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Delving into deals and power dynamics in 'Apple in China'

Author
九一星空无限talk ZB,
Publish Date
Sat, 28 Jun 2025, 2:23pm
Photo / Getty
Photo / Getty

Delving into deals and power dynamics in 'Apple in China'

Author
九一星空无限talk ZB,
Publish Date
Sat, 28 Jun 2025, 2:23pm

Apple in China by Patrick McGee  

After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China鈥檚 seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. Soon it was sending thousands of engineers across the Pacific, training millions of workers, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create the world鈥檚 most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century鈥檚 most iconic products鈥攊n staggering volume and for enormous profit. 
 
Without explicitly intending to, Apple built an advanced electronics industry within China, only to discover that its massive investments in technology upgrades had inadvertently given Beijing a power that could be weaponized. 
 
In Apple in China, journalist Patrick McGee draws on more than two hundred interviews with former executives and engineers, supplementing their stories with unreported meetings held by Steve Jobs, emails between top executives, and internal memos regarding threats from Chinese competition. The book highlights the unknown characters who were instrumental in Apple鈥檚 ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the 鈥淕ang of Eight鈥 executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino鈥檚 operational demands and Xi Jinping鈥檚 war on civil society. 
 
Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised 鈥渞ebels鈥 and 鈥渢roublemakers鈥濃攖he company that encouraged us all to 鈥淭hink Different鈥濃攄evolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate. 

  

The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney  

Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with successful fulfilling lives. A son they adore, a house on the beach, a safe, friendly and honest community in a picture-postcard town on the Ayrshire coast. Until one day Bonnie the lab comes in from the beach alone. Their son Rory has just gone - the only trace left is a single black Adidas slider.  

Their lives don't fall apart immediately - while there's still hope (and no body) they can dig deep and try to carry on. Rather it's a process of abrasion, a wearing away of that happiness and normality; a slow degradation, a gradual breakdown - until they'll never be the people they were before. This sort of tragedy impacts a whole town - does the community still feel the same after? What are folk saying about you? Who are your friends? Who can you trust? When the worst thing has happened and you've lost everything, you either go under or you rebuild, start again. What could be worse than your child disappearing? 

 

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