Apple's Tim Cook signed $275B deal with Chinese officials to placate China
reuters.com
reuters.com
They assemble a tiny fraction of iPhones in India and computers in Texas, but the vast, vast majority of Apple's manufacturing is in China, carried out by Chinese citizens, subject to Chinese law (and control, and surveillance).
In a certain sense, Apple is a wholly Chinese operation. Apple's brain organ might be in Cupertino, but its hands and limbs are 100% Chinese.
Essentially, Apple has to do exactly what China wants, at all times, for the entirety of the foreseeable future.
Apple has censored VPN and protest apps in the Chinese App Store. Apple has censored the Taiwanese flag emoji, and cooperates in the censorship for the News app, and maintains their (effectively unencrypted, i.e. non-e2e) iCloud servers for Chinese users inside of China (where the CCP can monitor everything on them - same as they do in the US for US users so that the USG can monitor everything on them via FAA702).
There's nothing they won't do, simply because they have to.
We are talking about a nation state. In the context of nation states, exactly what is inherently evil about China?
The cost of globalism, is companies are incentivised to go into different markets and cultures to continue their growth. The alternative to companies following local laws and customs, is colonialism… unless you want to wind back globalism…
If your country is committing a genocide, black bagging people for making accusations of sexual assault and cracking down on your free press, you may be a bit mustache twirling level of evil.
I wouldn't say the Reuters article is allowed, exactly. At present it contains no information beyond the title, so I've downweighted it. That doesn't mean we're about to ban Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/article/apple-china-idCAKBN2IM1HH
> The five-year agreement was made when Cook made visits to China in 2016 to quash a host of regulatory action against the company, the report said, citing interviews and internal Apple documents.
> Cook lobbied Chinese officials, who believed the company was not contributing enough to the local economy, and signed the agreement with a Chinese government agency, making concessions to Beijing and winning key legal exemptions, the report added.
> Some of Apple’s investment in China would go toward building new retail stores, research and development centers and renewable energy projects, the report said, citing the agreement....
> As part of the agreement, Apple promised to use more components from Chinese suppliers in its devices, sign deals with Chinese software firms, collaborate on technology with Chinese universities and directly invest in Chinese tech companies, the Information report said.
It looks like it was published two minutes after the one in the OP.
I've noticed Reuters tends to rush stuff out then issue a new articles when they have new information to report. Sometimes it's just a report that some other outlet reported something. I think they do this because they're tailoring their content to financial terminal subscribers, who'd benefit from a bare bones headline that comes a few minutes early, so they can trade on the news.
The other problem is that The Information is quite a SV insiders PR machine usually posting fluff pieces masquerading as news.
The WSJ usually is one of the few adversarial critical media outlets in SV and has broken stories like Theranos etc.
> If there were no objections from either side, the deal would be automatically be extended for an additional year until May 2022, according to the agreement.
I would imagine they’re currently in negotiations for whatever the next iteration of this agreement will be. Perhaps Mr. Cook is looking for a bit of leverage?
>> Interviews and internal Apple documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made concessions to Beijing and won key legal exemptions. CEO Tim Cook personally lobbied officials over threats that would have hobbled its devices and services. His interventions paved the way for Apple’s unparalleled success in the country.
Is this related to the similar stuff the NY Times reported on in May?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce...:
> Internal Apple documents reviewed by The New York Times, interviews with 17 current and former Apple employees and four security experts, and new filings made in a court case in the United States last week provide rare insight into the compromises Mr. Cook has made to do business in China. They offer an extensive inside look — many aspects of which have never been reported before — at how Apple has given in to escalating demands from the Chinese authorities.
Putting two and two together, it I'm guessing this is a story is about Tim Cook pledging Apple will spend billions to develop the Chinese economy, probably while simultaneously claiming it couldn't spend similar money to develop the US economy or manufacturing capacity.
One thing about Apple news is that it's almost always great for Apple's bottom line.
I am sure Apple signed the deal.
> I am sure Apple signed the deal.
I'm sure it means Tim Cook signed a deal on behalf of Apple, as opposed to some underling with less authority. Which means they can't backtrack by scapegoating an underling if this causes too much controversy for them.