Apple in China

The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

De: Patrick McGee

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

For listeners 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.

©2025 Patrick McGee (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Thank god I saw this recommended on the Daily show. God bless jon Stewart.

This book was absolutely FANTASTIC, as a former developer that worked in china for many years in the Donguan era, it connected in so many levels and as a novice to geo politics, such an eye opener, thanks Jon!

Excellent analysis

This was a great listen. If you like economics, history, tech, politics - this book is for you.

Excellent background and research.

Exceptionally well researched and structured. Truly a feat of previously misunderstood history telling. Hope the author keeps writing more, and in the same style/depth.

Excellent

I had no idea how dependent our current economy and technology is trapped in China

This was an awesome take on where China is today!

Nothing to dislike about this book.

A must read for all those concerned about the future of the global economy.

Awesome!!

Amazing history on how and why Apple became what it is today.

Great detail in the history and people who drove Apples sourcing strategy and growth from the very beginning. All told with engaging storytelling.

exposing the rotten apple

this book brings to light important information not known to the public. Glad I don't use I products.
Amazing how Apple sold out to the commies just to enrichen the top people at Apple and it's shareholders. Super cheap labor to deliver expensive final product to the world. Liberals with the "liveable wage" doctrine should all boycott Apple and quit using all its products.
The future just got scarier.

Stunning implications

The reportage by this honored business journalist is deep, original, and points to a situation no one else is paying attention to at all—how deeply Apple has fallen into the clutches of the Chinese Communist Party. When the President demands re-shoring of iPhone manufacture, he obviously has no idea that what he’s asking for is virtually impossible. I’ve been a certifiable Mac-head since the 1980s and I’m sad to see how insatiable demand for iPods and iPhones and shareholder greed have trapped a great U.S. company in an economic vise. The implications don’t stop with manufacturing. The safety and security of chip production on Taiwan is at stake and, by extension, American security. By the way, business nonfiction can be riveting.

Incredibly revealing…and depressing

Learned a ton about Apple’s operations in China, but overall, my top takeaway is simply that business is hard. You do your best, work hard, and sometimes even massively successful companies like Apple just can’t overcome all the challenges.

Stop here for FRESH and relative Apple content

I really enjoyed this book as it was the first time I've read a comprehensive overview of what America's tech giant has been doing in China outside little blurbs here and there. Well resourced, fairly neutral, and one hell of a ride. This book does not include the tired tropes about Apple that proliferate so many publicly available words about the company, no this is substance weaved with great storytelling. If you are looking to get past the myth and the legend that is Apple this is your book. Smart people with maybe even better luck. Worth your time.