Apple's CEO Tim Cook felt compelled to fly over to China and meet regulators over the controversy surrounding one inconspicuous map-pinner app yesterday. If you think that's bonkers, you don't know how touchy the Chinese have become over the Hong Kong matter, and how important of a market they are for American companies now.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation issued out a memo detailing the encounter, saying that Tim Cook met with Xiao Yaqing, the chief of the administrative body, and they discussed Apple's consumer rights protection, corporate social ...