Since entering the mainland market in the early 90s of the last century, Foxconn has started the road of "hurricane" all the way, and in just over ten years, it has transformed from a "small workshop" to the world's top electronic foundry. Behind this is the dividends given by the state, the support of policies, as well as the advantages of the mainland's cheap and high-quality huge labor scale and perfect supply chain system.
However, after "eating and drinking", Guo Taiming was not grateful, but directly "flipped the table" and openly shouted that they were "appreciating food" for the mainland all these years. The fundamental reason why Guo Taiming has no fear and dares to argue with the mainland is that it has the support of the United States, and behind it stands Apple, the "financier" with a market value of $3 trillion.
Apple and the mainland have always been mutually reinforcing, highly dependent on China's well-established manufacturing system and huge consumer market, while also creating a large number of jobs for the mainland. But with the U.S. launching wide-ranging sanctions on hardcore Chinese tech companies such as Huawei, Apple's relationship with the mainland has become delicate.
Due to the continuous decline in iPhone sales in the mainland, Cook has visited the mainland three times since last year, and each time he has publicly said that Apple cannot do without the Chinese market and will continue to increase investment in the future. However, Apple's move to transfer its industrial chain from the mainland to Southeast Asia has never stopped.
Not long ago, Cook and other Apple executives started a trip to Vietnam and made a promise to expand their investment in the Vietnamese market again. In addition, according to Apple's official statement, since 2019, it has invested about $16 billion in Vietnam in the past five years through its supply chain partners!
It is worth mentioning that 2019 is the node of Huawei's sanctions by the United States, and Apple's statement undoubtedly confirms a speculation from the outside world that Cook's original intention to transfer the industrial chain is not only to reduce costs and improve profits, but also to reduce dependence on mainland manufacturing and prevent it from being countered one day.
According to some data, after Apple "increased" the Vietnamese market, the number of employees in the local electronics foundry industry has skyrocketed from 400,000 to 1.6 million! and the Indian market, in the past 10 years, Apple's number of local foundries has increased by 400%. This means that Apple's move to transfer the industrial chain has caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the mainland market.
In order to keep up with Apple's footsteps, foundries such as Foxconn and Pegatron have also built factories in India on a large scale in recent years. According to Bloomberg, the total value of iPhones assembled by Apple in India in 2023 is as high as $14 billion, and the scale of production capacity has increased by 100% year-on-year, accounting for 14% of the global total. In addition, Apple also plans to increase iPhone production in the Indian market by five times in five years, aiming to build Southeast Asia into a new "world factory" to replace the Chinese market.
In fact, not only Apple, but also another American giant, Tesla, has also been transferring the industrial chain in recent years. Just recently, Tesla suddenly set off a "wave of layoffs" around the world, and the scale of layoffs is expected to reach 14,000 people, especially in the mainland market, and the proportion of layoffs may be between 20%-40%!
You must know that when Tesla encountered a production capacity crisis, it was the Shanghai Gigafactory that solved its urgent need and helped it reach the top of the new energy vehicle track in one fell swoop, but now it is going to abandon the mainland market. In contrast, Musk is "eye-catching" with the Indian market, and plans to invest more than $2 billion to expand the scale of the local factory, which can be described as a "big deal".
Regarding such a situation, many foreign media have said: I don't plan to turn back. So the question is, with the collective withdrawal of these American giants, will China's manufacturing industry be affected, and will there be a large-scale wave of unemployment?
The answer is clearly no. The reason is clear, whether it is smartphones, new energy vehicles or many other key areas, China has long been different, and the reason why these American giants have shifted their industrial chains and laid off employees is not only affected by external environmental factors, but also related to the continuous decline in their sales.
In terms of smartphones, Huawei has made a strong comeback and has driven the development of a large number of domestic suppliers, such as OFILM, Zhuosheng Micro, Maijie Technology, etc., plus the rising Xiaomi and other friends, these outstanding Chinese enterprises have joined hands to promote the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry.
In the "track" of new energy vehicles, BYD's monthly sales exceeded 300,000 units in March, far ahead of the industry, and traditional car companies such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, and Ideal jointly built a "moat" for China's auto industry. At the same time, new forces such as Huawei and Xiaomi are bringing new vitality to the domestic car circle, and the deep integration of technology and automobiles has doubled the strength of domestic cars, regardless of experience, configuration or intelligent ecology, which is not inferior to Tesla and other foreign car giants.
As the saying goes, "it's going to rain and my mother is going to get married", since these American companies choose to "evacuate", let it go. The share vacated by them will be quickly filled by domestic manufacturers. The rise of China's science and technology is the trend of the times, no one can stop it, and any form of intervention is futile!