Apple pledged $275 billion worth of investment into Communist China in return for the quashing of regulatory action against the computer and iPhone maker by the red, socialist giant, according to MacRumors.
“In an extensive paywalled report based on interviews and purported internal Apple documents, The Information revealed that Tim Cook personally forged a five-year agreement with the Chinese government during a series of in-person visits to the country in 2016,” wrote MacRumors.
The agreement, reported MacRumors, included promises to develop the most advanced technologies for China, train Chinese personnel in advanced technologies, use more components from Chinese manufacturers, directly invest in Chinese technology companies and assist with money for, more ominously, “around a dozen Chinese government causes”, whatever that might refer to.
Imagine if $275B had been invested in America. https://t.co/a1ihuyYUSo
— General Spalding (@robert_spalding) December 7, 2021
Prior to the secret agreement, Apple faced declining iPhone sales in China, according to The Hill.
“Today, Apple is the No. 1 cellphone maker in China,” reported The Hill. “The company makes billions of dollars in revenue in China and even set a record for quarterly revenue last June. Apple opened a new store in September in Changsha, and the company has been building research and development centers in China.”
In 2020, the Washington Post noted that Apple had lobbied against proposed U.S. provisions that would’ve punished Communist China for practicing slave labor in the country’s Xinjiang region against the Muslim Uyghur majority there.
“Apple lobbyists are trying to weaken a bill aimed at preventing forced labor in China,” reported the Post, “according to two congressional staffers familiar with the matter, highlighting the clash between its business imperatives and its official stance on human rights.”
However, China isn’t the only country that big technology is trying to buy off with cash payments to stave off regulatory action against them.
In a separate report, The Hill also said that tech executives have made substantial donations to politicians in the United States, even as Congress begins to look at anti-trust action against the big tech companies, including unprecedented donations to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“Google executives and its PAC donated nearly $92,000 to Schumer’s campaign in the second quarter of 2021,” reported The Hill. “Cisco Systems executives gave nearly $100,000. Apple executives gave $28,000. Executives at Microsoft, Cisco and Apple previously had not made large donations to Schumer through the first three months of the year.”
