There are some causes worth speaking out about. And then there are those causes that one dare not utter a word for fear of retribution. Pope Francis and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, are quite sympathetic and at times vocal about certain causes – LGBTQ rights, gun violence, diversity, and climate change to name but a few — but they’ve both gotten noticeably quiet about two movements that have surfaced in the past year or so. One that promotes free speech and one that would crush it. One that seeks to live in freedom in one of the great success stories of enterprise and capitalism and the other that seeks to impose communist rule through a blood-soaked revolution.

Clearly, Apple has a great deal to lose if Cook speaks up about the Chinese government’s moves to bring Hong Kong under a more oppressive yoke, taking direct control of Hong Kong’s banking sector, and cracking down on any dissent. The financial hit to Apple would be in the billions if President-for-Life Xi Jinping became upset with a positive statement from Cook about the democracy movement in Hong Kong and ordered that factories where Apple products are manufactured be shuttered.