Despite the increasing difficulties for foreign companies operating in China, Apple Inc. will build its first Asia-Pacific research and development center in the country, Chief Executive Tim Cook said Aug. 14.
The pledge comes after China’s industry and technology regulator in May told Apple that China could deepen its cooperation with the country in research and development and stressed information security. Given China’s record of engaging in massive intellectual-property theft and in cracking down on Internet freedom in China while its government engages in frequent cyberattacks against the United States, it’s unclear how beneficial the center will be to Apple, other U.S. technology companies or, indeed to U.S. and other Western nations’ national security in general.
The regime of President Xi Jinping may see the new Apple center as yet another way of undermining American technology superiority.
To read a Reuters story on the new center, please hit this link.