[Apple lobbying the government to seek approval for purchasing memory chips from ChangXin Memory] Odaily Planet Daily reports that Apple is lobbying the Trump administration to gain approval for purchasing memory chips from Chinese chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory. Due to multiple factors driving up memory prices, Apple made the rare move of increasing the prices of MacBook and iPad on Thursday, leading to a $263 billion evaporation in its market value. Apple hopes to alleviate financial pressure from suppliers by adding ChangXin Memory to its list of memory suppliers. ChangXin Memory and Yangtze Memory have currently been blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Defense as Chinese military enterprises (the 1260H list). Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce planned to add ChangXin Memory to the Entity List, but the White House postponed the plan due to ongoing trade negotiations with China at the time. Currently, apart from Chinese companies, the global memory chip industry is primarily dominated by three companies: Micron Technology from the U.S., and Samsung and SK Hynix from South Korea. (FT)