Why Apple stuck in the conflict of tariffs

All iPhone comes with a label tells you that it was designed in California.

While the elegant rectangle that runs many of our lives is already designed in the United States, it is likely that it has reached life thousands of miles away in China: the country that has been hit most by US President Donald Trump’s tariff, which has now increased to 245 % on some Chinese imports.

Apple sells more than 220 million iPhone devices annually, and with most estimates, nine out of 10 are manufactured in China. From glossy screens to battery packages, many components are manufactured in the Apple product, their sources and assembly in iPhone, iPads or Macbooks in China. Most of them are shipped to the United States, the largest market in Apple.

Fortunately for the company, Trump was suddenly exempted Smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices From its tariff last week.

But the rest is short.

The President has since suggested that more customs tariffs are coming: “No one goes out” outside the hook “, he wrote on the social truth, as his administration achieved” semi -connectors and the entire electronics supply chain. “

The global supply chain that Apple described as a force is now a security vulnerability.

The United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, are interconnected, and Trump’s amazing definitions have raised that relationship overnight, which led to an inevitable question: Who is the most dependent on the two?

China has benefited greatly from hosting assembly lines for one of the most valuable companies in the world. It was a call to the West to manufacture quality and helped stimulate local innovation.

Apple entered China in the 1990s to sell computers through third -party suppliers.

Around 1997, when she was about to bankruptcy because she was fighting to compete with competitors, Apple found a lifeline in China. The young Chinese economy was opening up to foreign companies to increase manufacturing and create more jobs.

It was not until 2001, although Apple officially arrived in China, through a commercial company based in Shanghai, and began making products in the country. I have been partnership with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronic manufacturer working in China, to make iPods, then IMACS and iPhone later.

When Beijing began trading with the world – the United States is at least encouraged – Apple has grown its mark while it became the world’s factory.

At that time, China was not ready to make iPhone. But Apple chose her own crop from suppliers and helped them to grow to become “manufacturing stars”, according to the Support Series expert Lin Xueping.

It is cited an example of Beijing Jingdiao, who is now the leading high -speed micro -machines, which is used to make advanced ingredients efficiently. Mr. Lynn says that the company, which was used to cut acrylic, was not considered an automatic tool maker – but eventually developed the glass cutting machines and became “the star of the surface of the mobile phone from Apple”.

Apple opened its first store in the country in Beijing in 2008, the year hosted by the Olympic City and China’s relationship with the West is at all levels ever. Soon this reached 50 stores, as customers photographed outside the door.

With the growth of Apple profit margins, they also made assembly lines in China, where Foxconn is working on the largest iPhone factory in the world in Zhengzhou, which has since called “iPhone City”.

For a fast -growing China, Apple has become a symbol of advanced Western technology – simple but original and self.

Today, most valuable iPhone devices are manufactured by Foxconn. The advanced chips you make in Taiwan, by the largest chips manufacturer in the world, TSMC. Manufacturing also requires rare ground elements used in audio and cameras applications.

There were about 150 of the best 187 Apple suppliers in 2024 factories in China, according to an analysis of Nikkei Asia.

“There is no more important supply chain in the world for us than China,” Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said in an interview with him last year.

in Trump’s first periodApple obtained exemptions on the definitions imposed on China.

But this time, the Trump administration presented an example of Apple before the definitions of some electronics pounced. It believes that the threat of sharp taxes will encourage companies to make products in America instead.

“The army of millions and millions of people who flow into small screws to make iPhone devices – this type of things will come to America,” said Houard Minister of Trade Howard Lootnick in an interview earlier this month.

White House press secretary Caroline Levit said last week: “President Trump has explained that America could not rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones and mobile computers.”

“In the direction of the president, these companies find their beach in their manufacture in the United States as soon as possible,” she added.

But many of them are skeptical about it.

The belief that Apple can transfer the assembly process to the United States is “pure imagination”, according to Elie Friedman, who was previously sitting in the company’s academic council.

Mr. Friedman said that the company has been talking about diversifying its supply chain away from China since 2013, when it joined the council – but the United States was never an option.

He added that Apple did not make much progress during the next decade, but it “made an effort” after the epidemic, when China -controlled Kovid’s locks Something of manufacturing output.

“The most important new assembly sites were Vietnam and India. But of course, the majority of the apple association still occurs (in China).”

Apple did not answer BBC questions But its website says its supply chain “Thousands of companies and more than 50 countries extend.

Any change in the current situation of the current supply chain of Apple will be a major blow to China, which tries to start growth after guardianship.

Many of the reasons why the country wanted to be a center for manufacturing for Western companies in the early first decade of the twentieth century, today – creates hundreds of thousands of jobs, and gives the country a decisive advantage in global trade.

“Apple is at the intersection of American -Chinese tensions, highlighting the cost of this exposure,” says Jigar Dixit, Supply and Operations Series Adviser.

Why did China not bow to Trump’s threats, and instead looking at 125 % of American imports. China has also imposed export controls on a group of rare rare minerals and magnets that it has in stores, and has a blow to the United States.

There is no doubt that the American tariff that is still imposed on other Chinese sectors will harm.

It is not just a confrontation in Beijing a higher tariff – Trump has made clear that he would target countries that are part of the Chinese supply chain. For example, Vietnam was, as Apple has transported AirPods, facing a 46 % tariff before Trump stopped for 90 days, so transferring production elsewhere in Asia is not an easy way out.

“All places that can be imagined for the huge Foxconn assembly sites that contain tens or hundreds of thousands of workers in Asia, and all of these countries face a higher tariff,” said Mr. Friedman.

So what do Apple are now?

The company is fighting intense competition from Chinese companies, as the government pushes the manufacture of advanced technology in a race with the United States.

Now that Apple has planted electronic manufacturing capabilities in China, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and others can reuse the mature supply chain from Apple “, according to Mr. Lynn.

Last year, Apple lost its place as the largest smartphone seller in China in Huawei and Vivo. The Chinese people are not spent enough because of the slow economy and with a blockgpt prohibition in China, the Apple is also struggling to maintain an advantage among buyers looking for phones working in Amnesty International. until Rare discounts offered On iPhone in January to boost sales.

While it was working during the increasingly closer to President Xi Jinping, Apple was forced to do so Reducing Bluetooth and Airdrop On its devices, where the Chinese Communist Party sought to monitor the political messages that people share. He succeeded in a campaign to make technology even I touched the founder of Alibaba and billions of Jack Jack Ma.

Apple has announced an investment of $ 500 billion (378 billion pounds) in the United States, although this may not be sufficient to satisfy the Trump administration for a long time.

Looking at a lot of rotation and uncertainty about Trump’s tariff, it is expected that more unexpected fees – which may leave the company again with a small maneuvering room and even less time.

Mr. Dixett says that the tariff of smartphones will not paralysis if they raise their heads again, but regardless of the addition of “pressure – operational and political aspect” to the supply chain that cannot be not bound quickly.

“It is clear that the intensity of the immediate crisis has been reduced,” said Friedmanman, referring to the exemption of the smartphone last week.

“But I really don’t think this means that Apple can relax.”

Additional reports by Wang fan