Apple in China - by Patrick McGee

Book Synopsis

"Phenomenal...a jaw-dropping book." --Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times and The Economist, this "scrupulously reported" (The New Yorker) and "astonishing" (The Daily Telegraph, London) investigation explores how Apple's global rise became inseparable from its deep dependence on China. A gripping account of tech history and geopolitical strategy, Apple in China reveals how the world's most iconic company outsourced not just manufacturing--but leverage.

After struggling to build products on three continents, Apple turned to China's seemingly endless supply of cheap labor. It soon deployed thousands of engineers, trained millions of workers, and invested hundreds of billions of dollars to create the most advanced global supply chain. These efforts fueled the iPhone's dominance--but also laid the foundation for a powerful, state-supported Chinese electronics industry. What began as a business decision evolved into a cautionary tale of global trade, tech rivalry, and national security.

Without intending to, Apple helped Beijing acquire technological influence that could now be weaponized--a central concern in the ongoing US-China tech war. Drawing on over two hundred interviews, Patrick McGee exposes never-before-reported details from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: internal emails, secretive executive meetings, and overlooked voices inside the company's China operations.

You'll meet the "Gang of Eight" executives tasked with appeasing Beijing, a Mormon missionary who launched Apple retail in China, and a veteran whose dreams of improving factory conditions were crushed by both Apple's demands and Xi Jinping's authoritarian crackdown. From Foxconn and Tim Cook to the Chinese Communist Party and Taiwan Semiconductor, this is a revelatory look at how Apple, in seeking efficiency, became entangled in the very politics it once claimed to challenge.

For readers of Chip War, American Factory, and The Big Short, Apple in China is a searing examination of corporate power, Chinese nationalism, deglobalization, and the fragile relationship between Silicon Valley and the world's rising superpower.

Review Quotes

"Phenomenal...a jaw-dropping book."
--Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

"This is the best book about Apple ever written, one of the best books about China ever written, and one of the best books about tech, period."
--Ben Thompson, Stratechery

"As Patrick McGee makes devastatingly clear in his smart and comprehensive Apple in China, the American company's decision under Tim Cook, the current C.E.O., to manufacture about 90 percent of its products in China has created an existential vulnerability not just for Apple, but for the United States--nurturing the conditions for Chinese technology to outpace American innovation....A persuasive exposé."
--New York Times

"Flips the usual narrative about Apple and China on its head... forcefully argues that Apple may be the single biggest supporter of President Xi's 'Made in China 2025' plan."
--Vanity Fair

"Scrupulously reported."
--New Yorker

"An eye-opening exposé ... [which] chronicles a lucrative relationship stained by manipulation, violence and abuse."
--The Telegraph (UK)

"Few people are better prepared to discuss the symbiotic relationship between Apple and China than Patrick McGee... as [McGee] argues, China would not be China without Apple."
--Bari Weiss, Honestly

"A riveting account of how Apple came to depend on Chinese suppliers for most of its products... [Apple's] history holds important lessons for the two economies--and for other big manufacturers like Tesla."
--Reuters Breakingviews

"Timely... McGee excels at describing the intricacies of supply chains... explains how Apple became inseparable from China and what the fracturing of global trade means for one of the world's most valuable companies."
--The Economist

"Remarkable... [breaks] the cone of silence."
--The Circuit

"Incredibly timely... [McGee] has used [his] background to create a really comprehensive history telling a story that very few people truly understand."
--Peter Kafka, Vox "Channels"

"Explosive... People should be reading this book and understanding the narrative."
--Chris Voss, The Chris Voss Show

"An incredible story with profound implications for not just Apple but all of us who depend on China's manufacturing prowess and intricate supply networks to sustain our way of life."
--Hidden Forces

"Fascinating... The fundamental issue here [is] whether or not we want our biggest company--our most innovative company, perhaps the paradigmatic company for America--to be that deeply intertwined with China."
--Hugh Hewitt

"To call this book a page-turner is almost to diminish its importance. It is a once-in-a-generation read."
--Robert D. Kaplan, author of the New York Times bestseller The Revenge of Geography and Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis

"Deeply researched, disturbing, and enlightening...In these pages we watch as the world's most profitable company gets outmaneuvered by the world's most powerful dictator."
--Chris Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War

"In this hugely important new book, Patrick McGee shows us how Apple's quest for wealth and power in China may in the end be the undoing both of the company and of America's quest for technology supremacy."
--Rana Foroohar, Financial Times Global Business Columnist, CNN Global Economic Analyst, and author of Makers and Takers

"Absolutely riveting. An extraordinary story, expertly told--and one that has important implications for Apple, for tech, and for global geoeconomics."
--Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford and bestselling author of The Silk Roads

About the Author

Patrick McGee was the Financial Times's principal Apple reporter from 2019 to 2023, during which time he won a San Francisco Press Club Award for his coverage. He joined the newspaper in 2013, in Hong Kong, before reporting from Germany and California. Previously, he was a bond reporter at The Wall Street Journal. He has a master's degree in global diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, and a degree in religious studies from the University of Toronto. He and his family make their home in the Bay Area.