When the news came out that Apples's iphone 15 sales in
China is worse than anticipated, you know it is really bad. With some
rotten Apples made in India unable to be sold to the EU, and China
already having been alerted that Tim Cook is attempting to unload Made
in India iPhones onto China, according to sources, Chinese buyers are
not that foolish to buy substandard iphones made in India. That is even
more so, when iPhones made in China are now being avoided by Chinese
consumers, not knowing what the Chinese Government will do next in the
face of USA escalating the tech war.
With the Chinese Government
issuing new guidelines to Government offices and employees not to make
use of Western made phones for National Security Reasons, the writing is
on the wall for the iPhones market share in China. Sure, foreigners
will still be carrying iPhones around, but when the tech sanctions
escalate further, China could tighten the screw further as well by
demanding that access to Government sites must be made on phones made in
China. It has not reached that stage yet, but who knows?
China
can make or break Western, Japanese and South Korean market share in any
sector in China by tightening its policies. This is no longer the China
of old. Take the case of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Vehicles
manufactured by the EU, Japan and USA. China is phasing out such
vehicles and migrating totally to EVs, which new buyers have to consider
when buying new vehicles. China is the biggest market for those ICE
vehicles for decades, and the loss of the China market is telling.
Coupled
with the problem lies the late entry of the EU, USA (with the exception
of Tesla) and Japan into the EV sector, including China's control of
supply chains and resources available to China. Japan had betted on
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, knowing that China already controlled the
raw materials needed for EVs, and Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are
proving extremely unpopular. The whole vehicle industry in Japan was
forced upon them by Toyota, the kingpin of car manufacturing in Japan,
which other Japanese car manufacturers were not in favour, but had to
follow the Government's call. They are now paying the price of their
late entry into EVs and betting on Hydrogen as the way forward to
counter China.
As I always say, China does not fear the USA and
it allies trying to control the rare earth sector, as China today is
still in a position to make or break new entrants into the rare earth
processing sector. China is now in a position to dictate the price of
its rare earth elements by flooding or restricting supply and demand.
Whoever stands in the way will suffer the consequences.
Anonymous
1 comment:
China sold off another US$16 billion of its treasury holdings. Together with Hong Kong, the total disposed off was about US#20 billion.
And who are still buying is not too difficult to guess. Their allies, crony states, vassals are taking up the slack. Even sinking Japan is sacrificing itself for the USA. Preserving the US$ hegemony is at stake and every dog must do its part.
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