Obviously, the technology manufacturing ecosystem in China isn’t about to disappear. But the people who built their careers and fortunes relying on China’s emergence as a production powerhouse have come to accept that the system they built is now in decline.

The current videos of unrest — which include young workers scaling fences to escape “iPhone city,” where they were locked in during a COVID-19 outbreak — are becoming indelible images.

Nobody could have predicted Covid and the ripple effects that led to the current protests. But China’s global ambitions, which include possibly acting on its claims to Taiwan, have long been a risk factor for companies dependent on manufacturing there.

For years, even before the pandemic, U.S. officials have been pushing Apple — mostly behind closed doors — to move out of China, warning them that one day in the not too distant future, the U.S. will have to decouple from China.

(via Instapundit)