Apple's Cook & Facebook's Zuckerberg meet with Chinese President Xi
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg both spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, meeting in Beijing while attending an annual summit of advisers to Tsinghua University's business school.
Both Cook and Zuckerberg are on the advisory board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Reuters noted. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Cook's "schedule and/or meetings," but Zuckerberg publicly acknowledged his trip to Beijing in a Facebook post. It's unknown what the trio discussed.
Both CEOs have a strong incentive to ingratiate themselves to Xi, who recently consolidated more power at this year's Communist Party Congress. Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, and Apple is not only on the verge of launching the iPhone X in the country but dealing with censorship at the App Store, disabled LTE on the Apple Watch, and Qualcomm lawsuits threatening to stop iPhone production.
Apple also recently established its first data center in the country in order to comply with local laws, and risks having that center raided or shut down if it offends the Communist leadership.
Earlier today, Canalys research suggested that the iPhone 8 has been doing reasonably well in China, reversing a long-standing decline in local iPhone sales.
Both Cook and Zuckerberg are on the advisory board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Reuters noted. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Cook's "schedule and/or meetings," but Zuckerberg publicly acknowledged his trip to Beijing in a Facebook post. It's unknown what the trio discussed.
Both CEOs have a strong incentive to ingratiate themselves to Xi, who recently consolidated more power at this year's Communist Party Congress. Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, and Apple is not only on the verge of launching the iPhone X in the country but dealing with censorship at the App Store, disabled LTE on the Apple Watch, and Qualcomm lawsuits threatening to stop iPhone production.
Apple also recently established its first data center in the country in order to comply with local laws, and risks having that center raided or shut down if it offends the Communist leadership.
Earlier today, Canalys research suggested that the iPhone 8 has been doing reasonably well in China, reversing a long-standing decline in local iPhone sales.
Comments
hmm.... I wonder why?
Wholeheartedly agree.
And one would hope that others will band together to oppose certain narrow and myopic people and groups (cough, that Breitbart idiot, cough) from promoting self defeating and wealth destroying protectionist policies in the USA.
Please don’t twist my words. I did not say any protectionist legislation has been implemented yet by this administration, but that it is being promoted under the gross misnomer of ‘America First.’
Having said that this administration walked away from TPP, which was an absolute travesty of a lost opportunity as it would have bound China to western conventions of trade in all future trade negotiations. Now any future Asia trade deal will be on China’s terms and not those of the West. And in my state of Arizona the threat of withdrawal from NAFTA is scaring the bejesus out of a number of local businesses that are very intertwined with their southern neighbors.
I hope to see Apple bring more of their manufacturing supply chain to the US over the next few years. But it should be done organically and not through Government forced economic intervention.
Cite, please.