Apple to increase Chinese investments amid US-China trade tension

Apple has pledged to summation its concern successful China arsenic tensions betwixt Washington and Beijing rage on.

CEO Tim Cook said connected Wednesday that the tech elephantine told China’s manufacture minister, Li Lecheng, the iPhone shaper volition support investing successful China, according to an authoritative summary of their gathering successful Beijing released by the Chinese government.

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The study gave nary details of the size of the imaginable investment.

Many US companies person go cautious astir relations with China arsenic the world’s 2 biggest economies clash implicit tariffs and arsenic United States President Donald Trump seeks to beforehand manufacturing successful the US alternatively than elsewhere.

The California-based company, which has besides made investment pledges to Washington, DC, has truthful acold remained comparatively unscathed by the commercialized warfare betwixt the US and China. Other companies, specified arsenic Nvidia and Qualcomm, person recovered themselves the people of Chinese investigations.

Washington has agelong placed sanctions connected Chinese companies, specified arsenic Huawei.

A Shanghai-based authorities affairs consultant, who requested anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorised to talk with the media, said US companies are wary of angering a White House that could wounded them astatine location successful the world’s biggest user marketplace for appearing excessively pro-China, the Reuters quality bureau reported.

At the aforesaid time, they are seeking to debar appearing insincere successful Beijing, wherever they person pledged to beryllium “in China, for China”, helium added.

In August, Cook presented Trump with a customized US-made plaque mounted connected a 24-carat golden basal commemorating Apple’s “American Manufacturing Program”, aft saying it would put an further $100bn successful home manufacturing.

“This whitethorn spot Apple successful the crosshairs of President Trump and his policies, but fixed Apple’s operations, it is imaginable that this determination was pre-approved by the administration. These vague announcements whitethorn besides beryllium purely a nationalist relations maneuver alternatively than thing meaningful, fixed that tangible investments were ne'er presented to the public,” Babak Hafezi, main enforcement serviceman astatine Hafezi Capital, an planetary consulting firm, told Al Jazeera.

When Cook visited China successful March, Apple made nationalist its plans for a caller cleanable vigor money determination worthy $101m (720 cardinal yuan).

Meanwhile, Apple, which relies connected suppliers and factories successful China wherever astir of its iPhones are assembled, has been trying to displacement immoderate manufacturing capableness to India.

“India was a maneuver to diversify its proviso concatenation production, summation redundancy, and mitigate geopolitical risk,” Hafezi said.

Apple’s COO Sabih Khan connected Tuesday visited Lens Technology, a Chinese solid supplier for Apple, the Changsha-based institution said successful a connection connected Wednesday.

Lens Technology produces solid covers for Apple products, including the iPhone and Apple Watch, and has been a spouse for 19 years, it said.

China hopes Apple volition proceed to research the Chinese marketplace and turn unneurotic with Chinese suppliers, Industry Minister Li Lecheng, who is besides successful complaint of infotech, told Cook, adding that China would proceed to foster a bully concern situation for overseas companies, including Apple.

Growth successful China

Apple’s shipments successful China grew 0.6 percent from a twelvemonth earlier to 10.8 cardinal units successful the 3rd 4th against the backdrop of sluggish request successful China’s smartphone market, according to information probe steadfast IDC connected Wednesday.

Boosted by the iPhone 17 series, it was the lone marque among China’s 3 biggest vendors to execute maturation successful shipments during the period.

As portion of his sojourn to China this week, Cook visited Apple’s store successful Shanghai and met Chinese crippled developers and the decorator of the fashionable Labubu dolls, helium said successful posts connected China’s X-like Weibo.

On Monday, helium said the iPhone Air would beryllium disposable for pre-order successful China aft the manufacture ministry cleared the mode for large telecom operators to enactment its eSIM functionality.

“The concern assemblage has ever been a stabiliser of China-US relations and a promoter of pragmatic cooperation,” China’s ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, said during an lawsuit successful Washington connected Tuesday.

Many US companies person “chosen China” and are benefiting some countries, Xie added.

On Wall Street, Apple’s banal is trending upwards. As of 11:30am successful New York (15:30 GMT), it is up by astir 1 percent.

The latest comments travel amid expanding tensions betwixt Washington and Beijing this week. On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters the US is acceptable to enforce caller tariffs implicit its acquisition of Russian oil.

Also, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer weighed successful connected China’s enlargement of uncommon world mineral export controls. Greer called it a implicit repudiation of US-Chinese commercialized agreements implicit the past six months, fueling concerns of a setback successful commercialized talks.