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yeah...China would be the big loser. All those imports that say Made in China...would soon say Made in India
What makes you think India can deliver a compliant, low cost workforce in the way China has done over the past decade. Indians and Chinese are as different as chalk and cheese.
 
TSMC and American tech companies are screwed if China actually takes Taiwan looool. Only Intel will be safe since most of their fabs are in the US.

That’s the thing really, Intel actually produce CPUs that are Made in American compared to competitors. Taiwan is part of China and in turn TSMC is partly under RoC control.
 
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?

"Apple won’t leave China until something happens..."

Oh? COVID-19 anyone?
 
What makes you think India can deliver a compliant, low cost workforce in the way China has done over the past decade. Indians and Chinese are as different as chalk and cheese.
what makes you think they can't? India is already providing the world a low cost reliable IT workforce for a over decade.
They have a willing workforce would welcome the boost to their economy.
 
We shouldn't have gotten into bed with China to begin with. They are ideologically in opposition to everything we stand for, or at least used to stand for before the past four years. We deserve this now.

It's not easy to move the entire supply chain overnight, but we need to start somewhere, and have leadership and a plan to follow, along with incentives to get companies to build parts here.

But it's still not quite that simple because China has a lot of rare minerals that are currently needed for production. We might have to fundamentally change what our devices are made out of and accept that there is going to be a huge price increase to contend with.

That's where China uses the capitalistic system around the world to their advantage by undercutting everyone on price. Capitalism has forced companies in the U.S. to move abroad to keep prices in line with competition. Therefore we add yet another level of complication: We must somehow alter capitalism. That will require either a global effort to get everyone to agree to block trade with China, or to require all manufacturing to be done within each country but at the same time agree to standardized parts and tolerances. Good luck with that.

AND YET, even if we could do all of this, it would likely collapse the Chinese economy, likely resulting in an armed conflict as hundreds of millions starve.

This is the definition of a cluster****.
 
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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.

Not sure why you think that. If Apple can't assemble iPhones in China, they'll go to India or any number of other countries before the US. This move would hurt Apple by limiting their sales in China, where much of their growth is, and that wouldn't be a short term problem.
 
I’ll be more political about it, it’s considered to be part of the RoC

“widely recognised by the international community as the legitimate representative of "China"
You are confusing RoC (Republic of China) which is what Taiwan calls itself and the PRC (mainland China, People’s Republic of..) The PRC considers Taiwan as belonging to it, which RoC refutes.
 
I think you are confusing this with Five Eyes, Echelon, Prism, Xkeyscore etc., American programs to spy on both foes and friends (like tapping Angela Merkel's phone). Telecoms manufacturer have always been obliged to install backdoors in their networks in order to get access to the US and some other markets.

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?
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Oh, you have already begun moving away from China. And the rest of the world, too. I mean, just look at how bat crazy you have become in recent years. Every empire is bound to fall, and this one quicker than most…

We don’t need China. Let’s move away from them.
 
what makes you think they can't? India is already providing the world a low cost reliable IT workforce for a over decade.
They have a willing workforce would welcome the boost to their economy.
You are not suggesting the same workforce of self-motivating, educated software engineers are also going to entertain assembly line work so why introduce them. I just don't see the characteristics of the migrant workers who flocked to the east coast of China to work for the likes of Foxcon ready and waiting in India. We'll see.
 
Well, they already did, and see how miserably you failed 🤣

It is the best bio weapon ever, directly targeting the Donald and his mercantilist trade wars.

Best be careful what you say about China, they may release a lab made virus on us all...
 
Didn't Apple mention recently a push to possibly expand production in India? I would think that is what is driving this position China is taking more than the Huawei deal.
 
Apple is really in a tight spot here.... it’s time to bring manufacturing home... back to America

Actions speak louder that words mate. Next time you and all your friends and family go to Walmart for a rocking chair don't buy the $69 china made one. Buy the 399 US made. Then repeat with every other thing you buy.

Now the reality 99% of people don't want to buy American if it means paying way more. Patriotism stops at the wallet.
 
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While I get this stated and it would be great for it to happen, it’s not a cheap process. We’ll likely see a minimum of a 10 percent rise in prices, most likely seeing a 20-30 percent increase. That makes the iPhone a £1300 purchase, with the MacBook Pro 16 inch starting at £3000, so it would be rather costly.

So you value cheaper electronics over preventing human rights violations?
 
This is nothing new. Politicians start wars and then send their commoners to play a war game. For some reason the US is poking in China trying to get a war started. Maybe it’s to help the economy or cut down on the population IDK. Wars usually benefit the economy temporarily through production and this one should knock off a few billion people 🤷‍♂️😂
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So you value cheaper electronics over preventing human rights violations?
Human rights violations occur in every country. It doesn’t matter where your iPhone is made. It’s a good excuse to start a war though. I remember when the initial invasion of Iraq started that’s the one they used along with weapons of mass destruction 😂
 
This is nothing new. Politicians start wars and then send their commoners to play a war game. For some reason the US is poking in China trying to get a war started. Maybe it’s to help the economy or cut down on the population IDK. Wars usually benefit the economy temporarily through production and this one should knock off a few billion people 🤷‍♂️😂
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Human rights violations occur in every country. It doesn’t matter where your iPhone is made. It’s a good excuse to start a war though. I remember when the initial invasion of Iraq started that’s the one they used along with weapons of mass destruction 😂

I didn't say anything about starting a war. It's just easy to see s/he would rather have cheaper electronics then go any where else in the world that doesn't use slave labor, or harvest human organs of ethnic minorities from said country.
 
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I didn't say anything about starting a war. It's just easy to see s/he would rather have cheaper electronics then go any where in the world that doesn't use slave labor, or harvest human organs of ethnic minorities from said country.
You watch too much propaganda on TV. I can rephrase your sentence to make it sound like any country is evil. I don't know where you're from but in the USA we lynch minorities on the street and our police hunt them down like animals. We work people for little wages while they die from no healthcare. Our government detains people and seizes their property without cause or a warrant. I mean I can go on but this is the best I can do for just waking up. Is what I said true? Yes and no. It all happens but it doesn't mean the USA is like that. It's what I would call propaganda and something I would say if I wanted people to think badly about the USA.
 
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.
Says you...the armchair president/CEO/quarterback.
 
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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.
It's easy to fix. Just use jail labor. If there isn't enough, then ramp up the war on drugs some more. Problem solved :cool:
 
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We shouldn't have gotten into bed with China to begin with. They are ideologically in opposition to everything we stand for, or at least used to stand for before the past four years. We deserve this now.

It's not easy to move the entire supply chain overnight, but we need to start somewhere, and have leadership and a plan to follow, along with incentives to get companies to build parts here.

But it's still not quite that simple because China has a lot of rare minerals that are currently needed for production. We might have to fundamentally change what our devices are made out of and accept that there is going to be a huge price increase to contend with.

That's where China uses the capitalistic system around the world to their advantage by undercutting everyone on price. Capitalism has forced companies in the U.S. to move abroad to keep prices in line with competition. Therefore we add yet another level of complication: We must somehow alter capitalism. That will require either a global effort to get everyone to agree to block trade with China, or to require all manufacturing to be done within each country but at the same time agree to standardized parts and tolerances. Good luck with that.

AND YET, even if we could do all of this, it would likely collapse the Chinese economy, likely resulting in an armed conflict as hundreds of millions starve.

This is the definition of a cluster****.
While many of us would like to cut off China entirely for political, personal or humanitarian ideals, the most sensible and pragmatic approach for Apple to take is do what it’s always been known to do: diversify its supply chain. They have too much reliance on China for too many key components and for assembly and I think they have coasted too long on the promise of growth into China’s vast market while underestimating or overlooking the long game that China has been playing on their dime.

If anyone wants to know what that long game entails, well just search for the various statements made by the leaders of their largest companies and their entertainment industry. They don’t exactly hide their aspirations. Interestingly enough we in the west are the ones obfuscating it all so as to make our partnerships with some of these companies more palatable to the end consumer.

And their aspirations aren’t necessarily evil or weird. They’re common, actually. The problem is that when they are in a position to assert dominance, their party is manic about controlling the narrative and incredibly particular and into minutiae about stopping dissension. Individual freedom just evaporates. They don’t even believe in the concept.

But at the same time, none of this means Apple needs to pull up stakes in China entirely. Apple and other countries doing that would have the catastrophic effect on global security that you predict. They just need to ratchet down their reliance on China. Many companies and entire nations need to do this. Make the 500 pound gorilla lose some weight. But don’t starve him into desperate aggression.

Even if China becomes our kindest ally ever, it would take just another pandemic or some other kind of emergency to really hurt Apple’s business. It would be good business strategy for Apple to be able to switch over assembly to another plant in another country. They might still be operating at reduced output, but that is better than completely frozen output.

All of our businesses may also need to reconsider Just-in-Time manufacturing logistics and consider some sort of buffered version/modification of it.

My generation of leadership has been coasting on a paradigm that no longer exists. We are more interconnected than ever before. We also have more forces for instability than ever before in my lifetime: crazier weather, geopolitical intrigue, potentially catastrophic pressures on the ecosystem from weird funguses and invasive species to name but a few. It goes on and on. Yet so many businesses run on logistic principles that was sold to my generation decades ago. So many of the developed nations run their infrastructure and economies like it’s 1999 or even 1989.

I think many industries and nations with any kind of decent leadership at the helm are taking stock of the weaknesses revealed in the supply chain and assessing how to better mitigate and reduce shortages going forward. Or maybe that’s just a futile fantasy that we have some reasonable adults running things somewhere.

Getting back to Apple, Tim Cook was THE supply chain wonderkid at one time. He needs to apply some of his perspective and experience now as the CEO and reduce Apple’s vulnerability while the various governments provoke each other for whatever agenda they’ve got going on.

China’s population is vast and it’s a lucrative market, but we can’t assume that it will always open or open without a very high price and increasingly choking strings attached. Apple needs to be able to shift out of there, out of India, out of the USA, out of any place that may become unstable and go where the operations are sustainable. They’re global guys now.

Again, this is about Apple. What I want or think as an American consumer is that I’d like to see more jobs available in the US. But we can’t forget that other countries do invest in and provide jobs to Americans. We don’t need to adopt the mantle of nationalistic fervor that can at times border on xenophobia and extremism. Nations need to be measured, mature and apply those traits when asserting themselves.
 
People who say we should cut off China have no clue on how world affairs work. That's absolutely the worst thing possible we could do. It would be making China into a super version of North Korea. Right now we have influence over them with the nature of our trade relationship. If we were to cut them off then they would not care about what we wanted or needed. This would end up as a world war and with how the average US citizen is I'm not sure that would be one we could win.
 
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