Well they’ve already changed. Phones are now made in multiple countries. Including Taiwan. Although the touchscreen glass is still made in South Korea.
iPads/iPad airs do not have a premium. Neither did the M1 macbook air. Other than that yes, you’re correct.
I’ll still buy an M2 Mac Mini when it comes out. Perfect for a low power but very capable Plex server.
Taiwan not happy with Foxconn’s China investments.
Taiwan security officials want Foxconn to drop stake in Chinese chipmaker
Apple supplier’s $800mn investment in Tsinghua Unigroup endangered by rising tensions with Beijing
Taiwanese national security officials want to force Apple supplier Foxconn to unwind an $800mn investment in Chinese chip company Tsinghua Unigroup, as Taipei seeks to align itself more closely with the US in the face of escalating threats from Beijing.
The investment by Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and the biggest private-sector employer in China, was announced last month and made the group the second-largest shareholder in Tsinghua. But the deal put one of Taiwan’s biggest companies at the center of Beijing’s growing technology competition with the west.
“This will definitely not go through,” said a senior Taiwanese government official involved in national security issues.
The cabinet’s investment commission has yet to formally review the case, but officials from the president’s National Security Council and the Mainland Affairs Council, which implements China policy, believe the deal needs to be blocked, according to another person briefed on the matter.
Hon Hai, Foxconn’s Taiwan-listed entity, said on July 14 that it had acquired an indirect stake in Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding, the controlling shareholder of Tsinghua Unigroup.
The deal triggered warnings from the Taiwanese economy ministry’s investment commission that Foxconn could be fined up to NT$25mn ($832,000) because it had not submitted the transaction for prior approval.
Officials said the group was not believed to have violated other regulations, as the deal was below the ceiling for China investments that Taipei had set for Foxconn Industrial Internet, the company’s mainland-based subsidiary.
But national security officials have been brought in to review the case, according to officials familiar with the matter and people close to Foxconn — a procedure applied only to controversial investments with political or security implications.
“It is clear that now they have elevated this to the national security level, prospects are getting dim,” said one person close to the company. “With the soaring tension in the Taiwan Strait, this is looking even more difficult.”
Foxconn did not respond to a request for comment.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to take it by force if Taipei resists unification indefinitely. Beijing has driven home this threat over the past week with a series of unprecedented military exercises.
Analysts said the investment in Tsinghua Unigroup made sense for Foxconn, which has traditionally focused on the low-margin, labour-intensive assembly of electronics products such as smartphones and manufacturing, but is trying to strengthen its semiconductor business.
Young Liu, head of the semiconductor division who took over as Foxconn chair three years ago, has pledged to expand the unit to increase profit margins and secure chip supplies, especially for the group’s electronic vehicle business.
Although Tsinghua Unigroup had to let go of some manufacturing assets in a year-long debt restructuring process, the group is seen as a crucial asset in Beijing’s plan to wean itself off its dependency on chip imports.
“I think Tsinghua Unigroup is still very important,” said Douglas Fuller, an expert on Chinese industrial policy in the chip sector.
Unisoc, Tsinghua Unigroup’s chip design arm, is a crucial part of that endeavor.
“Obviously, this asset would bring to the table for Hon Hai some of the incremental capabilities that they do not possess,” said Patrick Chen, head of Taiwan research at CLSA, the brokerage.
But Taipei is concerned that the deal could lead to Foxconn bankrolling an acceleration in Beijing’s tech ambitions. Although the group is gradually diversifying its production lines beyond China, 75 per cent of its capacity is on the mainland and analysts said it would be extremely difficult for the company to divest.
“The solution is, therefore, that their China-based affiliates localise more and put the money they can’t get out into new assets on the mainland,” said a Taiwanese technology industry executive in China.
Officials believe such a development could weaken Taiwan economically and give China more leverage to pressure it into submitting to Beijing’s control. “How can we have one of our largest enterprises become a key backer of a policy which aims to reduce our position in global markets?” said one official.
The Taiwanese government is particularly concerned that Foxconn’s partner in the deal, the Chinese investment firm WiseRoad Capital, has close links to the government in Beijing.
Moreover, officials said Taiwan must be particularly careful not to be seen as helping China in its technology rivalry with the US.
“Especially now, as the Chips Act has been adopted, Washington is stepping up initiatives to strengthen semiconductor manufacturing onshore, and working with allies and partners to control the flow of technology to China, we have to be careful about where we stand,” one said, referring to a move by the Biden administration to boost the US’s chip making industry.
https://www.ft.com/content/866467a4-6627-4356-ac46-6ede989f3d66
Not buying anything made in China is probably the simplest way to fight China.
4 Likes
And a very difficult way to live.
1 Like
Still have them?
War is the difficult way to live. Picking something up and look at the label a dozens of times is kindergartners’ work.
2 Likes
False dichotomy is false.
Funding Putin or the CCP leads to war. Nothing false about that.
2 Likes
Not if going by labels. To be fair no one will check every single items full supply chain. I have no damnidea where the fossil fuel was extracted to make the plastic for my computer. but the computer is made in Taiwan.
We all know this is not exactly fully accurate. The point is continuing to buy not made in china on the label, and especially telling companies that is ones purpose of their purchase will absolutely sway the momentum. it took decades to get addicted to the heroin that is chinese cheap oppression. it may take decades to wean ourselves off of such disgraceful acts. That said, life is just fine not buying.made in china. there are options and I sleep better at night. if anything, life is better with less guilt. the never ending.struggle is getting.more and more guilt free.
I agree with consumers being the ones who can sway the momentum not only through purchasing patterns but also at the ballot box. Good examples of this are in the areas of toxics chemicals, sustainability and treatment of animals. Through laws like California’s Prop. 65 and the recent legislation in both New York and California around PFAS chemicals, companies are pressured to act before legislation is even passed.
2 Likes
I think many of us on this forum discussing fighting Chinas expansion and oppression are really discussing doing steps such as these. Coupled with talking with our government representatives. for me I think money changes things faster than policy, so I spend some time talking with B2B cooperations, or even when shopping spend time telling companies that we the customers want said products. as a person that manufactures for retail markets I can assure you companies listen to scale and want to make money. If they are told ABC is a no go and XYZ is all the rage, they change faster than any other entity. It may not be based on ethics, but it sure is easy and fast!
China relies on the super lazy, entitled, cheap and non caring sectors of society to get their string hold. I argue that can be changed.
1 Like
Since a good portion of people in Taiwan have been asking where is this thing made and then walk away when they hear it’s made in China, 2 things have so far changed in the stores:
- If it’s made in China, the label won’t say where it’s made.
- The English label would say it’s made in China, the Mandarin label would say it’s made elsewhere.
It means at least at the retail end, they are realizing this is a trend. If enough people do this, they will have to make the change at the manufacturing end.
Hmmm…hard for me not to be a little offended since I worked at one of those OEMs. Perhaps you are referring to work conditions. I can just say that the work conditions at our Chinese plants were far above those of local Chinese firms.
Most of the assembled products and incoming components are made by other companies…Apple would lose very little in terms of equipment.
The OEMs capable of doing the more sophisticated assemblies such as an iPhone are Taiwanese companies, and most of them probably carried over at least a portion of working standards from Taiwan.
In addition to Foxconn, which is bad not just for the working conditions, there are also Pegatron, which was formerly the manufacturing branch of ASUS, and Wistron, which was the manufacturing branch of ACER.
Some of them, especially Wistron, has been trying to set up new factories in India. I hope Pegatron would do the same and move out of China.
The key problem of leaving China is the supply chain for incoming components. The OEM/ODMs are doing mostly assembly work so hundreds of vendors/suppliers are needed. At my old company every manufacturing plant’s presentation material showed a map to describe how many vendors (related to what percentage of their incoming components) were located within 2 hours, 2 days, and 2 weeks of the plant. You are at a distinct disadvantage if you are trying to import a large percentage of your incoming components. (And in China industrial parks allow for tax free bonded warehouses…so no tax on incoming components which will be reshipped abroad.) Customers can and will change order quantities which is a big hassle when orders run into the millions.
Stores certainly do seem to be changing for sure. But if companies are hiding or changing data on labels, report them. That is illegal. What is harder to change is if say they screw on the doors and wire the plug of an appliance in Taiwan then they can probably legally justify made in Taiwan. That’s a trickier one.
@Flakman sorry. should of added the word some. Apple uses some OEM companies which are fucking trash too. Example given was Foxconn. Certainly not all are trash, but enough to make it a real problem.
1 Like
