In 2025, Patrick McGee published Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company , a deeply-reported look at the tech giant’s investment in — and growing reliance on — China. The following excerpt, pulled from Chapter 9 of Apple in China , examines the company’s relationship with Foxconn, today the infamous builder of iPhones. Foxconn wasn’t always a formidable company, though. As McGee’s reporting illustrates, its exponential growth was thanks in large part to founder Terry Gou’s