Hong Kong
CNN
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Apple
(AAPL) CEO Tim Cook dinner gave a present of help for China as a market and manufacturing base throughout a go to to Beijing Saturday, whilst commerce and tech sector tensions escalate between america and the world’s second-largest financial system.
Apple and China had “grown collectively” over the previous three many years, Cook dinner advised the government-organized China Improvement Discussion board, including that he was thrilled to be again within the nation, which solely reopened its borders this yr after abandoning its strict zero-Covid coverage. The final time Cook dinner visited China was in 2019.
“We have now a really giant provide chain in China. We even have a thriving App Retailer,” the Apple chief was quoted as saying in state-run China Every day.
Cook dinner’s go to has raised eyebrows in some quarters, given the continued tech battle between america and China and stories that Apple has been trying to India as a possible various manufacturing base.
On Friday, Cook dinner had posted an image of himself smiling with clients and employees on the Apple retailer within the procuring district of Sanlitun on China’s Twitter-like social media web site Weibo.
That submit got here only a day after Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok was grilled in a five-hour listening to earlier than a Congressional committee in Washington, the place US lawmakers stay satisfied the Chinese language-made social media app represents an pressing risk to nationwide safety.
China’s state media was fast to grab on the obvious distinction between the 2 CEO’s experiences.
“TikTok CEO was underneath siege on the US listening to, whereas Apple CEO was enthusiastically welcomed by individuals at its flagship Chinese language retailer. This exhibits that China is the one that’s really training truthful and free commerce,” the state-run World Occasions quoted one netizen as saying.
The Biden administration has demanded that the Chinese language house owners of TikTok promote their share of the corporate or face a ban from america, the app’s most vital market. China’s commerce ministry mentioned Thursday {that a} compelled sale of TikTok would “significantly harm” international buyers’ confidence in america.
The US has issues concerning the firm’s information assortment practices, and these have been exacerbated by the recognition of TikTok and different Chinese language apps. Of the ten hottest free apps on Apple’s US retailer, 4 had been developed with Chinese language expertise: TikTok, procuring app Temu, quick style retailer Shein and video enhancing app CapCut, which like TikTok can also be owned by ByteDance.
Apple in the meantime has reportedly been rethinking the extent of its ties with China.
The corporate’s provide chains had been disrupted by China’s harsh coronavirus guidelines and there have been violent protests over wages on the world’s largest iPhone meeting manufacturing unit at Foxconn’s campus in China’s Henan province.
Amid these issues, and wider commerce disagreements between Washington and Beijing, Apple has reportedly been taking a look at India as a possible various manufacturing hub for the iPhone 14.
Nonetheless, many analysts say that even when Apple can add range to its provide base it’s prone to proceed to rely upon China for a very long time but.
Cook dinner mentioned in an earnings name final yr that India was a “vastly thrilling market” and “a serious focus” for Apple that recorded “very sturdy double digits yr over yr,” indicating its excessive curiosity to increase manufacturing within the South Asian nation.
Whereas the rising US-China tensions have led to options the world’s two largest economies may “decouple,” current information exhibits commerce between them hit a document excessive in 2022.
Bilateral items commerce between the international locations rose to $690.6 billion final yr, in accordance with official US information.
Exports to China elevated by $2.4 billion to $153.8 billion, whereas imports of Chinese language merchandise rose by $31.8 billion to $536.8 billion in accordance with the US Bureau of Financial Evaluation.
The info means that the concept of “decoupling,” or decreasing mutual reliance in a variety of areas, is way more evident in coverage discussions in Washington reasonably than on-the-ground commerce actuality.