Apple plans to boost its investment in China, CEO Tim Cook stated during a Wednesday meeting with the nation’s industry minister in Beijing, per an official summary of the discussion. According to the Chinese ministry, Cook assured Minister Li Lecheng that the iPhone manufacturer would continue pouring funds into the country, though the summary provided no specifics on the investment’s scale.
Reuters:
The tech giant, which has also made investment pledges to Washington, has so far managed to be relatively unscathed by the trade war between the United States and China. Other companies, such as Nvidia and Qualcomm have found themselves the target of Chinese investigations.
A Shanghai-based government affairs consultant, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with media, said U.S. companies are wary of angering a White House that could hurt them at home in the world’s biggest consumer market for appearing too pro-China. At the same time, they are seeking to avoid appearing insincere in Beijing where they have pledged to be “in China, for China,” he added…
Meanwhile, Apple, which relies on suppliers and factories in China where most of its iPhones are assembled, has been trying to shift some manufacturing capacity to India.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in March, “The tightrope Cook walks in China grows increasingly tenuous.”
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Apple almost single handedly taught China how to engineer, manufacture, tool, and scale the production of high end electronics. China is now using those skills to push other countries and corporations out of business.
Worse, Apple put so many eggs in the Chinese basket, they are beholden to the whims of the Chineses government. Time and time again, China uses nuance policy and laws to manipulate Apple who is almost solely dependent on Chinese manufacturing for its leading consumer electronics products.
At some point, Apple, America, and the rest of the world have to realize that Chinese dependance is a recipe for future disaster through manipulation. Just look what China tried to pull last week with rare-earths. Thank God we have Trump in office to tap that back. Can you imagine with Harris would have done, ugh, scary!
This would have never happened with someone else in office. Trump started the whole mess.
The derangement is real!
Biden taught you stupid
This is the wrong move. China and India are both wrong moves.
I like this strategy a lot: Asian manufacturing in China, North and South American manufacturing in the US, Europe and Western Asia manufacturing in India. Done.
Slave labor pays!
This is bizarre and short-sighted on several levels: business, long-term stability, politics, strategic dependence on a hostile government, not to mention the optics.
Yikes.
Boo!