Apple in China

Apple in China^[1] is a 2025 book by Patrick McGee^[2][3][4] (Financial Times reporter^[5] from 2013 to 2023^[6]), about how Apple Inc. invested in China in order to build iPhones and other technology, and by doing so helped China become more competitive. In the book, McGee says that under Tim Cook Apple invested $275 billion over five years from 2016. McGee compares this to the Marshall Plan as this is in excess of other corporate spending. McGee says the Marshall Plan was about half Apple's investment, in real terms.^{[7][8][9][10]}

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

Cover art
Author	Patrick McGee
Language	English
Publisher	Scribner (USA)
Publication date	13 May 2025
Publication place	USA
Pages	448 (first edition)
ISBN	978-1-668-05337-9

Reviews

In her May 15, 2025 review for The New York Times, Hannah Beech called Apple in China “smart and comprehensive,” praising Patrick McGee’s clever and chronologically organized timeline of how Apple’s expansion to China manufacturing facilities under then COO Tim Cook created a global success but also an “existential vulnerability” for the United States. She states in the review that the book author argues “China wouldn’t be China today without Apple”.^[7]

In his May 13, 2025, Daily Telegraph review, Tom Knowles gives Apple in China four out of five stars, calling it an “eye-opening exposé” of the “lucrative relationship stained by manipulation, violence and abuse” between Apple and China’s authoritarian regime.^[11]

In his May 20, 2025, review for The China Academy, Chen Jing, a manufacturing observer, argues the story is “greatly exaggerated,” challenging the claim that Apple single-handedly empowered China. He disputes the $55 billion annual investment figure as overstated and questions the Marshall Plan comparison, suggesting a Western bias that credits American companies for China’s rise while ignoring its internal capabilities.^[12]