Apple in China

The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

De: Patrick McGee

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

Selected by The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) as its “Business Reporting” Winner for 2025

“Phenomenal…a jaw-dropping book.” —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Named by both The New York Times and The Economist as one of the best books of the year so far, this “scrupulously reported” (The New Yorker) and “astonishing” (The Daily Telegraph, London) book rivets with its portrayal of how Apple allowed itself to become dependent on China for a huge percentage of its manufacturing, making it vulnerable and unwittingly laying the groundwork for the Asian superpower to rival the US in technological expertise.

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.

Disturbing and Equally Important

I was a very early adopter to Apple products, all the way back to 1984. This book is clearly researched well, almost all of the Macintosh history rings true with my own understanding of its development. But had no idea that ALL of it went to China decades ago. We have trained them well, and almost all of us are complicit. And I’m typing this on an iPhone 14. I won’t upgrade to the AI version, there’s no reason for me to believe it won’t be loaded with CCP malware. And I’ll probably go to a Samsung phone next.

the movie is going to be insane

if someone doesn’t turn this into a movie, the world will be at a loss. this would be more riveting by 100x compared to something like The Social Network.

Riveting story… marred by AI-narration.

You sure that narrator didn’t use AI voice instead of reading himself? Audible: re-record with different narrator! Other than that 9/10. Needs to be made to movie

How much risk Apple in China really is…

A remarkable book, one of the most revealing books I have ever read!
Highly recommended!

Insightful and informative

Interesting perspectives and insights on the inner workings of the large tech company operating in a foreign country and the power that the country can exert on that company to manipulate it’s businesses is interesting.