Apple, China, and the End of American Dominance | Patrick McGee

Apple didn't just build its iPhones in China. It taught China how to build them, and then how to build everything else. Now Apple says it's diversifying. But Patrick McGee thinks Apple is more dependent on China than ever before.

Journalist Patrick McGee, author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, joined me on Forecast 2050 to explain how Apple’s bet on Chinese manufacturing helped create America’s only real tech rival, why Trump doesn’t have the cards with Xi, whether China takes Taiwan, why Nvidia would be useless in a war, and what the US-China relationship will look like by 2050.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/how-apple-made-china-into-a-superpower

00:00 Intro

02:54 Manufacturing Is Power

11:59 The CCP

16:56 Will China Take Taiwan by 2050?

25:11 Why Nvidia Would Be Useless in a War

27:06 The Case for Industrial Policy

32:04 How Xi Brought Apple to Heel

39:32 The End of Pax Americana

47:20 The Next Jony Ive is Chinese

01:00:20 China’s Next Leaders

01:07:47 Demographic Collapse & Automation

Patrick McGee is a technology journalist who covered Apple for the Financial Times from 2019 to 2023 and wrote for the FT from 2013 to 2025, reporting from Hong Kong, Frankfurt and San Francisco. His book Apple in China won the SABEW Award for Best Business Book and was named a top book of 2025 by The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The New Yorker.

Patrick on X: https://x.com/PatrickMcGee_

Patrick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prmcgee/

Website: https://patrick-mcgee.com

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

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