Apple has reportedly removed more than 25,000 apps from its App Store in China – all of which were deemed to have fallen short of regulations in the Far East nation.

According to a report [in Mandarin] from government-controlled publication China Central Television (CCTV), at least 4,000 of the apps removed were tagged with the keyword ‘gambling’. This comes after Apple faced criticism for hosting fake lottery-ticket apps, resulting in big losses for unsuspecting users.

“Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China,” Apple told Bloomberg in a statement. “We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store.”

Apple is used to drawing the ire of China’s state media for not doing enough to keep a lid on ‘illegal’ activity on its App Store. Previously, the tech giant has been forced to remove CallKit-enabled apps, VPN services, and the New York Times app from its China App Store in order to fall in line with the nation’s regulations.

Issues surrounding the relationship between the US and China have been heightened over the past 12 or so months with the US raising security concerns around China potentially spying on them via mobile devices – which led to both Verizon and AT&T refusing to sell Huawei phones in the US – and Google’s concerted, yet controversial, efforts to push back into China.  

Google’s efforts to re-enter China have seen the company enter talks with Chinese firms over bringing its cloud services to the country, set out plans to launch a censored version of its search engine, launch a WeChat AI game, introduce its Files Go storage app, and join forces with Xiaomi to bring its ARCore to the Land of the Rising Sun.