Did Apple’s Rise Fuel China’s Fight for Tech Supremacy? With Patrick McGee

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Sorenti. Apple is the world's most valuable company and creator of the 21st century's defining product. But back in 1996, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Apple turned to outsourcing, and in 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour.

As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple's fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising and supplying Chinese manufacturers, skills that Beijing is now weaponizing against the West. Our guest today is journalist Patrick McGee, whose new book Apple in China draws on over 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how the choice to anchor the company's supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime's. whims. Patrick is joined by Carl Miller to go beyond the biographies of Apple's top executives and set the iPhone's global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context. Let's join Carl now with more.

Hello and welcome everyone to this Intelligence Squared podcast with me, Carl Miller. I'm delighted to introduce our guest today, Patrick McGee. Patrick is at the Financial Times. He was the principal Apple reporter there from 2019 to 2023, is the San Francisco correspondent, and he's also the author of Apple in China, the capture of the world's greatest company. Patrick, very warm welcome to you.

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