Apple CEO Tim Cook was one of the few executives from U.S. companies to attend the China Development Forum in Beijing over the weekend as tensions between the two countries continue.
In a speech, Cook spoke about the “symbiotic kind of relationship” that Apple and China have.
Mr. Cook goes to Beijing
Relations between the United States and China are tense. The recent furor over Chinese spy balloons is of relatively little importance compared to the economic sanctions the Trump administration applied. And the Biden administration ratcheted up the trade war with restrictions on China’s ability to develop and produce computer chips.
That didn’t stop Cook from speaking at the China Development Forum. Along with the CEO of Qualcomm, he was among the most prominent U.S. attendees.
Apple depends on China for two reasons
During his speech Saturday, the Apple CEO said, “This has been a symbiotic kind of relationship that we have both enjoyed,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
That symbiosis includes China both making and buying Apple products.
While the components for iPhone, MacBooks and iPads are produced around the world, factories in China assemble most of the products that Apple sells. That said, the company is increasing assembly in India and Vietnam.
Chinese consumers are important for Apple, too. In the fourth quarter of 2022, China bought $24 billion worth of Apple’s products. That’s almost as much as Europe.
Staying in China
Cook isn’t oblivious to calls from both the U.S. right and left to pull Apple’s production and products out of China. Reasons range from distrust of the country’s authoritarian leadership to China’s human rights record. But in the past, Cook said companies that boycott China can’t affect what happens there.
“My own view very strongly is you show up and you participate, you get in the arena, because nothing ever changes from the sideline,” Cook said back in 2017.
While this is the Apple exec’s first visit to China since the COVID-19 pandemic began, he’s been there before. That includes a face-to-face talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2017.
