China Concerned About Foxconn U.S. Intentions

China Concerned About Foxconn U.S. Intentions
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China’s government has conveyed its concern over Foxconn billionaire Terry Gou’s plan to expand the Apple assembler’s operations in the U.S. after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to Bloomberg. A high-ranking Chinese official recently expressed Beijing’s concerns directly to Gou, the people said, asking not to be identified because the conversation was private.

In response, the Taiwanese billionaire told the senior bureaucrat he won’t withdraw capital from China. The U.S. investment plan hasn’t been finalized and is dependent on the policies of the incoming administration, Gou said, according to the people. China is pivotal to Foxconn’s massive electronics assembly operation, which cranks out more iPhones and iPads than any other in the world. One of China’s largest employers, Foxconn has said it’s in preliminary discussions to broaden its investment in the U.S., without elaborating.

Trump has often articulated his vision of bringing manufacturing jobs back to America from China, which became the world’s factory floor thanks to cheap labor and central policy support. And he’s singled out Apple in the past. A potential strategic shift by Foxconn unnerves Chinese authorities because the company employs roughly a million workers across the country. Major factory job cuts have been known to trigger protests in the past, even as maintaining social stability remains among the top priorities of the ruling Communist Party.

Foxconn announced the potential expansion hours after a pledge from SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs. A document Son held up for reporters after a December meeting with the President-elect included the words “Foxconn“ and “$7 billion“ alongside SoftBank’s numbers. It remains unclear how SoftBank and Foxconn may be working together, or what sort of promises may have been made to Trump.