Apple increases reliance on Chinese suppliers
Nearly one-third of the companies that Apple has added to its list of suppliers in the past three years are from mainland China, bucking talk of Apple reducing its reliance on the country.
Credit: Foxconn
Among the 52 new companies that Apple added to its supply chain since 2017, 15 are located in mainland China, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday. Several of those companies are based in Shenzhen, while others are from Jiangsu.
Apple also added seven companies from the U.S. and seven companies from Taiwan to its supplier list between 2017 and 2020.
The prevalence of Chinese-based firms on the list underscores Apple's reliance on China, and the country's overall importance to the global technology supply chain during the coronavirus pandemic.
Foxconn, for example, began offering cash incentives in recent months to attract new workers amid the busy production season. In India, by contrast, Foxconn has had to cut production output by about 50% because of the COVID-19 situation there.
The number of Chinese suppliers added to Apple's shortlist also defies trade tensions between U.S. and China during the Trump administration and talks of economic decoupling amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese suppliers.
According to the South China Morning Post, the 200 companies on Apple's 2020 supplier list make up about 98% of the company's direct spend for materials, manufacturing, and assembly. About 80% of those suppliers have at least one facility in China.
Apple's reliance on China has come under scrutiny in recent years. Tech investor Peter Thiel back in April, for example, called Apple's relationship with China a "real problem." A group of U.S. lawmakers also urged Apple to exit China in May.
Apple has been accused of making a number of efforts to appease Beijing, including storing Chinese user data on locally owned servers and removing apps that run afoul of local regulations.
Additionally, there have been concerns about human rights abuses in China, specifically about allegations of companies using coerced labor. In May, a report indicated that at least seven Apple suppliers participated in labor programs suspected of oppressing minorities in China.
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Credit: Foxconn
Among the 52 new companies that Apple added to its supply chain since 2017, 15 are located in mainland China, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday. Several of those companies are based in Shenzhen, while others are from Jiangsu.
Apple also added seven companies from the U.S. and seven companies from Taiwan to its supplier list between 2017 and 2020.
The prevalence of Chinese-based firms on the list underscores Apple's reliance on China, and the country's overall importance to the global technology supply chain during the coronavirus pandemic.
Foxconn, for example, began offering cash incentives in recent months to attract new workers amid the busy production season. In India, by contrast, Foxconn has had to cut production output by about 50% because of the COVID-19 situation there.
The number of Chinese suppliers added to Apple's shortlist also defies trade tensions between U.S. and China during the Trump administration and talks of economic decoupling amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese suppliers.
According to the South China Morning Post, the 200 companies on Apple's 2020 supplier list make up about 98% of the company's direct spend for materials, manufacturing, and assembly. About 80% of those suppliers have at least one facility in China.
Apple's reliance on China has come under scrutiny in recent years. Tech investor Peter Thiel back in April, for example, called Apple's relationship with China a "real problem." A group of U.S. lawmakers also urged Apple to exit China in May.
Apple has been accused of making a number of efforts to appease Beijing, including storing Chinese user data on locally owned servers and removing apps that run afoul of local regulations.
Additionally, there have been concerns about human rights abuses in China, specifically about allegations of companies using coerced labor. In May, a report indicated that at least seven Apple suppliers participated in labor programs suspected of oppressing minorities in China.
Follow all the details of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
This is not unreasonable...
As a Canadian, I, too, would prefer that my data be on Canadian servers, not in the US. As a web app developer, I always choose Canadian hosting first. There is nothing wrong with keeping data within the borders of your own country. This should not be frowned upon.
Here we go again.
The same disinformation campaign used against Iraq ( "we got proof including eyeswittness of Iraqi WMD"), Syria, , Libya etc.
First the disinformation campaign to demonize the country, then USA supplied 'liberation' groups (often terrorists organizations) , and the disintegration of the region.
At least hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq , millions of refugees in Syria etc and the playbook is used again.
(In various resolutions practically all the countries condemning China are Western except Japan which has a frayed history with China and which was arm twisted by USA as member of the Quad defense collective, and some USA influenced islands like the Marshall islands.
At least 54 countries have given SUPPORT to China over Xinjiang including the majority of MUSLIM countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Morocco, South Sudan, etc. Except for Japan and the aforementioned USA influenced islands not one ASIAN country has condemned China over Xinjiang .
Few people believe, after events in Palestines etc, the west cares about muslims in Xinjiang except as a China containment policy. )
Containment and disruption policy ? Don't believe me? Go watch this video where USA official describe years ago the USA strategic objective in Xinjiang.
https://www.eetimes.com/apple-vs-huawei-decoupled-economies-tech-supply-chains/
Consider that what China has is the equivalent of Silicon Vally, but for manufacturing. Replicating that elsewhere is more than just opening up a factory, since a factory also involves maintenance and the easy access of affordable parts for doing so. Consider that China has shopping malls where you can just walk in and buy parts to repair a production line for a fraction of the price it would cost in the US. Read up on Guangzhou and you'll see that simply opening a single factory elsewhere won't be enough to move manufacturing away from China.
I'm not going to discuss my views of the Chinese government, they don't matter. The risk is having too many eggs in one basket, You never know what will happen. It would be risky to depend too much on any place - California or wherever.
Sounds peachy.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un/u-n-says-it-has-credible-reports-that-china-holds-million-uighurs-in-secret-camps-idUSKBN1KV1SU
And numerous others. Genocide finding:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/asia/china-uyghurs-xinjiang-genocide-report-intl-hnk/index.html
Organ harvesting:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-uighur-muslims-china-tribunal-tells-un-2019-9
Camps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50511063
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/
...I spent a couple weeks studying in China, both inland and with Uyghurs in Xinjiang. While that doesn't make me an expert, it did give me more firsthand accounts than most people arguing online will ever get. The Chinese people are great, the CCP is not. Pretending it's just a vast international conspiracy against China immediately identifies you.First link. What conclusion did the UN reach?
That was three years ago. Nothing since then? which seems very strange. As is the fact that the '1 million' number' seems to balloon to '2 million' at the drop of a hat depending on the news source.
I also tried to dig into this and came up with nothing of note. Just extreme swings depending on who the source was.
If anything, the piece that most caught my attention was from the Grey Zone (hardly an unbiased source IMO) which dug into who was 'pulling the strings' in most of the groups critical of China. That angle could be verified to a degree (there have been open letters from Nobel Laureates criticising HRW for example). Then, when you look below the surface you realise that much of the news articles on the subject from the mainstream press are actually feeding off the claims of those groups and individuals and throwing words like 'suspected, rumoured, alleged' into the soup to cover themselves.
The highest number I could find that was an estimate in itself was 200,000. Beyond that, nothing.
I think it's impossible to believe any of the claims. From whichever side they come from.
Looks like the EU disagrees with you;
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/business/europe-china-sanctions.html
"The European Parliament halted progress Thursday on a landmark commercial agreement with China, citing the “totalitarian threat” from Beijing because of its record on human rights and its sanctions against Europeans who have been critical of the Chinese government.
By an overwhelming majority, members of Parliament passed a resolution refusing to ratify the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment until China lifts sanctions on prominent European critics of Beijing. The members of Parliament also warned that they could refuse to endorse the agreement because of China’s treatment of Muslim minorities and its suppression of democracy in Hong Kong.
“The human rights situation in China is at its worst since the Tiananmen Square massacre,” the resolution said, accusing China of detaining more than one million people, mostly Muslim Uyghursin Xinjiang province, a charge the Chinese government has denied.
The sanctions against members of the European Parliament who have been critical of Beijing, as well as several scholars and research organizations, “constitute an attack against the European Union and its Parliament as a whole, the heart of European democracy and values, as well as an attack against freedom of research,” the resolution said."
You seem unable to admit that China is violating human rights, committing genocide (see UN human rights charter that the PRC is a signatory on), nor that China is a "totalitarian threat".
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
I haven't been able to figure out why the PRC has you in its back pocket, yet here you are, arguing against an ever increasing mountain of evidence.
Edit: Arm's new chip architecture will power future devices, possibly including Apple's - General Discussion Discussions on AppleInsider Forums Posts 50 and 56.
Here's what Avon just posted above;
"I think it's impossible to believe any of the claims". "From whichever side they come from".
Avon Post 56
"I am very sorry to have to define what you are saying as irrelevant nonsense but is there any other word for it?
Put simply, you say this (and I quote) :
"... you can imagine why many Western countries are reevaluating their trade relationships with China"
Have you forgotten why Trump started his trade war with China?
It wasn't national security, human rights, espionage or any of that stuff.
So what was it all about?...
The trade deficit!
Please try to get your head around that.
Take a minute!
If the US was 'reevaluating its trade relationship' with China it wasn't bothered in the slightest by human rights. No.
The whole point was to get China to commit itself to doing MORE trade with the US. To the tune of literally hundreds of billions of US dollars.
How Trump went about it is now the stuff of legend. Now even he knows that trade wars aren't so easy to win. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Worse is still to come and precisely because of his 'entity list' shenanigans.
And, you know what? Even under Biden, the US still wants (needs) to do business with China.
But, and just to drive the point home, the US trade deficit is not only with China - it is basically with the whole world!
Trump even put the EU on warning about the US, ehem, 'reevaluating its trade relationship' with them.
He just had the small matter of a trade war with China to 'win' first.
And yes, I can tell you that Human Rights Watch has found cases of human rights violations in EU countries too! That hasn't bothered the US (which of course has a list of violations as long as your arm in that area!).
No. What counts are two things. Money and being the 'top dog' in key fields.
Everything else (human rights violations included) plays second fiddle.
Hence the need for the US to reduce its trade deficit with China.
You will see a lot of blustering. Pages of text. Sanctions even (but not enough to truly close down trade links).
"If you are trying to link human rights with trade policy you sir, are barking up the wrong tree."
so I posted this above;
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/business/europe-china-sanctions.html
"The European Parliament halted progress Thursday on a landmark commercial agreement with China, citing the “totalitarian threat” from Beijing because of its record on human rights and its sanctions against Europeans who have been critical of the Chinese government."
See what I did there? I just linked Human Rights violations with trade policy, in this case a postponement of the EU China trade agreement, and that was absolutely linked to:
""The European Parliament halted progress Thursday on a landmark commercial agreement with China, citing the “totalitarian threat” from Beijing because of its record on human rights and its sanctions against Europeans who have been critical of the Chinese government.
By an overwhelming majority, members of Parliament passed a resolution refusing to ratify the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment until China lifts sanctions on prominent European critics of Beijing. The members of Parliament also warned that they could refuse to endorse the agreement because of China’s treatment of Muslim minorities and its suppression of democracy in Hong Kong.
“The human rights situation in China is at its worst since the Tiananmen Square massacre,” the resolution said, accusing China of detaining more than one million people, mostly Muslim Uyghursin Xinjiang province, a charge the Chinese government has denied.
The whole fucking human rights whataboutism as response to China's human rights violations isn't an argument; it's just an attempt at neutralizing critics of China.
I have been stating for months that human rights violations was the reason that the world was turning against China, and it looks like I have been fully vindicated in that.