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Apple will most likely be fine because it's unlike any other western company operating in China in that it employs a lot of people assembling their products. It
by Despegar 7y ago
Apple will most likely be fine because it's unlike any other western company operating in China in that it employs a lot of people assembling their products. It's not in the CCP's interest for people to boycott Apple in a nationalist fervor only for unemployment to rise, which would be an existential threat to the CCP if they lost control of.
- sorenn111 7y agoSo I googled and saw that there's 4.8 Million apple employees in China? More than i expected when I started the Google search. With that said, is that enough for China to care at all? a little? a lot? Meaning, I wouldn't be surprised if China would forgo plenty of jobs from Western companies as their economy matures. Especially if China fully boycotted Apple, I doubt many other US Companies would respond at all Many of those companies are showing themselves to be spineless right now
- mey 7y agoIs that number direct employee's or does that include MFG/Suppliers etc? Either way, 4.8 million people + friends/family, being angry is not a small number. China's population is ~1.3 billion according to CIA world fact book. So it's certainly less than 1% of the population, but not insignificant.
- d0100 7y agoI'd say it's significant because those are the people "awake". Most of the population are poor country-side folks who couldn't revolt in any meaningful way.
- mc32 7y agoGuess it depends on how spread out or concentrated they are geographically. If concentrated it would have greater impact on a region.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> if China fully boycotted Apple They'd seize the factories and continue production, at least for the medium term. It makes no sense economically, but it keeps Xi in power. To Beijing, the factories are valuable for (a) IP and (b) jobs. Apple walking deprives China of (a), but not (b), not in the short term.
- oceanplexian 7y agoThis is an interesting thought, because most Apple products are essentially bricked without software activation. And Apple has gone to great lengths to make it impossible to circumvent. Sure, they could produce cheap clones running Android but China already does that.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> most Apple products are essentially bricked without software activation In the near-term, expropriation would stave off job losses. (In the cities, amidst highly-skilled workers no less.) In the medium term, production lines could be adapted to make non-bricked products. Long story short, the threat of massive job losses to China is minimal--Apple has limited leverage over Beijing.
- makapuf 7y agoGood luck producing iPhones without the chips, which are not made in China and have at most a few weeks worth of stock, I'd guess.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> Good luck producing iPhones without the chips They wouldn't produce iPhones without the chips. They'd just keep running the lines. Apple has limited leverage in threatening to walk away from China.
- throwaway2048 7y agoThe vast majority of the chips are not made in china, there are no "lines" for them to run.
- Despegar 7y agoIt's easy to boycott companies that are only in China as another market to sell to. It's not easy to boycott one of the largest private employers in an industry the CCP views as strategically important.
- tnolet 7y agoNot sure what Google you use, but Apple has about 123.000 employees in total. Edit: according to Wiki, the US DoD is the largest employer in the world at 2.1M employees.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers
- prklmn 7y agoThis figure includes the employees of Apple contractors. It’s a representation of how many jobs Apple supports in China. Of course Apple is not directly manufacturing anything in China, but the factories and parts suppliers are very much dependent on Apple’s business.
- La1n 7y agoCan you share the source for the 4.8M?
- Mikeb85 7y agoExcept everyone assembles phones in China. A dip for Apple is Huawei's gain, and they're entirely based in China.
- nkassis 7y agoIt's not like Apple would stop making and selling phones. And I doubt people wanting to buy a iPhone are the same as those wanting a phone from another brand.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoYeah, the iPhone is as much someone's identity now as it is a product.
- dkonofalski 7y agoEven as a pretty heavy Apple user, I feel so sorry for people that have to identify with a product. If someone asked me to describe myself, my choice in computer/phone/whatever would not be a part of that description.
- K0SM0S 7y agoNot a device or product but open-source though... for me as a dev, or tech nerd, or advocate of freedoms / defender of rights, or just as an aware citizen, you know... open-source matters to a fundamental layer of our digital-izing civilization.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoIt does, but that requires a lot of tech literacy - much more than someone who cares if they can use iMessage or not to chat with their friends.
- K0SM0S 7y ago
- on_and_off 7y agoWouldn't a rival phone/computer be also assembled in China ?
- Scramblejams 7y agoI doubt it. This is just, like, my opinion, man, but I think the Chinese would walk away from any company in the world in an instant if it suits their security needs. If their economic ministry is doing its job then they will have detailed contingency plans to address the loss of any of their major foreign benefactors, and if required those jobs can be replaced with state handouts, at least until the crisis passes. If I were Tim Cook I'd be real worried about being shut out of my own supply chain right about now.
- braythwayt 7y agoThis may be just like, your opinion, but it really ties the room's arguments together.
- inferiorhuman 7y agoIf I were Tim Cook I'd be real worried about being shut out of my own supply chain right about now. Didn't Apple start ramping up iPhone production in India recently? I agree that China is likely to retaliate but I imagine whatever decision making process there was for approving this HK app involved plenty of lawyers and analysis of potential fallout.
- cushychicken 7y agoMany companies are ramping up electronics production outside of China as a hedge against tariffs.
- scarface74 7y agoNot at any particular scale -- just enough to avoid import tariffs and keep the local politicians happy. The same thing that you see in the US for military contracts. Apple is also paying lip service to "manufacturing in the US" by manufacturing the low volume, high margin Mac Pros. Not meant to be a value judgement, knowing how to placate politicians is necessary when you operate at scale.
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
- CharlesColeman 7y ago> Apple will most likely be fine because it's unlike any other western company operating in China in that it employs a lot of people assembling their products. It's not in the CCP's interest for people to boycott Apple in a nationalist fervor only for unemployment to rise, which would be an existential threat to the CCP if they lost control of. The CCP isn't going to compromise on its core authoritarian and nationalist values over a piddling concern about the unemployment caused by one Western company leaving. Apple's not that important, and my guess is the problems caused by the trade war dwarf any effect Apple could cause. Also, I doubt they like Apple much anyway, and they would probably welcome the disruption to Apple that it would experience during a pullout. Might create opportunities for Huawei or Oppo.
- linolo 7y ago> The CCP isn't going to compromise on its core authoritarian and nationalist values over a piddling concern about the unemployment caused by one Western company leaving. Apple's not that important, Well yes Apple alone isn’t large enough to cause a major problem for the CCP but it does set a precedent for every other western company operating in China. It could very well spiral into an exodus of manufacturing from China
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- tanilama 7y agoConsumer boycott is the problem here. If buying Apple is unpatriotic, that would be a bigger issue for Apple.