Key Points
- In 2016, Tim Cook made a $275 billion dollar deal with China.
- Cook pledged to buy Chinese components and sign deals with Chinese software companies.
- Apple also promised to help China develop ‘the most advanced manufacturing technologies.’
Apple isn’t known for taking a hardline on China. In fact, Tim Cook and company aim to please America’s biggest enemy at every turn. Cook, afterall, was the primary mover in Apple’s entrance into China almost two decades ago (he was the operations chief then).
Now, China has Apple by the wallet. And what can Cook do but acquiesce? He has shareholders to appease. If that means ceding control of data centers to the CCP, fine. Abandoning encryption technology and privacy policies? You got it, Xi. Ignoring human rights abuses? Sure!
But Cook’s secret 2016 agreement with the Chinese- a $275 billion dollar blockbuster – essentially proves Apple is no longer an American company. They belong to China now.
According to the Washington Examiner, “Cook [pledged] Apple would use more components from Chinese suppliers, sign deals with Chinese software firms, and invest ‘many billions of dollars more’…Some of these investments include putting $1 billion toward Didi Chiuxing, a Chinese ride-sharing startup, and expanding employee training in China.”
This “memorandum of understanding” also included “a pledge to help Chinese manufacturers develop ‘the most advanced manufacturing technologies’ and ‘support the training of high-quality Chinese talents’ in exchange for circumventing restrictions placed on the technology sector.”
Tim Cook talks a big game when it comes to civil liberties and privacy on American soil. But as soon as he touches down in China, he bends over backwards to please the CCP – and the demands are only getting more extreme. “[Cook] ultimately approved plans to store customer data on Chinese servers and to aggressively censor apps, according to interviews with current and former Apple employees,” New York Times reports.
They’ve also been forced to remove apps that include religious texts and maps of Hong Kong.
“Apple has become a cog in the censorship machine that presents a government-controlled version of the internet,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Asia director for Amnesty International, the human rights group. “If you look at the behavior of the Chinese government, you don’t see any resistance from Apple — no history of standing up for the principles that Apple claims to be so attached to.”
Apple made $14.6 billion dollars in China last quarter, according to the Examiner —that’s their highest profit margin to date. China is nearly 20% of Apple’s total sales.
Whatever the CCP asks for next, Tim Cook won’t say no.
