Tim Cook wants to bring Apple Pay to China

Tim Cook earlier this week traveled to China where he met with Chinese authorities to discuss a gamut of privacy issues, including recent allegations that the Chinese government recently set up a man in the middle attack to stealthily capture iCloud credentials from iOS users.

In an interview with China's Xinhuanet news agency, Cook said that the discussions held on privacy and security issues were "very open", "fascinating", and "impressive."

Given the gravity of the hacking allegations, the adjectives Cook chose to use are, themselves, fascinatingly and impressively vague.

On another note, Cook emphasized that China remains a "key market" for Apple and that the company is keen on bringing all of its latest technologies to the country, from the Apple Watch to Apple Pay.

"China is a really key market for us," Cook told Xinhuanet. "Everything we do, we are going to work it here. Apple Pay is on the top of the list."

Apple Pay in China, though, may be a ways off as getting the payment service up and running there will require substantial collaboration between Chinese "networks, banks, and merchants." At this point, Cook intimated that Apple hasn't even yet reached out to the important financial players in the country because they're still trying to understand the "necessary steps to bring Apple pay to China."

As for the impending release of the Apple Watch, Cook was confident about its prospects for success.

"We are going to wonder how we ever lived without it," Cook "That's the real test of a great product: you wonder how you live without it. And I think that's going to happen to the Apple Watch."