Why Apple will never leave China

Patrick McGee writes in the Times of London today about the complexity of the relationships between Apple and China and how it contributed to China’s rise while making Apple the most-valuable company in the world. Neither could have happened without the other.

“There is zero chance that Apple will ever leave China,” writes McGee, who tomorrow will be out with a book on Apple’s rise in China. “America lacks the experiential know-how, the dense population, the
low wages or even the infrastructure to be competitive in manufacturing
smartphones as complex as Apple’s.”

Apple recently announced it would move assembly for its US-sold iPhones to India by 2026 but this aims to obfuscate that the components will still be built in China.

Today, President Trump highlighted that he spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook this morning ahead of the tariff announcement. That’s an acknowledgement that Apple had lobbied hard for the tariffs to go down and the company won. A frequent talking point of the tariffs was that ‘no one wanted a $2000 iPhone’.

China is home to 90% of Apple’s production, according to McGee.

Washington has good reason to want to untie this knot, to convince
Apple it should train workers in Ohio, not Zhengzhou. But the supply
chain in question is the result of decades of Chinese investment, focus
and tailor-made policies, supported by cutting-edge robotics, skills and
experience.

Apple shares are up 6.1% today.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.