LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Chinese officials have issued a formal approval for Apple Inc.'s AAPL, +0.15% new iPhone 6 handsets, China's official Xinhua News Agency said in a one-sentence item out Tuesday. "The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday that it has granted a network access license to Apple Inc.'s latest smartphone, the iPhone 6," it said. China didn't get to take part in the first phase of the new iPhone's global launch, held on Sept. 19, with various reports citing Apple's failure to get the license for the new phone.