China Threatens to Add Apple, Other US Companies to 'Unreliable Entity List'

[MacRumors]

China could put Apple on an "unreliable entity list" alongside other U.S. companies, in a series of punitive countermeasures the country is prepared to take against U.S. moves to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei, claimed a report over the weekend.

According to the Global Times, the Chinese government's mouthpiece, the list would be a first step toward launching a series of investigations and imposing restrictions on U.S. companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, and Cisco.

"China will take forceful countermeasures to protect its own legitimate rights," if the US moves forward with the plan to bar essential suppliers of chips, including Taiwan-based TSMC, from selling chips to the Chinese tech giant, the source told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

The measures include adding related US companies to China's "unreliable entity list," imposing restrictions on or launching investigations into US companies like Qualcomm, Cisco and Apple according to Chinese laws and regulations like Cybersecurity Review Measures and Anti-monopoly Law, and suspending airplane purchases from Boeing, said the source.

According to comments made last year by a Chinese ministry of commerce official, once a company is added to China's "unreliable entity list" it would face necessary legal and administrative measures and the Chinese public would also be warned against dealing with it to reduce risks.

Beijing's latest tit-for-tat threat comes after the U.S. commerce department announced rules last week that limit U.S. companies from supplying semiconductors, parts, and processor designs to Huawei and its affiliates. The rules also apply to third-parties if they know they will eventually be used in Huawei products.

The move prevents Taiwan-based TSMC from purchasing U.S. supplies for chips that are used in Huawei phones. Nikkei reported on Monday that TSMC has already moved to stop new orders from Huawei, although TSMC told Reuters the reports were "purely market rumor."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: China Threatens to Add Apple, Other US Companies to 'Unreliable Entity List'

 

[Hazmat401]

Apple is really in a tight spot here.... it’s time to bring manufacturing home... back to America

 

[A MacBook lover]

"China will take forceful countermeasures to protect its own legitimate rights," if the US moves forward with the plan to bar essential suppliers of chips, including Taiwan-based TSMC

The move prevents Taiwan-based TSMC from purchasing U.S. supplies for chips that are used in Huawei phones.

And a new TSMC plant in Texas. Interesting.

 

[macdos]

That would be Arizona. And a requirement for the deal is that TSMC:s business with Huawei and China continues unimpeded.

And a new TSMC plant in Texas. Interesting.

[automerge]1589799919[/automerge]
Hmm… Xiamoi $500, Huawei $800, Apple $2500. I wonder, how will the market react?

Apple is really in a tight spot here.... it’s time to bring manufacturing home... back to America

 

[spyguy10709]

Apple is really in a tight spot here.... it’s time to bring manufacturing home... back to America

Every single time this topic comes up, there's some armchair president/CEO/quarterback that proclaims that US-manufacturing will solve Apple and America's woes.

Just *assembling* the iPhone is a menial task which will not provide good jobs. Relatively few laborers here in America put up with a high-quality, easy manufacturing jobs like putting automobiles together. Make that a precision (1/100ths of an inch), repetitive task? Yeah. No. Not when you can make more driving Uber, waiting tables, or working retail.

The entire smartphone supply chain from battery manufacturers, to display manufacturers, to the producers of the raw aluminum and steel are all located in Shenzhen, or across Asia (SK in the case of Samsung's AMOLED displays used in the Pro phones). Who, exactly, benefits from Apple shipping raw materials and components to have some American screw them together? Nobody.

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

 

[Mac4Brains]

Wasn’t it the Huawei phones that were in the news lately for allowing the Chinese government to access any phone at any time for any reason, including ones that are in other countries and owned by non-Chinese citizens, so it can spy on whoever they wanted to?

 

[jlc1978]

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

I would add that is too expensive since the payscale to get workers would make labor too much of the total cost. If manufacturing returns it's likely to be highly automated to eliminate the need for manual assembly. China does it manually because labor is relatively cheap; but even then some products are too low value to make there which is why things like clothing move elsewhere.

 

[Techwatcher]

Good, let them. And hopefully Taiwan escapes more of China's grip over time.

 

[tridley68]

Time to tell China to take a hike break all ties with them and bring manufacturing back home to the states.

 

[btrach144]

We don’t need China. Let’s move away from them.

 

[Hazmat401]

Every single time this topic comes up, there's some armchair president/CEO/quarterback that proclaims that US-manufacturing will solve Apple and America's woes.

Just *assembling* the iPhone is a menial task which will not provide good jobs. Relatively few laborers here in America put up with a high-quality, easy manufacturing jobs like putting automobiles together. Make that a precision (1/100ths of an inch), repetitive task? Yeah. No. Not when you can make more driving Uber, waiting tables, or working retail.

The entire smartphone supply chain from battery manufacturers, to display manufacturers, to the producers of the raw aluminum and steel are all located in Shenzhen, or across Asia (SK in the case of Samsung's AMOLED displays used in the Pro phones). Who, exactly, benefits from Apple shipping raw materials and components to have some American screw them together? Nobody.

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

Hey... Not only does America has its beef with Huawei... America wants reparations for the COVID-19 as well

If you think China is not gonna use Apple as a Pawn for leverage.... y’all some fools

 

[rp2011]

Apple is really in a tight spot here.... it’s time to bring manufacturing home... back to America

But it’s not just about manufacturing. Apple has been keen on selling to the Chinese consumer as well.
Hopefully this can all be worked out. But of course, cutting edge technologies should be protected and manufactured somewhere that can help nurture and protect it.

 

[RogerWilco]

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

Many think the USA is a “wealthy“ country based on per capital GDP and the lifestyle of average citizens. You state that manufacturing is “low value, low skill work”. Where is the source of wealth in the U.S. economy going forward? Agriculture and extractive industries employ a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, what are your plans for the other 90% of workers?

 

[Jury]

Unfortunately, Donald Trump will be decimating the supply chain of Apple and the labor force, cost, material won't bode well for that scale of quantity in the USA.

 

[otternonsense]

I hope that will convince Tim to quit the grovelling subservience just to coax the Chinese pockets and to also diversify Apple's supply chain.

 

[zv470]

That's gonna hurt Apple in the short to medium term. In the long term it will be far better to bring manufacturing back to USA.

 

[ksec]

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

People constantly mix up the two.

Manufacturing in itself is not low value. Try asking that question to Tesla or other car manufacturers. And why there wont be a Apple Car.

The manual labour itself is low value. Unfortunately even Apple couldn't figure out how to best automate and mass manufacture while reducing cost. They try that with Trash Can Mac Pro.

 

[vmistery]

In my opinion this is very unlikely to bring any significant amount of manufacturing jobs to the USA (with perhaps the exception of some devices for the local market). I think it is more likely that Apple will beef up production in other cheaper places. The big worry for Apple will be if it escalates China might even ban iPhone sales or heavily tax / restrict them which considering the size of the market would not be something Apple wants.

 

[asiga]

The funny thing here is that Apple fights for being more leftish than a leftist can be, and then it's considered like a Trump friend by a communist regime. It would be food for LOL if it wasn't for the fact that communism is not something to laugh about.

 

[clayj]

Folks, the manufacturing does not ALL have to come "back" to the USA. (Much of it was never here in the first place.)

The important thing is that it NOT be in China. Move it to Taiwan, India, Mexico, central Europe, etc. If some comes to the US, that's great.

But we should no longer have to rely on China for ANYTHING. You didn't see the US relying on the Soviets for anything during the Cold War, did you?

 

[jlc1978]

That's gonna hurt Apple in the short to medium term. In the long term it will be far better to bring manufacturing back to USA.

More likely it goes to other countries with lower costs, such as India and Brazil.

 

[aknabi]

Many think the USA is a “wealthy“ country based on per capital GDP and the lifestyle of average citizens. You state that manufacturing is “low value, low skill work”. Where is the source of wealth in the U.S. economy going forward? Agriculture and extractive industries employ a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, what are your plans for the other 90% of workers?

We'll all be "creators" making goofy 30sec videos and selling ads to each other... with another group delivering our meals and driving us around... that's the tech-bro's utopian vision for an economy.

 

[Spungoflex]

Every single time this topic comes up, there's some armchair president/CEO/quarterback that proclaims that US-manufacturing will solve Apple and America's woes.

Just *assembling* the iPhone is a menial task which will not provide good jobs. Relatively few laborers here in America put up with a high-quality, easy manufacturing jobs like putting automobiles together. Make that a precision (1/100ths of an inch), repetitive task? Yeah. No. Not when you can make more driving Uber, waiting tables, or working retail.

The entire smartphone supply chain from battery manufacturers, to display manufacturers, to the producers of the raw aluminum and steel are all located in Shenzhen, or across Asia (SK in the case of Samsung's AMOLED displays used in the Pro phones). Who, exactly, benefits from Apple shipping raw materials and components to have some American screw them together? Nobody.

Our economy moved away from manufacturing from the 1950s-present because it's low value, low skill work.

tHeY aRe DoInG jObS aMeRiCaNs WoNt Do!!!










* For $3.35 per hour... mandatory 16-hour shifts... no breaks.

 

[jlc1978]

Many think the USA is a “wealthy“ country based on per capital GDP and the lifestyle of average citizens. You state that manufacturing is “low value, low skill work”. Where is the source of wealth in the U.S. economy going forward? Agriculture and extractive industries employ a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, what are your plans for the other 90% of workers?

The outlook is not good for workers in industries that can automate manufacturing, as companies look to ways to reduce costs. I spoke with a carpet maufacturering company executive and their plan is to automate manufacturing and cutting the amount of manual labor significantly over the next 10 years or so. Towns that depend on those jobs will wind up like the mill towns of the last century.

 

[MrGuder]

Thank goodness we have iFix it where they do intensive tear downs that will uncover spy chips inside. Apple won’t leave China until something happens and Tims phone is hacked or spyed on remotely from China. Then they might move manufacturing.

Can we trust the iPhone 12 to be free of spyware?