WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

My story is really, it's not anti-China.

People often think it is, but in a way, I'm extolling Beijing's brilliance in playing their long-term thinking off the short-term interests of a great corporation.

Apple goes to China, and the world is never the same.

It's Friday, June 13th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBR.

I'm Chris Bentley.

Today on the show, a new book explores how China's manufacturing innovation powered Apple's transformation into the consumer tech giant it is today,

and in turn, how Apple made China into the world leader in electronics manufacturing. In fact,

the two are so intertwined today that it's become nearly impossible to make Apple products anywhere other than China.

Their levels of automation are just in a completely different ballpark. I mean, China has more robots on the production line than the rest of the world combined. So the idea that this is going

to be set up somewhere else in any sort of quick fashion is really quite ridiculous.

And even if you say, OK, we'll give India 10 years, you know why that's difficult.

Beijing isn't going to allow it to happen.

Patrick McGee is a journalist at the Financial Times, and his book is called Apple in China,

the capture of the world's greatest company.

Like with many things having to do with Apple, this story has at its heart the iPhone, which of course revolutionized

media, communication, and it turns out, manufacturing. We'll get to Scott Tong's interview

with the author in just a minute, but first, Scott, you know, I've got

some Apple products. When I, I was noticed when I open the box, it says, designed in California,

assembled in China. Six words that kind of belie a much longer story that this book goes into

in quite some detail. What struck you about this book, Apple in China?

Well, you know, I was so interested in it because, you know, I lived in China for several years.

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