Apple Intelligence Reaches China With Alibaba's Qwen Model

Apple is bringing Apple Intelligence to China after more than two years of waiting, and it is doing so with a local partner. Instead of the ChatGPT integration used elsewhere, Chinese iPhone users will get Qwen, the language model family built by Alibaba.

Apple announced the plan on October 31. A first build will arrive on November 4 in a test version of iOS for developers, and the general release is expected in December with iOS 27.3.

What Qwen will do

Qwen will be built into Siri, the writing tools and visual intelligence. Users will be able to ask questions about photos and documents, including PDFs and presentations, and request newly generated text. That gives it a role similar to ChatGPT's on other markets, although core system features will still run on Apple's own technology.

Use of the integration is optional. People can sign in with a Qwen account or with Apple. Alibaba says queries and generated answers will not be used to train its models.

The update also includes notification and email summaries, text rewriting tools, object removal from photos, custom emoji and live translation in Messages, FaceTime and phone calls. The full Siri AI shown at WWDC 2026 is not part of the Chinese launch. Users will get an upgraded version of the existing Siri with Qwen access.

Why it took so long

China stayed outside the programme because of local rules for generative AI, which require services to be registered and to meet specific requirements. The service received approval from the Chinese regulator in July. The first phase covers only iPhones, starting with the iPhone 15 Pro, and the system and Siri language must be set to English or Simplified Chinese. Other devices will follow once further approvals arrive.

Europe still waits

The contrast with Europe is striking. Apple Intelligence has been available in the EU since April 2025, but it does not support Polish, so users must switch their device and Siri to a supported language. Siri AI, the more capable assistant that uses Google's Gemini as part of its backend, is withheld on iPhones and iPads in the EU because of a dispute over Digital Markets Act requirements. Apple has not given a date for lifting that restriction. The assistant does run on compatible Macs in supported languages.