It's a $2.2 trillion dollar company with $200 billion in cash. They can easily afford to do the right thing. If they offered a private device and said to all governments "take it or leave it" then those governments would answer only to their people if they banned the device.
Of course, name one public corporation that would leave a little cash on the table, ever, to do the right thing.
I think China has some extra leverage to deploy here: China can respond "We leave it. Oh, one more thing: our domestic market is off limits to you. Pray we don't alter the deal further by kicking your manufacturing out too."
Kicking out Apple manufactoring won’t happen, because it’s actually dangerous to Chinese manufactoring. Apple is currently one of the only companies who could deal with being banned in China. It won’t be cheap or easy, but Apple could move manufactoring. They already have a deal with an Indian company who makes older iPhones for the indian market.
Apple is also one of the few companies who can either absorb the additional cost or even pass it on to customers.
But IF Apple was to move manufactoring it would set a dangerous precedence for other companies and potentially start a supply chain completely outside China.
> Kicking out Apple manufactoring won’t happen [...] it would set a dangerous precedence
Ah, but if you don't care about setting a public example, you can punish them in more subtle ways.
The traditional trick in corrupt countries is to have a bunch rules that aren't enforced and everyone breaks all the time - then if the leaders decide they don't like you they just start enforcing the rules on you.
A corrupt regime would simply announce they were shocked - shocked! - to find parts of Apple's Chinese supply chain had low environmental standards.
You're assuming the shareholders would support such decision.
Keep in mind there's a legal mandate for public traded companies to increase share holders value. It's grey-ish legal requirement but I don't think the executive management wants to risk the legal consequences of doing the right thing.
Edit: it's shareholders and not stakeholders that matter.
> Keep in mind there's a legal mandate for public traded companies to increase share holders value. It's grey-ish legal requirement but I don't think the executive management wants to risk the legal consequences of doing the right thing.
What are the legal consequences? I keep reading about these mysterious laws that require management to maximize shareholder value or profits or whatnot, but I’ve never heard of a court punishing management for not doing so (never mind the fact that it’s impossible to define and prove per legal standards).
If Apple was kicked out of China, leaving them with no Chinese manufacturing... ? In that case the shareholders have no option, it's either that or sell no new devices.
If you mean that the shareholders would rather please the Chinese government, rather than risk getting kicked out of China, then yes, I think Apple would go a long way to not piss off China.
You can make an argument that it increases shareholder value long term because if China increases human rights, it increases the shareholder value of the world in monetary terms because people will be better off.
Exactly. Whether a major corporation technically could do ”the right thing” at the expense of their own bottom line is a moot point, and it’d take a fundamental shift in our society for that to change. Rather, getting them to act in a way that’s beneficial to as many people as possible is a matter of economic incentives and regulation.
Google completely pulled out of China and practically all their products are banned & blocked in China as a result. Although considering most people don't even mention it and are happy to excuse companies like Apple, it's more of an example of how utterly meaningless it is for a company to do something like this. I'm sure Google, Apple, and their competitors will never repeat this mistake again.
Of course, name one public corporation that would leave a little cash on the table, ever, to do the right thing.