Apple in China

The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

De: Patrick McGee

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

“Phenomenal…a jaw-dropping book.” —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Named by both the New York Times and the Economist as one of the best books of the year so far, this “scrupulously reported” (The New Yorker) and “astonishing” (The Daily Telegraph, London) book rivets with its portrayal of how Apple allowed itself to become dependent on China for a huge percentage of its manufacturing, making it vulnerable and unwittingly laying the groundwork for the Asian superpower to rival the US in technological expertise.

After struggling to build products on three continents, Apple turned to China’s seemingly endless supply of cheap labor. It soon deployed thousands of engineers, trained millions of workers, and invested hundreds of billions of dollars to create the most advanced global supply chain. These efforts fueled the iPhone’s dominance—but also laid the foundation for a powerful, state-supported Chinese electronics industry. What began as a business decision evolved into a cautionary tale of global trade, tech rivalry, and national security.

Without intending to, Apple helped Beijing acquire technological influence that could now be weaponized—a central concern in the ongoing US-China tech war. Drawing on over two hundred interviews, Patrick McGee exposes never-before-reported details from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: internal emails, secretive executive meetings, and overlooked voices inside the company’s China operations.

You’ll meet the “Gang of Eight” executives tasked with appeasing Beijing, a Mormon missionary who launched Apple retail in China, and a veteran whose dreams of improving factory conditions were crushed by both Apple’s demands and Xi Jinping’s authoritarian crackdown. From Foxconn and Tim Cook to the Chinese Communist Party and Taiwan Semiconductor, this is a revelatory look at how Apple, in seeking efficiency, became entangled in the very politics it once claimed to challenge.

For readers of Chip War, American Factory, and The Big Short, Apple in China is a searing examination of corporate power, Chinese nationalism, deglobalization, and the fragile relationship between Silicon Valley and the world’s rising superpower.

Stunning implications

The reportage by this honored business journalist is deep, original, and points to a situation no one else is paying attention to at all—how deeply Apple has fallen into the clutches of the Chinese Communist Party. When the President demands re-shoring of iPhone manufacture, he obviously has no idea that what he’s asking for is virtually impossible. I’ve been a certifiable Mac-head since the 1980s and I’m sad to see how insatiable demand for iPods and iPhones and shareholder greed have trapped a great U.S. company in an economic vise. The implications don’t stop with manufacturing. The safety and security of chip production on Taiwan is at stake and, by extension, American security. By the way, business nonfiction can be riveting.

Apple's challenges going forward

Excellent detailed disection of Apple's past, present & future, covering geopolitical changes, production issues, and more. Great illumination of the personalities.

Must read

This book convincingly argues that over the past 15 years Apple has taught China Inc how to best US technology by Apple’s investments in modern manufacturing and skills training. China of course aided this transformation through its own subsidies and constraint of worker rights. The profit-driven decisions are detailed are the level of the supply chain and factory floor, all the way up to Communist Party negotiations with Apple executives. An eye-opening book.

Fascinating

Eyeopening information that makes me question everything I thought I knew about the Apple-China relationship.

Stop here for FRESH and relative Apple content

I really enjoyed this book as it was the first time I've read a comprehensive overview of what America's tech giant has been doing in China outside little blurbs here and there. Well resourced, fairly neutral, and one hell of a ride. This book does not include the tired tropes about Apple that proliferate so many publicly available words about the company, no this is substance weaved with great storytelling. If you are looking to get past the myth and the legend that is Apple this is your book. Smart people with maybe even better luck. Worth your time.