the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, a recently published report details Apple CEO Tim Cook’s efforts to establish strong relationships between Apple and the Chinese government. Cook repeatedly visited China in the mid-2010s, signing a five-year $275 billion deal in 2016 to mitigate regulatory action by the Chinese government. The deal involved Apple helping develop technology in the country and also investing billions of dollars into building new retail stores, research and development centers, and renewable energy projects. Cook’s work is likely the reason the company has been so successful in China.
Unlike hundreds of other US companies that have been moving out of China over the last few years, AAPL doubled down. They need emperor’s permission to keep making i-products using local slave labor, hence the investment. Judging by how aggressively CCP has been cracking down on domestic enterprises though, my sense is that Tim miscalculated. AAPL would lose its factories and access to Chinese customers as domestic situation worsens and CCP is forced to “find” more capital to maintain social stability. Tim doesn’t give a sh!t though. He’s a technocrat, just working there. The losses will be borne by US pensioners whose life savings are funding the Chinese enterprise.