Earlier today at its annual shareholder’s meeting, Ron Johnson, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail, announced that Apple plans to open “up to” 25 retail stores in China within the next 24 months (2 years.) This move marks Apple’s long-awaited decision to increase its stake in Asia, and to further grow as an international company.

Presently, Apple’s Beijing store is the only Apple retail store in the entire country. Before today’s announcement, however, there were plans to construct a second Beijing Apple store as well as a store in Shanghai.

Apple has yet to issue a formal press release and the specifics (timeframe, locations, etc) of this plan remain unknown.

[MacRumors]