Apple in China

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** ** WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING ** * UPDATED TO INCLUDE A NEW EPILOGUE * What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West’s gravest mistake? For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America’s dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee’s gripping exposé reveals Apple’s vulnerability for the first time – and shows how one company’s triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power. ‘Devastatingly clear’ New York Times ‘Scrupulously reported’ New Yorker ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller 'This isthe best book about Apple ever written’ Ben Thompson, Stratechery

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** ** WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING ** * UPDATED TO INCLUDE A NEW EPILOGUE * What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West’s gravest mistake? For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America’s dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee’s gripping exposé reveals Apple’s vulnerability for the first time – and shows how one company’s triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power. ‘Devastatingly clear’ New York Times ‘Scrupulously reported’ New Yorker ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller 'This is the best book about Apple ever written’ Ben Thompson, Stratechery

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** * WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING * ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller,author of Chip War ‘Hugely important’ Rana Foroohar,author of Makers and Takers ‘A once-in-a-generation read’ Robert D. Kaplan, author of Waste Land As Trump wages a tariff war with China, seeking to boost domestic electronics manufacturing, this book offers an unparalleled insight into why his strategy is embarrassingly naïve. Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the 21st century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a victim of its own success, caught in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. On the brink of bankruptcy in 1996, Apple adopted an outsourcing strategy. By 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour. As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple’s fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising and supplying Chinese manufacturers – skills Beijing is now weaponizing against the West. Investigative journalist Patrick McGee draws on 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how Cupertino’s choice to anchor its supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime’s whims. Both an insider’s historical account and a cautionary tale, Apple in China is the first history of Apple to go beyond the biographies of its top executives and set the iPhone’s global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** * WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING * ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller, author of Chip War ‘Hugely important’ Rana Foroohar, author of Makers and Takers ‘A once-in-a-generation read’ Robert D. Kaplan, author of Waste Land As Trump wages a tariff war with China, seeking to boost domestic electronics manufacturing, this book offers an unparalleled insight into why his strategy is embarrassingly naïve. Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the 21st century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a victim of its own success, caught in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. On the brink of bankruptcy in 1996, Apple adopted an outsourcing strategy. By 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour. As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple’s fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising and supplying Chinese manufacturers – skills Beijing is now weaponizing against the West. Investigative journalist Patrick McGee draws on 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how Cupertino’s choice to anchor its supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime’s whims. Both an insider’s historical account and a cautionary tale, Apple in China is the first history of Apple to go beyond the biographies of its top executives and set the iPhone’s global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **** WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING *What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West's gravest mistake?For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America's dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers.Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee's gripping expos reveals Apple's vulnerability for the first time and shows how one company's triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power.';Devastatingly clear'New York Times';Scrupulously reported'New Yorker';Absolutely riveting'Peter Frankopan ';Disturbing and enlightening'Chris Miller'This isthe best book about Apple ever written'Ben Thompson,Stratechery

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **** WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING *What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West's gravest mistake?For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America's dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers.Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee's gripping expos reveals Apple's vulnerability for the first time and shows how one company's triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power.';Devastatingly clear'New York Times';Scrupulously reported'New Yorker';Absolutely riveting'Peter Frankopan ';Disturbing and enlightening'Chris Miller'This isthe best book about Apple ever written'Ben Thompson,Stratechery

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** * WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING * ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller,author of Chip War ‘Hugely important’ Rana Foroohar,author of Makers and Takers ‘A once-in-a-generation read’ Robert D. Kaplan, author of Waste Land As Trump wages a tariff war with China, seeking to boost domestic electronics manufacturing, this book offers an unparalleled insight into why his strategy is embarrassingly naïve. Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the 21st century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a victim of its own success, caught in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. On the brink of bankruptcy in 1996, Apple adopted an outsourcing strategy. By 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour. As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple’s fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising and supplying Chinese manufacturers – skills Beijing is now weaponizing against the West. Investigative journalist Patrick McGee draws on 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how Cupertino’s choice to anchor its supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime’s whims. Both an insider’s historical account and a cautionary tale, Apple in China is the first history of Apple to go beyond the biographies of its top executives and set the iPhone’s global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** * WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING * ‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller, author of Chip War ‘Hugely important’ Rana Foroohar, author of Makers and Takers ‘A once-in-a-generation read’ Robert D. Kaplan, author of Waste Land As Trump wages a tariff war with China, seeking to boost domestic electronics manufacturing, this book offers an unparalleled insight into why his strategy is embarrassingly naïve. Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the 21st century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a victim of its own success, caught in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers. On the brink of bankruptcy in 1996, Apple adopted an outsourcing strategy. By 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour. As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple’s fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising and supplying Chinese manufacturers – skills Beijing is now weaponizing against the West. Investigative journalist Patrick McGee draws on 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how Cupertino’s choice to anchor its supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime’s whims. Both an insider’s historical account and a cautionary tale, Apple in China is the first history of Apple to go beyond the biographies of its top executives and set the iPhone’s global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

For readers of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs and Chris Miller's Chip War , a riveting look at how Apple helped build China's dominance in electronics assembly and manufacturing only to find itself trapped in a relationship with an authoritarian state making ever-increasing demands. After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China's 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's most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century's most iconic products--in 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's ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the "Gang of Eight" executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino's operational demands and Xi Jinping's war on civil society. Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised "rebels" and "troublemakers"--the company that encouraged us all to "Think Different"--devolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate.

For readers of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs and Chris Miller's Chip War , a riveting look at how Apple helped build China's dominance in electronics assembly and manufacturing only to find itself trapped in a relationship with an authoritarian state making ever-increasing demands. After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China's 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's most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century's most iconic products--in 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's ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the "Gang of Eight" executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino's operational demands and Xi Jinping's war on civil society. Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised "rebels" and "troublemakers"--the company that encouraged us all to "Think Different"--devolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate.