Apple CEO Tim Cook praises China's innovation, long history of cooperation on Beijing visit

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Apple CEO Tim Cook praises China's innovation, long history of cooperation on Beijing visit​

Reuters
March 25, 202311:32 AM GMT+8

Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the Apple Original Series "Ted Lasso" Season 3 Red Carpet Premiere at Westwood Village Theater, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 7, 2023. REUTERS/David Swanson


SHANGHAI, March 25 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook on Saturday used his first public remarks on his visit to China to praise the country for its rapid innovation and its long ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, according to local media reports.

Apple (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook on Saturday used his first public remarks in China in recent years to praise the country for its rapid innovation and its long ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, according to local media reports.

Cook is in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum, a government-organised event being held again in full force after the country ended its COVID controls late last year.

Besides Cook, the event is being attended by senior government officials as well as CEOs of firms such as Pfizer and BHP.

"Innovation is developing rapidly in China and I believe it will further accelerate," Cook was quoted by The Paper news outlet as saying.

His visit comes at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington and as Apple has been looking to reduce its supply chain reliance on China and moving production to new up and coming centres such as India.

Last year, production at the world’s largest iPhone factory run by Apple supplier Foxconn was heavily disrupted after China's zero-COVID policies fuelled worker unrest.

Cook also visited an Apple Store in Beijing on Friday, pictures of which went viral on Chinese social media.

During his speech, Cook also discussed education and the need for young people to learn programming critical thinking skills, announcing that Apple plans to increase spending on its rural education programme to 100 million yuan, the local media reports said.

Apple CEO praises China's innovation, long history of cooperation on Beijing visit

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Saturday used his first public remarks on his visit to China to praise the country for its rapid innovation and its long ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, according to local media reports.

www.reuters.com

 

[beijingwalker]

Tim Cook praises Apple’s ‘symbiotic’ relationship with China​

Chief executive’s visit comes despite rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and US

Tim Cook avoided mention of US-China tensions and supply chain issues during a visit to the China Development Forum in Beijing © Getty Images
https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?ur...s Apple’s ‘symbiotic’ relationship with China
March 25, 2023

Tim Cook has praised Apple’s symbiotic relationship with China despite rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the US, and the iPhone maker’s own moves to diversify from the country.

In his first visit to China since the pandemic began in 2020, the Apple chief said the company would this year celebrate its 30th anniversary in the country that makes the vast bulk of its iPhones.

“We could not be more excited,” Cook said at the China Development Forum in Beijing, the country’s version of Davos, which Beijing is holding offline for the first time since the pandemic began. “Apple and China . . . grew together and so this has been a symbiotic kind of relationship.”

Cook is one of several American business chiefs in Beijing for what has been billed as an opening-up party after three years of a strict zero-Covid policy.

In a sign of how positively the US technology company continues to be viewed in what is also one of its biggest markets, Cook’s trip was covered by China’s state media while customers in the group’s flagship store in Beijing broke into applause when he visited the shop on Friday.

The trip comes after one of Apple’s toughest years in China in 2022 as President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid controls savaged supply chains.

Apple’s quarterly revenue in the three months to end-December fell for the first time in three and a half years after “significant” supply chain disruptions in China delayed deliveries of iPhones during the holiday period.

The company’s biggest supplier, Foxconn, faced workforce unrest in Zhengzhou, the eastern Chinese city where analysts estimate 60 per cent of iPhones are made, after authorities locked down the area as part of zero-Covid controls in November.

In the meantime, the US has increased export controls on China’s use of advanced chip technology, souring the atmosphere for large American investors in the country.

Some users on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, posted photos contrasting Cook’s warm reception at his Beijing store on Friday with Shou Zi Chew, the head of Chinese owned short-video app TikTok, getting grilled by the US congress last week.

Cook avoided mention of US-China tensions and supply chain issues, in a session about technology and education at the China Development Forum.

“We have a very large supply chain operation in China and then of course we also have our . . . Apple stores,” he said, adding that the company had millions of developers in th

e country for its iOS operating system.

“From the moment we hit the ground yesterday, we couldn’t wait to see some of our customers so we went to the Sanliutn store [in Beijing],” he said.

Apple is trying to build up operations in India as part of its diversification strategy, sending engineers and designers to the country for weeks or months at a time to oversee manufacturing. While it has been producing entry level iPhones in India since 2017, it has recently started trying to manufacture higher end models normally made in China.

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[beijingwalker]

Apple CEO Cook Stresses Ties With China​

 

[beijingwalker]

Tim Cook praises Apple’s ‘symbiotic’ relationship with China​

Chief executive’s visit comes despite rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and US

Subscribe to read | Financial Times

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

www.ft.com

 

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Apple is a ‘corporate hostage’ in China: Mary Kissel​

 

[beijingwalker]

Cook praises 'symbiotic' 30-year relationship with China​

March 25, 2023 2:40PM

Apple CEO Tim Cook has offered praise over Apple's 30-year relationship with China, using a visit to the country to offer positive messages about the iPhone maker's workings in the country.


Apple CEO Tim Cook

Tim Cook has visited China for the first time since the start of the 2020 pandemic, using the occasion to mark a milestone anniversary between Apple and the country. Speaking at the China Development Forum, Cook offered complimentary commentary as Apple reaches its 30th anniversary of operation in the territory.

"We could not be more excited," according to Cook at the gather. "Apple and China grew together and so this has been a symbiotic kind of relationship," he continued, reports the Financial Times.

Cook refers to the extensive supply chain system in China, which he helped create for the iPhone producer over the decades. While there have been recent issues, such as the Zhengzhou factory problems, as well as discussions about Apple trying to spread work to different locales, Apple still relies heavily on a Chinese workforce.

As part of the same trip, Cook was greeted by applause when visiting the flagship Beijing Apple Store, which was also covered by state media.

"We have a very large supply chain operation in China and then of course we also have our Apple stores," said Cook. "From the moment we hit the ground yesterday, we couldn't wait to see some of our customers, so we went to the Sanliutn store."

The China Development Forum is being attended by a number of US business leaders, with the Beijing event considered a blow-out party after a three-year period dominated by zero-tolerance COVID policies.

Cook's attendance wasn't unnoticed by online observers, who contrasted the Apple CEO's largely positive appearance in China with the recent grilling of TikTok's leadership by the U.S. Congress.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has offered praise over Apple's 30-year relationship with China, using a visit to the country to offer positive messages about the iPhone maker's workings in the country.

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