Apple's Jeff Williams takes another secret overseas trip, this time to China

AppleInsider

Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams has been seen in Chinese state media photographs, meeting with senior officials in the country.

Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams

In May 2024, Jeff Williams went on what's been described as a secret visit to TSMC in Taiwan. It was secret in that neither Apple nor it chip maker either announced or apparently confirmed the visit, which was reported on by local media.

The meeting was said to be about securing TSMC's new 2-nanometer processor orders. Now according to Bloomberg, Williams and Micron Technology president Sanjay Mehrotra have made a similarly low-profile visit to Beijing.

Williams and Mehrotra were part of a US business delegation that met with Vice-Premier He Lifeng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Reportedly, the delegation was urged to "participate aggressively in China's further reform and modernization process."

Separately, the foreign minister held a meeting about China's economic plans, and said the country wanted members of the US-China Business Council to promote "a correct understanding" of China in America. It's not clear who attended this separate meeting, but Williams and Mehrotra are both directors of the Beijing-based US-China Business Council.

Neither of them were named as attending the main meeting, either. But they were subsequently both seen in photos of the group.

There's no reason Apple should advertise when its executives travel overseas, and the company never publicly releases Tim Cook's scheduled in advance. But US/China tensions continue and it appears that Williams is sometimes sent in Cook's place as the company balances its reliance on China with the pressure to cut its ties there.

Williams was similarly at Foxconn's 50th-anniversary celebrations in Taiwan in February 2024, as China/Taiwan tensions have also been elevated.



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YaBoiNick

What is he supposed to do, put his itinerary on the Apple Homepage?

Pema

That's funny I just read this: 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/23/china/hamas-fatah-palestinian-factions-beijing-intl-hnk

Could this be the same meeting? 

  

blastdoor

I’m mildly curious as to what the “correct understanding” is. Is it that Taiwan, The Philippines, and Japan are provinces of China and always have been? 

JinTech

Wait, the officer that is in charge of day-to-day operations of the company and resource allocation, among many other logistical operations when it comes to how the company operates is in China? Where the country does most of it's manufacturing? No way! /s

mattinoz

So if he went a supplier meeting down the road in Silicon Valley would it still count as secretive? 

citpeks

His age is said to work against him, but could be follow in Cook's footsteps to ascend to CEO?

Meeting with key suppliers is part of his role as COO, but public-facing meetings with government officials is good practice for the kinds of tasks CEOs perform.*

*Contrary to the beliefs of (far too) many Apple forum participants, Tim Cook's role as CEO is not to conceive, design, and engineer products and hatch schemes to personally offend every one of those who express their dissatisfaction with Apple…yet continue to buy Apple products anyway.

blastdoor

mattinoz said:

So if he went a supplier meeting down the road in Silicon Valley would it still count as secretive? 

If it makes you more likely to click on the link, then you’re gd right it does! ;-)