Apple, Foxconn, and the Future of "Made in China"
While China is known to many as one of the world's last-standing communist nations, its fast-paced manufacturing cities have quickly become a unique example of makeshift communal capitalism. But what does that mean for the future of Apple-- America's leading designer and seller of creative consumer electronics?
An Apple factory run by Foxconn in Longhua, Shenzhen, China.
At the turn of the previous century, the United States was an industrialized superpower. Our industrial revolution, flawed as it may have been, set us leagues ahead of other Western nations in terms of GDP, number of jobs, and ultimately, American innovation.
Between 1890-1945, Americans invented the stop sign, the world's first tabulating computer, smoke detectors, the zipper, the tractor, and many other concepts now considered to be staples of modern society around the world. Now, the fabrication of all our best creations is being outsourced to places like China.
But can China's massive population of hard workers make up for its lack of original innovations? Or will its status as the world's assembly-line (also an American creation) be its downfall?
Thousands of years ago, Chinese empires were responsible for creating many of the objects we take for granted, like alcoholic beverages, bells, wooden coffins, noodles, grain cultivation, and even the fork. In the hundreds of years including and following the Shang dynasty, the Chinese invented thousands of essential items and concepts that spread like wildfire with the evolution of civilization. You can read the list here, but it may require more than one sitting to take it all in. There is no other civilization on Earth responsible for more important innovations.
This was, of course, before the creation of the Chinese Communist Party (1921), and its takeover in 1949. China's communist takeover had many lasting effects, such as the abandonment of great Chinese innovators like Min Chiu Li. Li moved to the United States shortly after the takeover, and proceeded to craft the first chemotherapy cure for a solid cancer in 1956.
Because of the staggering poverty created by decades of Chinese communism, citizens are abandoning their families' lands for factory cities, which provide housing, meals, and training for steady jobs in manufacturing goods for export.
Many such factory cities are run by Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturing firm which operates in 13 cities in mainland China, providing low-cost manufacturing options to capitalist technology companies like Apple. Its largest operation is in Longhua, Shenzhen, which employes hundreds of thousands of workers in its 15 factories.
If you've purchased an iPhone or iPad before this year, there's a good chance it came from Shenzhen. Foxconn made headlines several years ago for allegations that its poor working conditions had led to more than a dozen worker suicides, prompting Apple to send investigators from the Fair Labor Association to quell bad publicity.
2011: Chinese activists in Hong Kong protest Foxconn's alleged mistreatment of workers
So what became of the Foxconn controversy? Tim Cook visited a Foxconn plant in early 2012 to witness the conditions for himself, but in early 2013, Apple made the decision to shift half of its device manufacturing from Foxconn-owned factories to those owned by Pegatron Corp-- another Taiwanese manufacturing company. (It's worth noting that after the communist takeover in 1949, the Chinese republican party moved to neighboring Taiwan, which evaded China's fall to communism and allowed for the formation of capitalist corporations like Foxconn and Pegatron.)
For now, China's communist social policies have forced the nation into the role of employees-of-the-rest-of-the-world, and there's no evidence implying that China will become its own boss anytime soon. Can that system create a sustainable future for Western countries increasing their dependence on China's economic infiltration by Taiwan? Or will human rights triumph as China's citizens demand increased global respect and wages? Only time will tell, but history may provide a clue.
It may be prudent for Apple to move its manufacturing jobs back home, if only for the sake of its continued proliferation in a constantly-shifting world market.
Communism is a historically-proven bad investment, and potential exploitation of a people suffering under a corrupt communist leadership is, at the very best, incredibly risky. The future of American innovation depends on a wisely-crafted manufacturing strategy, and clearly, we still have a lot to learn.
