, Columnist
Apple Deftly Plays Mr. In-Between With U.S. and China
It accentuates the positive and stays silent on the negative.
Tim Cook finds a receptive ear.
Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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One of Apple Inc.’s underappreciated skills is its political savvy. The company has managed to mostly keep happy the two leaders on both sides of the U.S.-China trade war with personal diplomacy and alternating doses of hyperbole and calculated silence.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump toured what he had described as a new Apple manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. Apple also used the moment to repeat a 2018 self-congratulation for helping create what it says are millions of jobs in the U.S. and for contributing hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.