Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
by Patrick McGee
View on GoodreadsFT reporter Patrick McGee's investigation of Apple's deep operational integration with China — not as a vendor relationship but as a co-built manufacturing capability that has now made Apple structurally dependent on the Chinese state.
Core ideas
- Apple didn't just outsource to China; over twenty years it taught Chinese suppliers everything they needed to build advanced electronics, including (the book argues) the capability base now powering the Chinese consumer-electronics rivals Apple competes against.
- The "China is too big to leave" trap: Apple's manufacturing concentration in China is now so deep that decoupling would cost years and tens of billions; the Indian and Vietnamese diversification is real but slow, and the Chinese state knows this.
- The political accommodations — App Store curation in China, iCloud data handling, public CEO statements about China policy — are mapped as a coherent strategy to preserve the manufacturing relationship, not as separate decisions.
Published2025
Pages448
ISBN9781668053379
ReadJun 2025
