You comment hits the core of the "problem". Traditionally What "China" wants has been 100% decided by its rulers.. While the people were TOLD what they wanted. Even now China's rulers think about what's useful for their minions to manufacture for outsiders with near contempt that their own people may want something.
A good microcosm of this is iPhone. It took four years for the government to bless iPhone for Chinese people to use... Even though it is nearly 100% made by Chinese people in China. That rigid disparity between what people of a country WANT and what they MAKE doesn't exist like it does in China anywhere else. That's what makes China such a tough nut to crack.. The near absolute control of what the people are "allowed" to like and buy.
If you change the item from smartphones to firearms, the PRC is not at all special, besides Mao's infamous revealing quote, "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
A more useful illustration is the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) attitude towards civil society (per Wikipedia, "the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens"), it must be extremely limited and restrained, and there are no extremes including mass murder to which the CCP is not willing to go to keep it that way. See the Falun Gong for the most recent severe example, and I've noticed recent headlines WRT to some Christian "sect" and 1,000 people arrested.
In that context, smartphones, which can communicate in ways less subject to surveillance than say SMS, are an existential threat to the CCP, potentially as dangerous as guns.
In English, it's correct grammar to include an article ("the" or "a") before a singular common noun. "iPhone" is a singular common noun, because it's not a discrete entity like Jupiter or Bill Gates, it's a consumer product - there are many, many iPhones. It's also -- despite Apple's marketing to the contrary -- not a singular or distinct concept, at least not in the context of your post. If you prefer to drop the article because it conveys your idea better, you can pluralize the noun. "iPhones" is a completely valid drop-in replacement.
No spite/sarcasm intended - I am genuinely trying to be helpful.
A good microcosm of this is iPhone. It took four years for the government to bless iPhone for Chinese people to use... Even though it is nearly 100% made by Chinese people in China. That rigid disparity between what people of a country WANT and what they MAKE doesn't exist like it does in China anywhere else. That's what makes China such a tough nut to crack.. The near absolute control of what the people are "allowed" to like and buy.