Can an unlocked iPhone from the US be used in China?

[cloud25]

I have a friend from China who will be coming to visit and he wants to purchase an unlocked iPhone 5s to bring back with him to China. Will this work?

I have no idea what carrier her uses or plans to use back in China. But I assume each carrier in China also has different frequencies/bands(?) just like the US?

 

[Applejuiced]

Ask him what frequencies and tech his carrier in china uses.
CDMA or gsm and what bands are needed.
I know Apple make different iPhones for the marker in china so not sure if he will have problems using it there.

 

[rdy0329]

Unlocked iPhone will work in China but only 2G frequencies will be usable if he'll be using China Mobile. You can get as fast as 3G if you get China Unicom. You won't be able to take advantage of China mobile's TD-LTE frequencies since the model sold here does not support the required frequencies.

Short answer; yes, but on 2G (China mobile); 3G (unicom)