EDITO - François Lenglet explains what the iPhone reveals about global geopolitics

A sign of the tensions between the United States and China, Apple has abandoned Chinese assembly plants. The American firm fears having to leave the country abruptly in the event of a conflict.

The manufacturing locations of the iPhone, Apple's star telephone, speak volumes about developments in global geopolitics. For decades, the American computer manufacturer had almost everything manufactured in China , smartphones, computers, tablets, headphones, with the exception of a very small part of the production located in the United States.

Apple was even born thanks to these massive relocations, the company was the emblem of globalization . His phone includes components from Korea, Germany, Japan, everything was thought out in the United States, and everything was assembled in China, in the factory of the world, and shipped around the world. And now the Californian firm is transforming its industrial geography , by diversifying production sites.

But the growing animosity between the United States and China has made them abandon the Middle Kingdom. In fact, Apple wants to avoid being in the situation of the multinationals which had to leave Russia abruptly , abandoning their factories and their stores. Two days ago, the President Joe Biden has spoken of a possible military clash between the two countries, over Taiwan. Not to mention the extreme complications caused in China by the zero Covid policy , which de facto prevents any visit by foreigners there. And electricity shortages, which handicap production.

Where will Apple set up its new factories?

Apple will partly opt for India for the iPhone 14. But especially in the new star country of electronics, Vietnam , neighbor of China. Apple manufactures its headphones, iPads, soon computers and even connected watches there, the Nikkei Asia newspaper revealed to us . The assembly of the last product requires a rather sophisticated technology, because of the miniaturization. Apple would already have 22 production units in the country. Google, the computer maker, Dell, and Amazon are doing the same thing.

Manufacturers still don't plan to leave China in droves, but the pressure is mounting. Ten days ago, it was elected officials in Congress who warned the apple firm that it could no longer use electronic chips manufactured by the Chinese Yangtze memories, to equip the iPhone 14 intended for the United States market.

US officials fear spying on electronic communications using microchips . Shortly before, it was the government of Taiwan, an ally of the United States and in almost open war with Beijing, which imposed on Foxconn, the main subcontractor of Apple, to give up an investment of 800 million dollars in a Chinese company that manufactures semiconductors, used precisely for electronics for Western markets.

The factory of the world soon to be dethroned?

China will therefore no longer be the factory of the world , at least no longer the only one. Five years ago, to have electronics manufactured, there was only one address on the planet, China. It's finish.

Because of geopolitical tensions with the United States, and even more since the war in Ukraine, China is undergoing a vast operation to extricate the world economy , industrially and financially. Because multinationals now choose "friendly" countries to relocate. The industrial planet, once frictionless and perfectly integrated, is in the process of partitioning itself by reproducing geopolitical fault lines.

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