Apple weathers anti-U.S. demo in China, where patriotic protests snowball

Apple Inc found itself on the receiving end of a small, short-lived anti-U.S. protest this week in China, the tech firm's biggest overseas market and a country where foreign firms have suffered damaging boycotts following international spats. A handful of unofficial Apple stores were picketed and social media users encouraged each other to destroy their Apple goods, in a rare instance of the tech firm being targeted as a symbol of perceived injustice following an international ruling against Chinese territorial claims. "There's not much Apple or any other foreign firm can do to prevent such patriotic protests," said analyst Nicole Peng at researcher Canalys, who sees no impact to Apple's sales from the recent protest.