BlackBerry CEO John Chen recently said in Beijing that while China is a great market with many opportunities, he is hesitant to expand into the country because of the political backlash that could follow any security breaches.

An agreement would have to be reached with officials about what would happen if BlackBerry was asked to hand over user data, Chen (pictured) said, and he wants to make sure the company reaches a compromise that would satisfy both Chinese and Western authorities.

“I don’t want to get sucked into a geopolitical equation,” he explained to Reuters.

“Even if I have that time and money I’ll probably have better returns going into a different set of markets that we are already in, like India, South Asia, and Southeast Asia,” he added.

He also said that in order to work with Asian partners it would have to be with someone who had “something serious to offer in business, not cash, because we have $3 billion in cash.”

Earlier this week, Chen met with the heads of Xiaomi and Lenovo in Beijing where he said that partnering would be a more efficient way to move into China and that there may be opportunities for working together with the vendors on technology licensing, distribution or manufacturing.

The Chinese reports follow news that BlackBerry this week announced a raft of new services as well as a new partnership with Samsung, as it continues to focus on strengthening its enterprise credentials.

Chen also announced the launch of the BlackBerry Classic on December 17, its followup to the BlackBerry Bold device that looks like an upgraded version of the older BlackBerry devices with a full Qwerty keyboard and runs the BB10 operating system. It is available to pre-order for $450.

Chen also said a limited red edition of the BlackBerry Passport device would be released on Black Friday (October 28).