Apple in China
The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
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4.6 • 19 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ***
* WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING *
What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West’s gravest mistake?
For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America’s dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers.
Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee’s gripping exposé reveals Apple’s vulnerability for the first time – and shows how one company’s triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power.
‘Devastatingly clear’ New York Times
‘Scrupulously reported’ New Yorker
‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan
‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller
'This is the best book about Apple ever written’ Ben Thompson, Stratechery
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The computer maker that once dominated China's development into an industrial powerhouse is now dominated by China's government, according to this insightful debut account. Financial Times reporter McGee recaps Apple's 30-year process of shuttering its original American factories and outsourcing production to Chinese contract manufacturers. It's partly a saga of greed as Apple took advantage of Asia's lax regulations and its own bargaining power—Apple forced one firm to sign a production contract without reading it—to ruthlessly cut costs. But Apple also invested hundreds of billions of dollars in its Chinese suppliers, taught them state-of-the-art techniques, and brought them its own engineers and high-tech machinery. Apple eventually located most of its production in China, which, McGee contends, made it hostage to Beijing's whims. The company appreciated the government's policy of crushing labor unions and muting bad press but had to bow to demands to compromise customers' data privacy and accommodate censorship. McGee's perceptive account presents a cogent rethink of Apple's role in the global economy, painting the company as the de facto proprietor and active manager of China's advanced electronics sector. He also makes the potentially dry subject of global supply chains riveting, with epic narratives of bleeding-edge product design and colorful portraits of larger-than-life leaders. The result is a fascinating analysis of how global capitalism conquered China—and vice versa.
Customer Reviews
Edifying read
Superbly researched and written with clarity, for the curious reader. The author also takes the reader thru geopolitical events that has shaped the rise of China and American decline. One hopes American overcomes its polarization and becomes great again; but that is becoming almost insurmountable.