Except that's not how it works in reality (and the article covers this): if I go to China with my T-Mobile US SIM card in my phone, and connect to a Chinese telecom network, I will still be able to access Facebook, Google, and any news site, regardless of whether or not the Great Firewall would usually block it for Chinese citizens with Chinese SIM cards.

But Apple is censoring content on US phones with US SIM cards while they're physically located inside China, which is a huge departure from established practice, and isn't actually useful since the same non-Chinese phone can access all the same news sites via Safari.