Apple's China problem, how its longtime ticket to success has become a liability.

It's Thursday, December 28th. Welcome to the Tech Check podcast. I'm Dearderbosa.

And I'm Mark Gilbert. Yesterday, D. We talked about T-Moo and the growth of Chinese shopping apps. Today, it's the flip side of that coin.

How Apple, which profited from a huge supply chain in China for decades is now trying to diversify away from the country.

And Tim Cook, he built his reputation at Apple through the Chinese supply chain.

He got costs down, outsourcing, component manufacturing to local companies,

but now with rising geopolitical tensions and a very different relationship with Apple,

China's looking to countries like India and Vietnam to build that

next generation of manufacturing centers. And it's a delicate dance because China

still needs the factories it does have in China and it really needs China's growing middle class to buy iPhones.

So it has to sort of do both things at once and China, to be honest, needs Apple as well.

It wants those jobs within its borders and that was the subject of our deep dive on

Apple and China's relationship. Take a listen.

Apple can thank China for much of its success.

Access to cheap manufacturing,

a fanatic iPhone base,

even billions of dollars from China's government to build out infrastructure.

And China owes no less to Apple.

The rise of its middle class, sprawling cities filled with skilled workers,

and the creation of a booming technology market

but it's come at a price protesters at a major supplier facing off with

local competition accusations of censorship.

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