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Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#61

Post by spookthesunset »

sneak wrote: post #29
przemub wrote: post #17

Trade is really a matter for the government, and the US (sadly) adheres to the One China Policy. This just reflects the official policy, and having the companies pick this fight instead of the country is hypocritical.

I disagree. The largest company in the country is not a passive participant in the government's policies.

True. But as a tech company it is much better they fight tech battles like privacy policy, acceptable law enforcement behavior, acceptable tracker use, etc.

Let some other company fight the battle over what to put on the label.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#62

Post by josephcsible »

ericmay wrote: post #51
BudaDude wrote: post #33

This should honestly be picked up by a larger news organization. If the US is serious about protecting Taiwan and bringing more chips to the US, Apple should be shamed for choosing Chinese profits. Imagine if Apple told Ukraine employees to label Russia on their badges.

Well, an alternative interpretation would be that Apple (like much of the world) is in a no-win situation because an assumption that they had (like much of the world) was that investment, fair trade, and bringing China into the established international organizations would result in liberalization (within reason) of China and that they'd be a full partner in global stability. The grand bargain. But instead the CCP re…

> And basically everyone here is choosing cheaper Chinese goods so we're all complicit too.

I don't buy Chinese goods just because they're cheaper. I only do so when there's no choice to buy the same kind of product from anywhere else. For example, try to find a power bank made somewhere other than China.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#63

Post by ElectricalUnion »

BudaDude wrote: post #33

This should honestly be picked up by a larger news organization. If the US is serious about protecting Taiwan and bringing more chips to the US, Apple should be shamed for choosing Chinese profits. Imagine if Apple told Ukraine employees to label Russia on their badges.

> Apple should be shamed for choosing Chinese profits.

Raison d'être of any Corporation is shareholder profit, not whatever you think of it.

Shame on everyone involved - the Corporation, the short-sighted shareholders, the customers that enabled this behavior.

> If the US is serious about protecting Taiwan and bringing more chips to the US

It's the opposite, you want to "bring more chips in the US" so that the US is able to back off from protecting Taiwan.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#64

Post by bfung »

anovikov wrote: post #56
BudaDude wrote: post #33

This should honestly be picked up by a larger news organization. If the US is serious about protecting Taiwan and bringing more chips to the US, Apple should be shamed for choosing Chinese profits. Imagine if Apple told Ukraine employees to label Russia on their badges.

What's the problem? Taiwan is the Republic of China.

The official name of China is “People’s Republic of China”, PRC.

Taiwan differentiates by using “Republic of China”, RoC.

Still confusing, but technically different, purposely so.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#66

Post by galleywest200 »

It looks to me that this is only shipments from Taiwan to China

> Apple has asked suppliers to ensure that shipments from Taiwan to China strictly comply with Chinese customs regulations after a recent visit by senior U.S. lawmaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei stoked fears of rising trade barriers.

Am I missing something? I do not see a requirement that all package from Taiwan say they are from China.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#67

Post by ElectricalUnion »

ericmay wrote: post #51
BudaDude wrote: post #33

This should honestly be picked up by a larger news organization. If the US is serious about protecting Taiwan and bringing more chips to the US, Apple should be shamed for choosing Chinese profits. Imagine if Apple told Ukraine employees to label Russia on their badges.

Well, an alternative interpretation would be that Apple (like much of the world) is in a no-win situation because an assumption that they had (like much of the world) was that investment, fair trade, and bringing China into the established international organizations would result in liberalization (within reason) of China and that they'd be a full partner in global stability. The grand bargain. But instead the CCP re…

> And basically everyone here is choosing cheaper Chinese goods so we're all complicit too.

You mean big corporations and their greedy shareholders choose for us?

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#68

Post by BiteCode_dev »

josephcsible wrote: post #27
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #25

I have a friend working for a company whose biggest clients are in the Emirates. One of said client is the government, and it is asking them to buy some very specific equipment, knowing fully well this equipment is only sold in Israel. However, the Emirates cannot trade with Israel, and refuse to pay for any equipment labelled as coming from this country. Calling one of the officials, they asked for a solution. They…

> the Emirates cannot trade with Israel Is "cannot" really accurate? Isn't it more like they voluntarily chose not to do so?

There is this human convention about "can/cannot" that assumes the reader is able to figure out the nuance of it.

If I say, "I can't walk it the street naked", I'm expecting you to understand the underlying causes. I'm not expecting that I have to explain to you that, yes, nothing prevent me physically to walk in the street naked, but indeed, I chose every day not to do it because I don't want to pay the social and/or legal price for it.

In the same way, given that tensions in the Middle East are pretty famous and that political issues between Muslim & Jews have implications in international trades, I'm making the assumption readers understand what "cannot" means here.

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#69

Post by josephcsible »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #35
lucasjans wrote: post #2

This company pretends it has the moral high ground, but like most of corporate America, they always have an eye on Chinese profits. America's future is at stake and we won't wake up until it's too late.

It reads to me like Apple is warning suppliers that it's parts may not get to factories in China if it does not comply with Chinese law. You would like Apple to... stop importing parts from Taiwan to China? That doesn't seem right, it would hurt Taiwan. Stop manufacturing in China? That's... ambitious. Ignore the situation and just accept assembly lines being halted because of lack of parts stopped at border? Other?…

> Stop manufacturing in China? That's... ambitious.

Apple's profit margins are so high that they'd probably still be positive even if they did this without raising prices at all. (Remember nobody's saying they should have to move manufacturing to the US. There are plenty of countries with low labor costs that are less evil than China.)

Re: Apple warns suppliers to follow China rules on 'Taiwan' labeling

#70

Post by bell-cot »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #12

This is ridiculous. Taiwan is a free and independent country. Shame on Apple.

Perhaps.

OTOH, my experience (modest n) is that a fairly large percentage of people are happy to say "Shame on Apple" for such things. Vs. a near-zero percentage are actually willing to avoid buying products made in (mainland) China, or with major components made there.

Talk was cheap long before "Performative Activism" had its own Wikipedia page.

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