Why Apple is stuck in tariff fuss

Each iPhone comes with a label that tells you that it was designed in California.

While the smooth rectangle that manages many of our lives is really designed in the United States, it probably comes to life in thousands of miles in China: the country has been most affected by US President Donald Trump, which is now increasing to 245% of Chinese imports.

Apple sells more than 220 million iPhones a year and most estimates, nine out of 10 are manufactured in China. From glossy screens to battery, many components in the Apple product are produced, obtained and collected in iPad, iPad or MacBooks in China. Most go to the US, Apple’s largest market.

Fortunately for the firm, Trump suddenly released smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices of his tariffs last week.

But the comfort is not long.

Since then, the president has suggested that there were more tariffs: “Nobody leaves the hook,” he wrote about the social truth when his administration was investigating “semiconductors and the whole network of electronics supplies.”

The global supply chain that Apple has posted as force is now vulnerable.

The US and China, the two largest economies in the world, are interdependent, and the staggering tariffs of Trump made this relationship over the night, which led to the inevitable question: who is more dependent on them?

China has been of great benefit to the hosting lines for one of the most valuable companies in the world. It was a call to the West for quality production and helped to push local innovations.

Apple entered China in the 1990s to sell computers through other manufacturers suppliers.

Approximately in 1997, when he was on the bankruptcy border when he fought for competition with competitors, Apple found a lifeline in China. The young Chinese economy was opened for foreign companies to increase production and create more jobs.

And only in 2001, Apple officially arrived in China, through a trading company based in Shanghai and began producing products in the country. He collaborated with Foxconn, Taiwanese electronic manufacturer working in China to create an iPod, then IMAC and after iPhones.

When Beijing started trading with the world, the US is not less encouraged – Apple has grown its mark in what has become a world factory.

Then China was not prepared to create an iPhone. But Apple chose her own suppliers’ crop and helped them grow into a “superstar production”, according to the supply chain by Lin Suping.

It refers to the example of Beijing Jingdiao, which is now the leading manufacturer of high -speed accurate equipment used to effectively make advanced components. The company that used acrylic was not considered as a manufacturer of machines – but eventually developed machines to cut a glass and table a “star of Apple’s surface processing,” says Mr. Lin.

Apple opened its first store in the country in Beijing in 2008, in the year when the city held the Olympics and China’s relations with the West were all times. Soon it was snowing up to 50 shops, and customers are in line with the door.

As Apple’s profit grows in China, and Foxconn works the world’s largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, which has since been called “iPhone City”.

For fast -growing China, Apple has become a symbol of advanced Western technologies – simple but original and smooth.

Today, most Apple iPhones are produced by Foxconn. Extended chips they are made by Taiwan, the world’s largest chips in TSMC. Production also requires rare land elements used in audio supply and cameras.

According to the Nikkei ASIA analysis, about 150 of the best 187 Apple suppliers in 2024 had factories in China.

“There is no supply network that is more important to us than China in the world,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview in an interview last year.

In Trump’s first termApple ensured the release from the tariffs he imposed on China.

But this time the Trump administration made an example Apple before it changed the tariffs to some electronics. He believes that the threat of steep taxes will encourage businesses instead in America.

“The army of millions and millions of people who are screwed up with small screws to make iPhones – such things will come to America,” Minister of Trade Lutnik said in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview in an interview.

White House press secretary Caroline Levita once again confirmed that last week, “President Trump made it clear that America could not rely on China to produce critical technologies such as semiconductor, chips, smartphones and laptops.”

She added: “According to the president, these companies seek to move to the US production as soon as possible.”

But many are skeptical of it.

According to Eli Friedman that Apple could undergo its assembly operation in the US, “Pure Fantasy”, which was previously sitting in the Academic Advisory Board of the firm.

Mr. Friedman said the company was talking about diversification of its supply chain from China since 2013 when it has entered the council – but the US has never been an option.

He added that Apple has not made great progress over the next decade but “really made effort” after a pandemic when Chinese tightly controlled closed closure harm production production.

“The most important new places for the Assembly were Vietnam and India. But, of course, most apple assembly is still happening (in China).”

Apple did not answer BBC questions But his web -sight talks about his supply chain It covers “thousands of enterprises and more than 50 countries”.

Any Apple supply chain change will be a big blow for China trying to make growth after a pandemic.

Many of the reasons that the country wanted to become a production center for Western companies in the early 2000s Ring True – it creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and gives the country a decisive advantage in world trade.

“Apple is sitting on the intersection of US-China tensions, and tariffs emphasize the cost of this impact,” says Jigar Dixite, supply consultant and operation.

This may explain why China has not bowed to Trump’s threats by recovering from 125% of US import levies. China also imposed export control on a number of important minerals and magnets in the stores, striking the US.

Undoubtedly, the US tariffs are still being charged in other Chinese sectors.

And it’s not just Beijing, which is facing higher tariffs – Trump has made it clear that he would be focused on the Chinese supply chain. For example, Vietnam, where Apple has moved to AirPods production, threatens 46% of tariffs before Trump hit a pause for 90 days, so the transfer of production elsewhere is not a simple way out.

“All possible places for huge foxconn assembly areas with tens or hundreds of thousands of workers are in Asia, and all these countries face higher tariffs,” Mr. Friedman said.

So what does Apple do now?

The company struggles with fierce competition from Chinese firms when the government pushes for advanced technology in the US race.

Now that “Apple has grown electronic production capabilities in China, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and others can re -use mature Apple supply chains,” Mr. Lin said.

Last year, Apple lost its place as the largest China Seller Huawei and Vivo. The Chinese do not spend enough because of the sluggish economy and with the ban on chat, banned in China, Apple also struggles to keep the edge among buyers looking for phones working on AI. It even offered rare discounts on iPhones in January to increase sales.

And during work, with more closely adhesion Xi Jinping, Apple had Limit Use Bluetooth and Airdrop On its devices, when the Communist Party of China sought to censor political messages that people shared. This has withstood repression in the technological field that even Touched the founder Alibaba and the multimillion -dollar jack ma.

Apple has announced investment in the US (£ 378 billion) in the US, although this may not be enough to reassure the Trump administration for a long time.

Given a few turns and uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs, more unexpected fees are expected – which can leave the company again with a small maneuver and even less time.

Mr -n Dixit says that the tariffs on the smartphone will not cripple Apple if they reject their heads again, but no matter “pressure – both promptly and politically” in a supply chain that cannot quickly rip.

“Obviously, the burden of the direct crisis was reduced,” says Mr. Friedman, citing the release from last week for smartphones.

“But I really don’t think it means Apple can relax.”

Additional Fan Wang Report