Catherine Raynes: Apple in China and The Good Father

Apple in China by Patrick McGee  

After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. Soon it was sending thousands of engineers across the Pacific, training millions of workers, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create the world’s most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century’s most iconic products—in staggering volume and for enormous profit. 
 
Without explicitly intending to, Apple built an advanced electronics industry within China, only to discover that its massive investments in technology upgrades had inadvertently given Beijing a power that could be weaponized. 
 
In Apple in China, journalist Patrick McGee draws on more than two hundred interviews with former executives and engineers, supplementing their stories with unreported meetings held by Steve Jobs, emails between top executives, and internal memos regarding threats from Chinese competition. The book highlights the unknown characters who were instrumental in Apple’s ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the “Gang of Eight” executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino’s operational demands and Xi Jinping’s war on civil society. 
 
Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised “rebels” and “troublemakers”—the company that encouraged us all to “Think Different”—devolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate. 

  

The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney  

Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with successful fulfilling lives. A son they adore, a house on the beach, a safe, friendly and honest community in a picture-postcard town on the Ayrshire coast. Until one day Bonnie the lab comes in from the beach alone. Their son Rory has just gone - the only trace left is a single black Adidas slider.  

Their lives don't fall apart immediately - while there's still hope (and no body) they can dig deep and try to carry on. Rather it's a process of abrasion, a wearing away of that happiness and normality; a slow degradation, a gradual breakdown - until they'll never be the people they were before. This sort of tragedy impacts a whole town - does the community still feel the same after? What are folk saying about you? Who are your friends? Who can you trust? When the worst thing has happened and you've lost everything, you either go under or you rebuild, start again. What could be worse than your child disappearing? 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to get our book picks for this weekend, and
Catherine Rains, our book reviewer, is here with her two
reading recommendations. Calder Catherine, Good morning, Jack. Okay, let's begin
with Apple and China by Patrick McGee.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
So Patrick McGee is a Financial Times journalist, and he's
looked into Apple and their development and their design and
manufacturing and their relationships and supply chain within China, which
also happens to be the company's second largest consumer market.
And he sort of chats under the leadership of both
Steve Jobs and Tom sorry Tom Cook over the last

(00:49):
two decades, and they've poured hundreds of billions of dollars
into the Chinese market over numerous years. And the book
starts actually in Consumer Day in twenty thirteen, where the
Chinese state television criticized Apple for supposedly tread tree and
Chinese consumers poorly. And our president g had been a

(01:11):
president for thirty six hours when the state sponsors at
media happened about Apple, and then you know, three weeks later,
Tim Cook is she's an apology and mannerin on Apple's
China TV, and it's just a really interesting start to
the book as it kind of builds behind, you know,
using China as a production base and selling iPhones and
this you know, cultural or lack of cultural understanding about China,

(01:35):
and they kind of almost as he describes it, sleeps
warp seat walked into this and about leveraging their cheap
labor and their poor rule of law, and you know,
the extraordinary economies of scale that come with China. And
Apple had worked with partners before, but then they start
working with Taiwan and China, and they end up creating
the electronics manufacturing giant now of fox Con, who could basically,

(01:58):
in their terms, turn fields into factories within months. And
Chinese firms offered Apple whatever they want, and it was
about the value of working with Apple and learning, and
it's just it's really interesting the way that Apple's sort
of reliance on China makes it kind of turn a
blind eye to all sorts of things. And then of
course there's chance trade wars simmering in the background, and

(02:19):
Apple finds themselves right smack in the middle of this
again after spending what Patrick McGee claims to be two
hundred and seventy five billion dollars in China. So yeah,
in that transerver's knowledge, it's just a very interesting look
at a big consumer company.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Honestly, this is this sounds like if any family member
of mine is listening right now, this sounds like a
fantastic birthday option for me. So interesting because it kind
of has the just the you know kind of it's
an amazing lens through which to view the changing kind
of geopolitical dynamics in the world day. Like you said,
you learn so much from Apple's moves, but also Apple's

(02:59):
experience in China. It's yeah, I think it sounds absolutely fascinating.
So that Apple very well. Yeah by by Patrick McGee
very good. Next up, something completely different, The Good Father
by Leah McElvaney.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
So this starts as a very ordinary August day and
it destroys the lives of Gordon and Sarah Rudford. And
it's late summer on the west coast of Scotland and
their seven year old young boy Rory, is enjoying the
beach outside the family home with their dog Bonnie, and
then Bonnie comes home alone and Gordon and Sarah look
down the beach and they can't find any sign of them,

(03:33):
and a police accord, and there's questions and extentsive searches
and more questions, and then hours pass and days and months.
So the story is about this relationship in real termal
when Gordon and Sarah attempt to deal with the consequences
of Rory's disappearance and about being parents and husband and wife,
and they're both grappling with what could be worse than

(03:54):
your child disappearing and replaying this what was a really
ordinary day where Rory had done something he often did,
which was playing near their house with their dog, and
they felt like they lived in a safe community and
their small town always returned home, and so they have
that guilt and fear, and of course the gossip and
what their neighbors are thinking, and they're just left in

(04:15):
this complete limbo of uncertainty and waiting and wandering along
with these very strained relationships with people, including the police,
as they're searching for Rorri and they just can't find
the answers to their questions. And I'm not understan anymore
because I will destroy the story book, really really good
crime novel about family life and loss and the emotions

(04:35):
and twists and turns that will keep you hooked to
the very end.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Superb Okay, great little recommendation, then, thank you so much.
Kas and That's the Good Father by Liam mcelvaaney. Apple
and China by Patrick McGee is Catherine's first pick for
us this weekend. Both of those will of course be
on the News Talk's 'DB website for.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
Newstalks 'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.