TrendMacro conversation with Patrick McGee: How Apple made China great -- and then became its hostage

Apple went from near-bankruptcy 30 years ago to the world's most valuable company by outsourcing production to China, the only nation with sufficient labor capacity -- and a friendly government willing to fund growth -- that could have possibly delivered in scale. This could not have been done without financial commitments by Apple on a nation-building scale that dwarfs the Marshall Plan, nor, more important, without decades of extensive hands-on training and development by Apple's engineers. Apple's obsessions with innovation, quality and control -- and its need for scale -- taught China how to be the world's dominant manufacturing center. Apple is left with all its manufacturing eggs in one basket -- and an enormous retail consumer base in that same basket. It is at risk from the increasingly authoritarian whims of Xi's China. On the other hand, China is dependent on Apple for millions of jobs. That's a fragile equilibrium, but it seems to be holding steady. The subtler but more consequential risk is competition from Chinese technology firms such as Huawei and Xiaomi who are, in some dimensions, out-innovating Apple and using the Chinese manufacturing base that Apple did so much to build.