The tricky thing with Apple is that they sell phones in China, given that that govt demands visibility into what it's citizens do, it is reasonable to assume that anything Apple launches to secure your data from prying eyes will have an asterisk to accommodate a big part of their market.
That's because Chinese and US law are fundamentally different. The US has laws that enable Apple to contest those requests. It is not just possible to run a large business in violation of any (competent) government. It doesn't matter who it is.
FWIW, Apple does not treat US and Chinese users the same. If you have a Chinese mainland iPhone, you use a completely different iCloud that isn't even run by Apple.
It’s not that tricky as iCloud in a China isn’t run by Apple at all. [0]
The laws are different there and the only way that Apple could meet the requirements of the Chinese government without also weakening their product for the rest of the world was to cede control of iCloud there.
It looks to me like Apple and China have a complicated and somewhat adversarial relationship.
Apple likely conceded early on that China-based iPhones use China-based iCloud, and the Chinese government likely conceded that Apple phones will use the same OS everywhere, with region-based feature blocking being as far as they'll go in customizing the OS. Both have a lot to lose from the other party terminating the relationship.
