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Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

macrumors.com

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Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#41
post #39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Reddit comment [1] on this same article really hit home, > Mr. Cook has watched China's middle class grow to four hundred million while watching the domestic middle class shrink. Like GM, which sells more cars in China than the USA, Apple knows where the market opportunities reside. America needs growth again, whether that's immigration, childbirth and childcare subsidies, or seeking to merge with other democratic…

Which subreddit is that from? Seems like rare comment content for Reddit.

[deleted]

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#42
post #18

Apple’s approach to China remains the most disappointing (and hypocritical) thing about the company. When privacy really matters for the users that need it most, Apple sells them out for continued access to the Chinese market. https://stratechery.com/2021/the-information-on-apple-in-chi...

Is Stratechery's paywall new? I'm surprised to see one from an author who writes in a voice that aspires to reach the world.

Having the financial means to develop and maintain his voice seems like a reasonable part of that aspiration. The author is fully supported by his work with Stratechery. [1]

[1]: https://stratechery.com/about/

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#43
post #38
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Reddit comment [1] on this same article really hit home, > Mr. Cook has watched China's middle class grow to four hundred million while watching the domestic middle class shrink. Like GM, which sells more cars in China than the USA, Apple knows where the market opportunities reside. America needs growth again, whether that's immigration, childbirth and childcare subsidies, or seeking to merge with other democratic…

China simply invested more in their people than USA it seems. You now see American business people like Elon Musk promote divestment from the USA in his attack on government deficits.

> You now see American business people like Elon Musk promote divestment from the USA in his attack on government deficits.

Source?

If that's true, that's disgusting.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#44
post #27

This will be the logical conclusion to every major American corporation unless someone puts a stop to this. If profit comes before everything, then so will China's 1.4B potential market vs US's 330M market.

It seems to be Apple's standard MO to comply with local regulations regardless of market size. They've complied with Russian demands[0,1] and it looks like Apple Rus accounts for something like 2.6% of Apple's revenue, a fraction that Apple could probably do without.

From a recent interview[2] with Tim Cook:

>"World peace through world trade," Cook said, adding that operating in foreign countries means Apple has to "acknowledge that there are different laws in other markets."

0: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/apple-and-google...

1: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50573069

2: https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-china-tim-cook-respons...

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#45
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life before nationstates was famously prosperous, safe, and enriching.

The agricultural revolution and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race?

Which agricultural revolution? If the earliest, sure more food is good, but having to fear being wiped off the earth from random raiders or armies kind of sucks.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#46
post #38
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Reddit comment [1] on this same article really hit home, > Mr. Cook has watched China's middle class grow to four hundred million while watching the domestic middle class shrink. Like GM, which sells more cars in China than the USA, Apple knows where the market opportunities reside. America needs growth again, whether that's immigration, childbirth and childcare subsidies, or seeking to merge with other democratic…

China simply invested more in their people than USA it seems. You now see American business people like Elon Musk promote divestment from the USA in his attack on government deficits.

> China simply invested more in their people than USA it seems

So long as you're not Muslim.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#47
Apple was growing massively in PRC in mid 2010s, should not be surprising they got roped into more prosocial and pro-establishment (read CCP) obligations. If memory serve this was right after Apple started clean energy programs in 2015 and PRC regulators shutting down itunes books & movies.

>Cook's negotiations led to the successful signing of the multibillion-dollar agreement, quashing a number of regulatory actions against the company with exemptions and enabling access to the Chinese market, in return for significant investments, business deals, and worker training in the country.

Keyword is exemptions and access, aka what you expect from trillion dollar company lobbying governments.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#49
post #38
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Reddit comment [1] on this same article really hit home, > Mr. Cook has watched China's middle class grow to four hundred million while watching the domestic middle class shrink. Like GM, which sells more cars in China than the USA, Apple knows where the market opportunities reside. America needs growth again, whether that's immigration, childbirth and childcare subsidies, or seeking to merge with other democratic…

China simply invested more in their people than USA it seems. You now see American business people like Elon Musk promote divestment from the USA in his attack on government deficits.

Come in, grab the money, take control and/or leave. Easy when it's a western democratic country. Freedom, tolerance and diplomacy are core tenets, after all.

Some tried that in China only to realize their government aren't a bunch of muppets.

I wonder how long it will take either for corporations to tame/destabilize the CCP or the latter to squash them into submission.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

#50
Daring Fireball [1] has another passage from the article which is illuminating with regards to any promises Apple makes about how it will resist governmental pressure to compromise its products, vis-à-vis Apple's CSAM scanning tool.

"Sometime in 2014 or early 2015, China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping told members of the Apple Maps team to make the Diaoyu Islands, the objects of a long-running territorial dispute between China and Japan, appear large even when users zoomed out from them. Chinese regulators also threatened to withhold approval of the first Apple Watch, scheduled for release in 2015, if Apple didn’t comply with the unusual request, according to internal documents.

Some members of the team back at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., initially balked at the demand. But the Maps app had become a priority for Apple, so eventually the company complied. The Diaoyu Islands, when viewed in Apple Maps in mainland China, continue to appear on a larger scale than surrounding territories."

Apple has, and will, fold to government pressure faster than a lawn chair.

1. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2021/12/08/the-information...

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