Troubled union: Apple's China problem

How will Apple branch away from building products in China?

An Apple protest.
(Image credit: File/REUTERS)

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As China's COVID-lockdown protests spread, Apple is finally being forced to address its dependence on Beijing, said Tim Culpan in Bloomberg. Last week, fighting broke out at a massive factory complex nicknamed "iPhone City" in Zhengzhou, where footage of violent scenes showed "white-clad storm troopers in protective gear beating people, while hordes of workers fight back." For weeks, workers had been "confined to their dorms, starved of reliable information, denied adequate food, and fearing for their safety." The 200,000-person industrial metropolis is owned by Taiwan's Foxconn, but it has been making iPhones since 2007. The unrest there is "likely to result in a production shortfall of close to 6 million iPhone Pro units this year." The conflict might "have been avoided if Apple and its suppliers" had had "sufficient backup options." But China still produces roughly 95 percent of Apple's iPhones, despite "mounting evidence that such concentration is a major political and economic risk."

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