Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with China in 2016

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by Aunche on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @09:17PM (#29493061)

Imagine getting an email from Apple telling you that you're laid off because you job is less important than sending a stern message to China. Apple then loses billions of dollars of revenue to Huawei and Xiaomi, but can you really place a price on feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside?

If you want to control what maps Apple shows in China, then ask the government to do it. Assuming you can convince Congress to do anything at all, they still wouldn't take any meaningful action against China because they aren't going to voluntarily widen our trade deficit. We barely have enough economic leverage to pressure them to be slightly better at enforcing IP. We aren't going to spare any for meaningless virtue signaling.

> It would be interesting to talk about what organizations like Apple can and cannot do; what is effective and what isn't. Is there any research?

It took extreme sanctions and the most sophisticated cyberattack in history to get Iran to make concessions on its nuclear program (until Trump decided to reject the agreement). China has a much stronger economy and more allies.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by intricatedetail on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @10:01PM (#29493291)

> Imagine getting an email from Apple telling you that you're laid off

Isn't that exactly what Apple did by moving factories to China?

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by wolverine876 on Thursday December 09, 2021 @12:45AM (#29494245)

Congress and the US government take many aggressive actions against China. Recently, members of Congress personally visited Taiwan to express support for them. A current bill imposes sanctions on China for Xinjing human rights abuses, and President Biden imposed a 'diplomatic boycott' of the upcoming Olympics for the same reason. The Pentagon is openly focusing its efforts on China, including providing nuclear submarine technology to Australia - a historic first besides the UK.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by Aunche on Thursday December 09, 2021 @01:30AM (#29494486)

A diplomatic boycott at the Olympics during a pandemic and sanction of a dozen or so people are meaningless virtue signals. The other actions align with American geopolitical interests. What is suggested upthread is that Apple ought to sacrifice interests in order to fight China.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by wolverine876 on Thursday December 09, 2021 @12:43PM (#29500477)

I was responding to this claim:

> Assuming you can convince Congress to do anything at all, they still wouldn't take any meaningful action against China because they aren't going to voluntarily widen our trade deficit.

Clearly Congress (and the Executive Branch, which is responsible for foreign policy) does plenty that is meaningful.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by Aunche on Thursday December 09, 2021 @01:58PM (#29501424)

By doing something meaningful, I mean doing good for the sake of doing good at the cost of something you care about. People are arguing that Apple should sacrifice their revenue just to uphold their principles. The government would never do the equivalent thing, e.g. sacrifice geopolitical leverage in exchange for advancing humanitarian causes.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by curt15 on Thursday December 09, 2021 @07:09AM (#29496457)

Have you noticed just how sensitive the CCP leadership is about its image? Every perceived slight is a black eye to them.

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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by Aunche on Thursday December 09, 2021 @11:26AM (#29499331)

That is just their own brand of virtue signaling. I doubt they actually care. China doesn't give up anything they don't particularly care about in the first place. They'll call for a boycott of Nike, which conveniently helps domestic companies. Manufacturers are still encouraged to offer their services to Nike though because they wouldn't want to their citizens to lose their jobs.

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