Apple in China

The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

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Apple in China

By: Patrick McGee

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

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About this listen

*** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ***

* WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2025 FOR BUSINESS REPORTING *

What if the greatest business success story of the twenty-first century was hiding the West’s gravest mistake?

For two decades, Apple poured billions into China, training millions of workers and building the most advanced supply and manufacturing system in history. But those same investments transferred knowledge, skills and power, handing China the tools to challenge America’s dominance and putting Apple in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers.

Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, Patrick McGee’s gripping exposé reveals Apple’s vulnerability for the first time – and shows how one company’s triumph inadvertently reshaped the global balance of power.

‘Devastatingly clear’ New York Times

‘Scrupulously reported’ New Yorker

‘Absolutely riveting’ Peter Frankopan

‘Disturbing and enlightening’ Chris Miller

'This is the best book about Apple ever written’ Ben Thompson, Stratechery

Economic History

Economics

History

History & Culture

China

War

Technology

Critic Reviews

'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)

‘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 of the trillion-dollar company’s uncomfortably close relationship with the global power . . . what began as a feat of manufacturing has troubling consequences for the entire world’

‘An eye-opening exposé . . . Apple is notoriously secretive, but McGee proffers dozens of first-hand accounts of how the company essentially bumbled its way into becoming hooked on China . . . As an insight into how this odd couple became so entwined – in Apple’s manufacturing and engineering processes, design secrets, business partnerships and a large chunk of its sales – Apple in China is astonishing. Let’s hope for Apple’s sake that Donald Trump doesn’t read this book’

‘Explains how Apple became inseparable from China and what the fracturing of global trade means for one of the world’s most valuable companies . . . Mr McGee excels at describing the intricacies of supply chains . . . his timely book poses a question for investors and policymakers alike: can the company thrive without China? If the answer is no, then a failure to end the trade war will bruise Apple even more deeply than the global economy’

‘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’

‘This book is totemic and important, and hits the shelves just as the United States and China teeter on the brink of a trade war. Nothing joins the American and Chinese economies so profoundly as Apple. It may well be that Cook and Apple steer the world through these troubled waters. Or it might be that Apple is sunk by them. We all know that manufacturing, logistics and supply chains are important. McGee has managed to make them thrilling as well’

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Excellent story, brilliantly detailed with insights into a fascinating jurney. I've got halfway and will finish a digital copy of the book, I can't handle the narrator anymore. Monotonous and robotic with bizarre lack of inflection and a grating tone. If I wanted you to sound like AI I'd have put a digital copy through a reader... Shame as the book is great but I won't be recommending this to anyone