Cook has a variety of topics he could have been meeting about. There’s the company’s “IPAD” trademark battle with Proview Technology, the enormous manufacturing operations the company outsources to Chinese companies, the ongoing battle against knock-off Apple products and fake Apple Stores in the country, and Apple’s efforts to secure the world’s largest cell phone carrier, China Mobile, as an iPhone customer.

Other China-specific topics for Apple include Apple’s efforts to improve working conditions for the above-mentioned manufacturing operations, and an expansion of its retail presence in the country. Apple currently has just five Apple Stores in China, including the Pudong Apple Store in Shanghai, pictured below, for which Apple received a patent.

Apple didn’t specify which of those bullet points Mr. Cook was working on, and the unspecified Chinese officials weren’t talking either.

Pudong Apple Store in Shanghai

Pudong Apple Store, Photographed by TMO Readers

This is Mr. Cook’s first visit to China as Apple CEO, a position he took after Apple cofounder Steve Jobs stepped down from the position in August. It’s not his first visit to China, however, as he visited the country in his role as COO for Apple. Most recently, he was known to be in China in June of 2011 visiting the headquarters of China Mobile.

Tim Cook in Beijing Apple Store

Another Fan Pic of Mr. Cook in Beijing