Can someone explain why the PRC leadership allows Apple to generate such enormous profits in China when there appears to be little to no direct benefit in return, especially while Chinese companies are denied comparable access to US markets? What is the underlying strategy here? Is this a deliberate long-term policy, a pragmatic economic calculation, or simply institutional inertia?
If Chinese firms like Huawei and others have faced years of restrictions, bans, and political pressure from the US government and its establishment, wouldn’t it make more strategic sense for China to respond in kind by removing Apple from the Chinese market rather than continuing to give it such lucrative access?