Apple has accepted the Chinese government's censorship demands, allowing the government to run network safety evaluations on its products, Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the country's Internet and Information Office, who was present at the meeting last December in the US between Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook and director of the Chinese office Lu Wei, told Beijing News that Cook has assured that Apple will fully cooperate with the Chinese government to have its products inspected for security concerns.

According to the spokesperson, Lu said to Cook that China is one the biggest markets for Apple, and the country is willing to open up to technology giants, but that the prerequisite is products such as the iPhone, iPad, and Mac must ensure users' information safety and privacy, as well as national security.

"There were rumors of us keeping backdoors and providing data to third parties," Cook reportedly said during the meeting. "We have never had any backdoors and never will."

"Your products must pass the inspections done by our network safety officers. We have to then make conclusions and insure our customers," Lu said in reply, according to the spokesperson.

The spokesperson said Cook agreed that the company would cooperate and facilitate such inspections.

Updated at 11.09am AEDST: The headline was changed to indicate that Apple has accepted inspections of its devices, not censorship, within China.