In a bid to get a bigger slice of the Chinese mobile phone market dominated by local firms Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE, U.S. phone giant Apple opened a massive outlet on Saturday in Hangzhou.

The West Lake Apple Store is just one of five that the Cupertino-based company will open before the Chinese New Year on February 19, and among the 25 stores that Apple plans to open across China over the next two years, Mashable reports.

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Explaining the mad rush to open outlets in the Asian giant, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters, "When I look at China, I see an enormous market where there are more people graduating into the middle class than any nation on Earth in history."

In spite of Beijing's distrust of Apple amid accusation that the company tracks Chinese citizens using its iPhone, which the firm denied, an unconfirmed report on Friday said Cook has allegedly given in to the government's demand for full security inspection of Apple devices before it could be sold.

A tweet by People's Daily with a photo of Cook and Chinese internet czar Lu Wei said that China is the first foreign company to agree to the regulations of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Quartz reports that Cook debunked the rumors that there are back doors inside its gadgets that allow third parties to have data and even access the devices. Besides belying the speculation, Cook also assured Lu that Apple will not do that in the future.

However, Beijing News quotes Lu as replying, "It doesn't matter what you say, you should let our internet safety department do a safety assessment. We need to reach our own conclusions to put the customer at ease."

Some analysts believe that Cook agreed to turn over its source code to Beijing.

Part of the opening ceremony for the Hangzhou store, witnessed by a big crowd, was the unveiling of a mural made by Chinese artist Wang Dongling, which is a depiction of the poem "Praising West Lake in the Rain."

To further generate interest in the Apple store, Cook tweeted that the tech giant is starting something new in China.

TagsiPhone, Tim Cook, Apple Store