Apple CEO Tim Cook has been appointed as the chairman of the advisory board at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, a role which offers access to state leaders.
Freank Yang for the South China Morning Post:
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been appointed chairman of the advisory board at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, a role that could provide access to top Chinese leaders at a time the iPhone manufacturer is facing mounting challenges in the world’s second largest economy.
Cook will assume the role for three years and replace Jim Breyer, the founder and chief executive of Breyer Capital, according to a statement from the university released on Friday. Cook said he would work with other members on the board, who have not been named, to make the Beijing-based school into a “world-class” education institution…
New appointments to the board, which is usually stacked with business and political leaders, could offer clues on the relationship between Beijing and some of the world’s most influential business leaders at a time when trade tensions have reached new highs… While the official role of the group is to help the development of the prestigious school, members are also granted the privilege of an audience with China’s top leaders.
MacDailyNews Take: Tactical.
If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near. – Sun Tzu
Tactical my hind leg, MDN. Just let old Tim take a stand for open free speech and see what old panda faced Xi does.
Since I cannae edit comments, let me add that yes,I have so many Chinese kommie hating social demerits that i couldn’t even ride a Chinese train.
Reminds me of the way the Vatican was made compliant by Hitler
How do you figure that?
Unlike in the Dark Ages, the Vatican didn’t have a standing army. During WW2 the Vatican went underground to fight the Nazis. All things considered, they were very successful in sabotaging Nazi progress in Italy and elsewhere. They saved Allies, supplied resistance efforts, and smuggled all kinds of humanitarian aid right in front of the Nazi war machine. Need an example? Read the biography of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.
The truth is a lot more complex than the superficial impressions of twitter-informed generations who don’t have the attention span to look at all the data.
Hardly tactical, yet another huge fail. The pic of Tim on a leash, just turned into Chains..
How do we know if Timmy has chains of any kind?
With the tens of millions that Timmy has pocketed as chief caretaker of the orchard, he may very well be on his way to gaining important standing with Xi and therefore in The Party. If he doesn’t view Apple’s near complete reliance on China as being hypocritical or risky, surely there must be a reason. Not unlike how the current corrupt administration has overtly done basically everything a Russian premier could want, other than shipping assets over to Moscow “at cost”.
Almost all multinational corporations have made it clear that they view the future as being Chinese, and all are obviously pandering for a piece of the action. System of government is irrelevant to these modern unelected fiefdoms that have no real legal responsibility to the citizens in the communities in which their headquarters are supposedly incorporated (usually Delaware, in case anyone here was wondering), or where the company officials supposedly go to work (almost always in the most expensive real estate on the planet), or where the vast majority of the company employees or supply chain resides (rapidly moving to points west of Hawaii). It is plainly clear that nothing the US ever does would prompt Tim Apple from relocating assembly of high volume products close to the end customers where freedoms are guaranteed, environmental and labor regulations protect health now and in the future, and inefficiencies of democracy are tangible. Can’t have that, it would interrupt Timmy’s long Tahoe ski weekends.
Notice: Tim has made a public call-out for a seamstress to create a Mao suit for his next China visit. He’s a little tall and his size needs custom tailoring. Apparently, such sizes aren’t found in China, but Cook is determined to accommodate per social norms.
Mao suites are cool. Tim can start calling himself, Dr. No.
Qinghua is known as the MIT of China.