Benzinga - Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook praised China for its rapid innovation and long ties with the California-based iPhone maker despite rising tensions between China and the U.S., according to recent report from Bloomberg.
While speaking at the high-profile China Development Forum on Saturday, Cook said that Apple and China has grown together and that the two parties have had a "symbiotic" relationship.
The CEO also touched on his company's concerns about the abuse of technology, given recent strides in artificial intelligence and augmented reality. He asserted that innovation will only accelerate and that technology creators need to use them in the "right way" to help humanity.
"I think that's a tremendous responsibility for any creator to do that," he said.
Cook said Apple plans to increase its spending on its rural education program in China to $15 million, explaining that it was important for children to hone their coding and critical thinking skills in a fast-changing world.
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"We have a very large supply chain operation in China and then of course we also have our Apple stores," he said, according to The Financial Times, while noting that the tech giant has millions of developers in China who work on its iOS operating system.
During his visit, Cook also met with Chinese government officials in an effort to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the Chinese government, Bloomberg reported.
Apple builds most of its products in China and has unique access to the Chinese market. The company depends on the country for about 20% of its sales. The iPhone maker has reportedly brought in over $40 billion in China-based revenue every year since 2015 and nearly reached $75 billion in China sales in the last fiscal year.
Since massive COVID-19 protests in the country, however, the company has diversified its supply chain away from China.
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