Breaking up is hard to do. Just ask Apple. The iPhone maker has been trying to reduce its dependence on China, its third most important market and the place where most of its products are assembled. It has already shifted the production of some of its products to Vietnam and India after coronavirus-related lockdowns caused massive supply chain disruption during the pandemic.
Yet the reality is the US’s most valuable company remains overwhelmingly reliant on the Asian country. Beijing’s insistence on sticking to its zero-Covid policy means Apple’s problems in China risk becoming a recurring feature.
Video footage of workers from Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers, scaling fences to escape the factory that they worked in — prison-break style — offers a timely and vivid reminder of this.