Book Review:
Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
by Patrick McGee
May 13, 2025
Publisher: Scribner

Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
by Patrick McGee

“Phenomenal…a jaw-dropping book.” —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Named by both the New York Times and the Economist as one of the best books of the year so far, this “scrupulously reported” (The New Yorker) and “astonishing” (The Daily Telegraph, London) book rivets with its portrayal of how Apple allowed itself to become dependent on China for a huge percentage of its manufacturing, making it vulnerable and unwittingly laying the groundwork for the Asian superpower to rival the US in technological expertise.

After struggling to build products on three continents, Apple turned to China’s seemingly endless supply of cheap labor. It soon deployed thousands of engineers, trained millions of workers, and invested hundreds of billions of dollars to create the most advanced global supply chain. These efforts fueled the iPhone’s dominance—but also laid the foundation for a powerful, state-supported Chinese electronics industry. What began as a business decision evolved into a cautionary tale of global trade, tech rivalry, and national security.

Without intending to, Apple helped Beijing acquire technological influence that could now be weaponized—a central concern in the ongoing US-China tech war. Drawing on over two hundred interviews, Patrick McGee exposes never-before-reported details from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: internal emails, secretive executive meetings, and overlooked voices inside the company’s China operations.

You’ll meet the “Gang of Eight” executives tasked with appeasing Beijing, a Mormon missionary who launched Apple retail in China, and a veteran whose dreams of improving factory conditions were crushed by both Apple’s demands and Xi Jinping’s authoritarian crackdown. From Foxconn and Tim Cook to the Chinese Communist Party and Taiwan Semiconductor, this is a revelatory look at how Apple, in seeking efficiency, became entangled in the very politics it once claimed to challenge.

For readers of Chip War, American Factory, and The Big Short, Apple in China is a searing examination of corporate power, Chinese nationalism, deglobalization, and the fragile relationship between Silicon Valley and the world’s rising superpower.

Indigo / Amazon

“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, Stratechery

“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.”
—New York Times

“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.”
—Vanity Fair

“An eye-opening exposé … [which] chronicles a lucrative relationship stained by manipulation, violence and abuse.”
—The Telegraph (UK)

“A riveting account of how Apple came to depend on Chinese suppliers for most of its products… [Apple’s] history holds important lessons for the two economies—and for other big manufacturers like Tesla.”
—Reuters Breakingviews

“Timely… McGee excels at describing the intricacies of supply chains… explains how Apple became inseparable from China and what the fracturing of global trade means for one of the world’s most valuable companies.”
—The Economist

“To call this book a page-turner is almost to diminish its importance. It is a once-in-a-generation read.”
—Robert D. Kaplan, author of the New York Times bestseller The Revenge of Geography and Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis

“Deeply researched, disturbing, and enlightening…In these pages we watch as the world's most profitable company gets outmaneuvered by the world's most powerful dictator.”
—Chris Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War

“In this hugely important new book, Patrick McGee shows us how Apple's quest for wealth and power in China may in the end be the undoing both of the company and of America's quest for technology supremacy.”
—Rana Foroohar, Financial Times Global Business Columnist, CNN Global Economic Analyst, and author of Makers and Takers

“Absolutely riveting. An extraordinary story, expertly told—and one that has important implications for Apple, for tech, and for global geoeconomics.”
—Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford and bestselling author of The Silk Roads

See also:

Apple in China as reviewed by Kirkus Reviews - May 15, 2025

Apple in China as reviewed by Elizabeth Economy for Foreign Affairs - November / December 2025.

Why Apple can make iPhones only in China, and what Canada can learn from that by John Turley-Ewart for The Globe and Mail - June 2, 2025

Apple in China as reviewed by Hannah Beech for The New York Times - May 15, 2025.

About the book:
Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
by Patrick McGee
Scribner - 448 pages $23.95 (Kindle)
Publication Date: May 13, 2025

About the Author: Patrick McGee

Business journalist Patrick McGee has written for the Financial Times since 2013, reporting from Hong Kong, Germany, and California.

He led the FT’s Apple coverage from 2019 to 2023 and won a San Francisco Press Club Award — best tech article for a newspaper, 2023 — for his deep dive into Apple’s HR problems. His FT magazine cover article, "Inside Peloton's epic run of bungled calls and bad luck," received an Honorable Mention for SABEW's Best in Business Awards, 2022 (co-authored with Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson).

Patrick's focus over the past decade has been on Apple, digital advertising, robotaxis, electric vehicles, the Volkswagen diesel scandal, and connected fitness. His writing has appeared in the Times of London, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Irish Times, The Straits Times and The Toronto Star.

Previously, he was a bond reporter at The Wall Street Journal in New York.

He has a Master’s in global diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, and a degree in religious studies from the University of Toronto. Originally from Calgary, Canada, he resides in the Bay Area.
Biography Credit: Patrick-McGee.com

À propos du livre :
Apple en Chine : la conquête de la plus grande entreprise au monde
par Patrick McGee
Scribner - 448 pages 23,95 $ (Kindle)
Date de publication : 13 mai 2025

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Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee

December 28, 2025 9:20 AM | Anonymous

Book Review: Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee May 13, 2025 Publisher: Scribner

Book Review:
Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
by Patrick McGee
May 13, 2025
Publisher: Scribner