Apple in China |
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17 November 2025 - Erlenbach
Patrick McGee's Apple in China is an excellently researched and surprisingly polemic book. It tells the tale of Apple's manufacturing entering China through Taiwanese subcontractors who used cheap Chinese labor. Apple had very high standards and so sent Americans to train the Chinese to meet those standards. Eventually Chinese companies would take these highly trained empolyees and use their knowledge to build competing products. All the while Apple invested tens of billions of dollars in China while becoming completely depedent on maunfacturing in that country. It's a playbook China has followed in many industries: entice a western company with cheap labor and free land, get the employees trained up to western standards, move those employees to Chinese companies that can then outcompete their teachers in China and then the world. Apple is just the biggest example of this because, unlike other companies (e.g. Volkswagen, Tesla, etc.), Apple closed down its manufacturing in its home country and focused primarily on China. And eventually Apple needed China more than China needed Apple, upending the relationship and sending Apple's CEO Tim Cook to to kowtow to the dictator Xi.
