
In China Trade War, Apple Worries It Will Be Collateral Damage - Bhilai
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/technology/apple-tim-cook-china.html
======
rubyn00bie
Lol. I mean sure Apple could be stuck between a US/China tradewar... sure. But
the affects on Apple, versus literally any other the business out there, of
the trade war are going to be relatively minuscule. There will be thousands of
smaller businesses on both sides that are affected and that likely have a much
larger aggregate impact than one player-- even if it is Apple.

Apple has money and margins, it would not be wise to underestimate the power
of those two things in protecting their business. It'd be better if the NYT
wrote a piece about a mid-size ($5m to $75m in revenue, 50-500 employees)
businesses that can't lobby or fight back and the affect on them.

/shrug

------
IBM
>Apple’s primary leverage with the Chinese government is Chinese consumers’
love for Apple products, said Dean Garfield, head of the Information
Technology Industry Council, a trade group that represents Apple and other
tech companies.

That's not Apple's primary leverage in China. It's the millions of workers
they indirectly employ there.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I don’t think the Chinese government cares much about that, there are
literally 10s of millions of migrant worker factory jobs like that, and
Apple’s assembly business is probably seen negligible to the Chinese
government.

But in the other hand the Chinese government really really cares about keeping
the middle class happy.

------
hello_1234
Looking at comments above, I find it extremely disheartening about how bitter
Americans have become. Why are people celebrating the downfall of Apple - the
company that comprises 3.94% of S&P 500, and is probably the single biggest
holding of 401K retirement accounts. No American benefits if Apple falls.

~~~
grecy
Americans have become extremely bitter and negative about pretty much
everything.

New American car company trying to change the world (Tesla)? Nope, hope it
fails.

Large American company that contributes massively to the enonomy doing well
(Apple) Nope, they suck.

Someone wants to talk about Healthcare, or Education, or gun reform ? Nope,
they suck.

Basically, in modern America, everything and everyone sucks. It's not a
positive place to be.

~~~
stanfordkid
Didn't Peter Thiel predict this in 2012?

He outlined it very clearly as an inevitable shift from indefinite optimism to
indefinite pessimism in his book "zero to one"

~~~
throwaway5752
I am asking this sincerely, not sarcastically: who cares? Did he make specific
dates/times with his predictions? Did he address the specifics of Apple's
situation right now?

If you are studying the art of making a prophecy, leave it open ended and
unspecific. It won't be falsifiable, and people will fill in the blanks with
their preferred details.

And it doesn't help us with why some people are irrationally rooting against
their own self-interest (Apple's contribution to the GDP, high representation
in overall national savings), or why we are starting a trade war against the
opinion of almost all experts (or what the motivations of the person starting
this trade war are).

edit: and I should note, le plus ca change... "noblesse oblige" is an old
phrase.

------
baybal2
The article goes to great length to highlight Apple having lobbyists in
Beijing. A fair question is why?

Are they so afraid to send the message that they are powerless, and have zero
control over them being or not being the next company to suffer Beijing's
banhammer?

I do remember, back in iPhone 5 days. It took only a single minor customs
official to hold their entire initial shipment of few millions units hostage.

Back then, it was said their entire legal team was sent to hold watch by the
door of the bonded customs zone administrative building.

------
izacus
Oh I'm sure they can lobby/pay their way so they'll be exempt from tariffs and
will get even greater advantage over competition with less cash on hand.

Apple is really the last corpo we should be worrying about.

~~~
melling
You didn't read the article? They already have assurances from the US that we
won't add tariffs?

"The Trump administration has told Mr. Cook that it would not place tariffs on
iPhones, which are assembled in China, according to a person familiar with the
talks who declined to speak on the record for fear of upsetting negotiations.
But Apple is worried China will retaliate in ways that hamstring its business,
according to three people close to Apple who declined to be named because they
were not authorized to speak publicly."

~~~
glhaynes
Assurances from the Trump administration in particular aren't exactly iron-
clad.

EDIT: "Trump Trade Adviser Doesn't Know About an iPhone Trade Exemption" \-
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-19/trump-
tra...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-19/trump-trade-
adviser-doesn-t-know-about-an-iphone-trade-exemption)

------
rdlecler1
Cook doesn’t seem to be proposing a solution to China’s policies other than:
more of the same.

------
mrybczyn
Apple could single handedly bring the electronics industry back from the grave
in North America. Maybe they should, instead of whining that their easy
profits off of communist party handshake deals will vanish.

When the president of the PRC visits America, he visits Apple and Microsoft...
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/reporters-
no...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/reporters-notebook/xi-
jinping-visit)

------
godzillabrennus
Trump is many things but a puppet to Apple is not one of them.

Their business model will be hurt by his trade war.

Maybe they’ll start investing in manufacturing elsewhere to mitigate their
dependence on China.

Australia has some major rare earth materials that could make it a good
choice.

------
crb002
OMG Apple might start paying US taxes. The horror.

~~~
crb002
Queue the Hollywood accounting. Phones are imported for "$1" in return for
Apple doing something with it's overseas hoard.

~~~
kzrdude
The word is "cue".

> In the theatre or in a musical performance, a performer's cue is something
> another performer says or does that is a signal for them to begin speaking,
> playing, or doing something.

~~~
eric_h
True, but "queue" in this case conveys almost exactly the same meaning in a
grammatically correct way.

------
zajd
Good, maybe they can stop shipping their jobs overseas to avoid environmental
and labor regulations

