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How Apple gave ‘the gift of fire’ to Chinese electronics firms

A new book explains how Apple’s obsession with sleek design and efficiency supercharged China’s electronics sector – and why decoupling may be impossible.

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An advertisement for Huawei Technologies Co. across from an Apple Inc. store in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Huawei announced the world's first commercial device with two folds, claiming leadership in mobile design just after Apple Inc. unveiled its latest iPhones. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

A new book explains how Apple’s obsession with sleek design and efficiency supercharged China’s electronics sector.

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

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It was Christmas 1998, and a secret commercial experiment was under way in an Apple facility in Ang Mo Kio.

A team of over 20 employees had just flown in. Over the next few months, they would toil six days a week, sometimes up to 15 hours a day, to master a single task: learning how to assemble Apple’s brightly coloured iMac, which came with a chunky cathode ray tube monitor imported from LG in South Korea.

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