Apple introduced the lineup for its new iPhone 14 series on Thursday, and the models shipping in the US will no longer support physical SIM cards. Instead, the new dual-SIM function will be powered by eSIM tech, allowing users to download SIM and phone number information directly from supported carriers. However, the four major Chinese carriers – China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Broadnet – are not supported. The functional change means the US models are barely usable in China. Some Chinese users prefer buying iPhones from the US as it’s cheaper than the Chinese ones. Chinese carriers are slow to apply new tech, including calls via 4G (VoLTE) and mmWave. VoLTE tech, for example, took five more years to be available to the public in China compared to US carriers. As for eSIM, even though Chinese carriers have allowed users to use the tech in smartwatches, they have never allowed phones to use eSIM. The government did approve eSIM use in a 5G phone case for Huawei phones earlier this year, which only supports 4G due to the US sanctions. [ITHome, in Chinese]