According to a Nikkei report, Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) instructed vendors on Friday to refrain from marking Taiwanese items as “made in Taiwan.”
Apple instructs components suppliers to avoid the made-in-Taiwan label
As per a Japanese business media organization, the tech company instructed its suppliers that components or goods created in Taiwan must be labeled as coming from “Chinese Taipei” or “Taiwan, China” to prevent the impression that the island is sovereign of mainland China.
Nikkei claims that Apple made a choice to prevent any supply chain interruptions brought on by Chinese inspection of the labels, particularly as the business gets ready to receive parts from Taiwan to be utilized for new devices that will be released later this year.
According to Nikkei, some iPhone parts were detained for inspection on Thursday to determine whether the shipments had labels that satisfied China.
Only a few days have passed since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a trip that drew a harsh response from China. Even though Beijing has never had any influence over the democratically self-governing island, the nation has long claimed Taiwan as its sovereign territory.
Beijing considers Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a political affront
According to Hua Chunying, China’s foreign affairs assistant minister, Pelosi’s actions were considered by Beijing a serious political affront and a test of Chinese sovereignty.
Before the visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the Biden administration would get burnt. In retaliation, Beijing also conducted a number of military exercises near Taiwan. Pelosi has been vocal about her desire for Taiwan to be an independent nation.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Pelosi said, “We want Taiwan to always have freedom with security and we’re not backing away from that,”
Taiwan and China are the two countries on which Apple depends the most for its individual parts. More than a quarter of the iPhone maker’s suppliers were based in China last year. CEO Tim Cook helped pioneer the practice of having a large portion of the company’s products built in China.
