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Comment by chromaton | Hacker News Reader

How can we get Tim Cook to make a statement regarding democracy in Hong Kong? Either he refuses, which would be supporting the brutal crackdowns, or he forces China to act as they did like in the NBA case.

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Tim only stands up to leaders and governments who cannot cause him physical of financial harm. Pretty much par for the course for many American CEOs but he stands out because how much he touts Apple's stance for rights.

Even if it means bad press for saying nothing?

There would be no bad press for saying nothing. There seems to be some debate whether public CEOs have the right to freely express their personal opinions on certain political issues, with a bunch of high profile cases that would be distracting here; but there's certainly no argument that public CEOs have the duty to express (or even hold) any opinions whatsoever on things that are major political events abroad; Cook responding to all Hong Kong related matters (as far as they don't directly concern specific actions that directly affect Apple) with "no comment" would not get any significant bad press as that's not breaking any taboos or even conventions.

Companies don't care for bad press, not even for bad quarters. They care for bad stock performance...

Apple is selling their image as much as anything.

As much as I support democracy, you can't force people to make a statement supporting it.

And not speaking on something does not mean you support it.

Tim Cook serves the shareholders of Apple. He realizes the moment he says anything that has a significantly adverse effect on share value, the shareholders will fire him. You're basically asking him to quit his job.

Cook is a friend of Trump, just saying.

Don't confuse "Cook is a friend of Trump" and "Cook is trying to stay out of Trump's crosshairs".

He's donated to both sides of the aisle, including a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton last election: https://fortune.com/2016/08/24/apple-tim-cook-fundraiser-cli...

Could be a good angle to work as Trump has done some stuff lately that's also likely to anger the CCP.

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