As worldwide discourses about lowering reliance on Chinese production become more vocal, an old video with Apple CEO Tim Cook surfaced online yesterday providing new insight into why Apple still bases much of its production on China’s manufacturing.
In the video, which has gone viral on social media, Cook refutes the popular belief that China is so appealing to businesses due to the low cost of labour. Rather, he identifies the nation’s strong industrial base and skilled talent pool as the reasons.
“There is a misunderstanding about China. And let me at least give you my view. The common perception is that firms go to China due to low labor costs. I don’t know what part of China they go to, but the fact is China ceased to be a low labor cost nation many years ago,” Cook says.
Why Apple Still Manufactures in China
Tim Cook further explains that the strength of China is in its tooling skills and the very high density of skilled labor, both required to meet Apple’s high-precision manufacturing requirements.
The reason is due to the skill, the amount of skill in one place, and the nature of the skill it is. It is similar to the products we do need truly sophisticated tooling and the accuracy that you must have in tooling and material working with that we do are leading edge,” he adds.
Making a tongue-in-cheek comparison between China and the U.S., Cook states, “If you look at the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill a room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields.”
Netizens Agree
The video created a flurry of online sympathy and commentary by users, who echoed Cook’s sentiments regarding the complexity of manufacturing today.
Watch:
Tim Cook breaks down why Apple builds in China and why the U.S. isn’t ready to replace it yet.
— Nigel D’Souza (@Nigel__DSouza) April 11, 2025
“Any factory work takes an enormous amount of discipline. Around 20 years ago, I did an internship with a multinational tyre factory. The amount of precision, physical endurance and discipline to carry out that work was just crazy,” said one user.
Another user commented, “True, it’s about speed, scale, and precision. China has a huge talent pool of top-notch tooling and manufacturing engineers. It’s not merely labor; it’s a complete system built up over decades with deep supply chains and quick turnaround that’s difficult to replicate elsewhere.”
A third added, “Totally agree with Tim. Businesses took advantage of China’s low-cost labor in the past, but it was China’s quick advancement of manufacturing technology that put it so far ahead of the US and Germany’s of the world.
US-China Trade War
The recently resurfaced video arrives amid increased trade tensions between China and the United States. During the administration of former President Donald Trump, the U.S. placed tariffs ranging up to 145% on Chinese products, prompting China to impose up to 125% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on imports from other nations, although this was put on hold temporarily for some countries by way of a 90-day grace period.
While the American government says that these trade measures are intended to revive local industry and protect American jobs, economists have expressed fears that they could destabilize world markets and result in higher prices for shoppers.
