Keep pulling the thread on Patrick McGee.
After Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, hardliners in the Chinese government threatened to blacklist Apple, not understanding the company's significant contributions to the local economy.
Apple built up the technical competence of its Chinese supply chain by sending its own engineers to hundreds of factories to directly train local workers, with some engineers even sleeping on factory floors.
China's "hukou" household registration system creates a dual-citizenship structure where rural migrants in cities lack access to benefits like public schooling, creating a large, flexible "floating workforce".
In response to a series of worker suicides in 2010, Foxconn installed nets around its factory buildings and required workers to sign pledges that they would not commit suicide.
Patrick McGee argues that Chinese smartphone manufacturers, not Apple, were primarily responsible for the demise of Nokia, as Chinese brands collectively hold 55% of the global market share.
The smartphone manufacturing ecosystem that enabled Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi to outcompete Nokia was largely built and paid for by Apple through its extensive training of Chinese suppliers.
Patrick McGee believes Apple is strategically "captured" by China, unable to significantly diversify its manufacturing to India or the U.S. because its supply chain is encircled by the Chinese ecosystem it helped create.
Apple is the largest client of TSMC, and as a result, the most cutting-edge chips produced each year are found in the latest iPhone models.
Any company attempting to compete with Apple in consumer hardware at scale would be at a significant disadvantage if they chose not to manufacture in China.
In response to political pressure from Beijing, Apple pledged to invest $275 billion in China over a five-year period.
Apple's five-year, $275 billion investment pledge in China is significantly larger than the US CHIPS Act, which allocated $52 billion over four years.
Patrick McGee estimates that Apple's total investment in China from the launch of the iPhone in 2007 to 2025 could exceed $800 billion.