Patrick McGee suggests that Apple is so deeply entangled with China that decoupling is impossible, a situation that has enormous political implications.
by Massimo Introvigne
Journalist Patrick McGee has published an alarming book called “Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company” (New York: Scribner, 2025). The book goes beyond business and explains why no one in the United States and elsewhere will confront China on its crimes against humanity (an expression used by the usually cautious United Nations about Xinjiang), despite the generous efforts of human rights activists.
If “the world’s greatest company,” Apple, and many others find themselves in a situation where they cannot continue to operate without China, it is unlikely that politicians would risk sinking the boat of global business for the sake of human rights.
McGee provides figures to confirm this. In 2016, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, traveled to Beijing to unveil a plan that included investments of $275 billion in China over five years. When adjusted for inflation, the post-World War II Marshall Plan devised by the US government to rebuild Europe amounted to only half of this figure.
There is more. It is not only that Apple decided to concentrate production in China because the labor cost is lower there than anywhere else. Apple willingly supplied the Chinese with cutting-edge technology, fully aware that China would use it for several other projects beyond its cooperation with the company from California.
Xi Jinping’s “Made in China 2025” project aims to make Chinese industry largely independent from the West. McGee describes Apple as “the single biggest supporter” of Xi’s project. The journalist notes that Apple is also willing to cooperate with the Chinese government in activities such as limiting VPN access or restricting AirDrop usage for Chinese users.
There are, of course, ethical implications. Apple walks a tightrope between economic pragmatism and moral accountability. The company has thrived due to China’s industrial prowess, but McGee suggests that Apple’s deep dependence on Chinese manufacturing puts it in an uncomfortable position, especially as geopolitical tensions rise.
The book raises a crucial question: Can Apple truly decouple from China? The company has moved to diversify production by investing in India and Vietnam; yet China’s well-established supply chain remains indispensable. If Apple shifts too much of its operations away from China, it risks disrupting its business and increasing costs. It can no longer afford this, especially with increasingly aggressive competition—including from Chinese companies that it allowed to copy its technology.
While Apple is a trillion-dollar company, McGee argues it no longer calls the shots. Beijing has significant leverage, as evidenced by Apple’s compliance with censorship policies and app removals to maintain access to the Chinese market. Given Apple’s size, the question is how much its entanglement with China will influence U.S. attitudes towards the Beijing regime.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
