Apple has been dragged into an escalating confrontation over cyber security and US spying in China after its iPhone was branded a threat to national security by state media.

The move comes just months after the US technology group struck a deal to supply iPhones to China Mobile, the world's largest phone company – a key moment in Apple's attempt to reach a further billion Chinese smartphone users.

It also comes in the week the US and China concluded high-level trade talks in which little progress was made to update an 18-year -old agreement that governed the $2 trillion annual trade in high-tech products between the two countries.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV yesterday warned about the iPhone's ability to track a user via its positioning technology and "view the user's home address, unit information and whereabouts". Citing revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the report claimed Apple passed such data on not just to advertisers but also to US spy agencies. CCTV said this information would still be recorded even if the feature was turned off.Apple was not available for comment. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014