Mystery recall of iPhone engineers may be Chinese interference in Apple’s plans

5 days ago 3

Mystery recall of iPhone engineers may be Chinese interference in Apple's diversification plan | Hand held up in 'stop' gesture

More than 300 Chinese iPhone engineers and technicians have been recalled from an Indian production plant, says a new report.

No public acknowledgement or explanation has been offered, but suspicion is falling on the Chinese government, which has previously been accused of actively hampering Apple’s attempts to move more iPhone production out of the country …

Mystery recall of iPhone engineers

Bloomberg reports.

Foxconn has asked hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians to return home from its iPhone factories in India, dealing a blow to Apple’s manufacturing push in the South Asian country.

The bulk of Foxconn’s Chinese staff at iPhone plants in southern India have been told to fly back in a move that began about two months ago, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private. More than 300 Chinese workers have left, and mostly support staff from Taiwan remain in India, one of the people said.

Apple declined to comment, and Foxconn didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Fits a recent pattern of Chinese interference

While nobody is saying anything about why the move has happened, it seems consistent with a reported pattern of the Chinese government attempting to interfere with Apple’s plans to diversify production outside of the country.

India has grown into a major secondary manufacturing hub for Apple, the company gradually ramping up production from just the iPhone SE to now making the latest flagship phones.

The chaos created by tariffs on products imported from China has created yet another incentive for Apple to move more production to India, and the number of Made in India iPhones is expected to more than double this year. It’s been widely reported that Apple has set a goal of making 25% of iPhones in India by 2027.

China obviously doesn’t want to lose that business, and it was reported earlier this year that the government was taking three steps to make the shift harder. One of those was making it harder for Chinese engineers to travel to India.

Chinese authorities in recent months have made it more difficult for some engineers […] to leave the country […] Among the companies to be hit is Apple’s main manufacturing partner Foxconn, which has been leading the Silicon Valley group’s supply chain diversification into India.

9to5Mac’s Take

While the expertise involved in manufacturing iPhones ultimately stems from Apple – which guided the setup of production lines by Foxconn and other assemblers – the company has spent a great many years training Chinese engineering and production staff.

This means that the talent pool of senior engineers and managers with expertise in iPhone assembly is now found mostly in China, so if they are unable to work in India that’s a major problem for Apple.