“Apple In China” by Patrick McGhee, who covered the company for the Financial Times for years, is…about Apple. Readers can learn a lot about its history from the early days, to on the brink of bankruptcy and oblivion, and the unbelievable comeback after Steve Jobs’ return, but the selling point is the relationship between the East Asian country and the behemoth technology firm. Patrick argued that only China, which offers not only cheap labor in abundance, but also an unrivaled sense of urgency and a willingness to learn and get stuff done, can help Apple push boundaries in terms of product development and design. In return, Apple succeeded in China because it invested billions of dollars in world-class equipment in the country and embedded world-class engineers in Chinese suppliers’ operations, to teach them valuable knowledge and skills.

The author argued that for a while, China’s and Apple’s interests were aligned. So the company could operate successfully in the country and become the envy of other Western entities. However, the reliance on China became a major risk and is inching towards a tipping point. Apple already took measures to mitigate such a risk, including moving some production to nearby countries such as Vietnam and especially India. But, make no mistake, it will take years and billions of dollars, for Apple to replicate what it has in China, if it can do it at all.

The book is quite long, because I think the author wanted to provide a lot of context on the company and China, what led Apple to start working with the Chinese in the first place and why they let Apple come in. It is long, but thankfully, Patrick is a good writer, so the whole book reads like a novel and is not as boring as a textbook.

I have followed the company for years, but I still learned many things from this book. I really recommend it.

“It would be banal to say that Apple wouldn’t be Apple today without China. There is no other place on earth that could have provided similar cost, efficiency, and scale. What this book contends is more intriguing—that China wouldn’t be China today without Apple. Its investments in the country have been spectacular, rivaling nation-building efforts in cost, man-hours, and impact. Apple itself estimates that since 2008 it has trained at least 28 million workers—more people than the entire labor force of California.”

“Internal documents obtained for this book reveal that Apple’s investments in China reached $55 billion per year by 2015, an astronomical figure that doesn’t include the costs of components in Apple hardware—the so-called Bill of Materials”

“As far as intentions go, it’s evident that Cupertino is now making serious efforts to de-risk from China by asking its supplier partners to replicate their China-based capacities in India. One supplier executive said Apple is pushing them “like hell” to move. But even if suppliers prove capable and New Delhi invests in infrastructure, the pace of Apple’s moves is likely to be constrained due to China’s interest in retaining control of Apple operations. “It’s clear Apple is slowly inching away, but they have to walk a fine line. They don’t want to run away—but they can’t crawl,” says Goldberg. “They have to walk at just the right pace. If they move too quickly, China will get mad at them. And if they move too slowly, they’ll get stuck.”