Foreign media: The idea of Apple moving assembly operations back to the United States is "pure fantasy." During Trump's first term, Apple successfully managed to exclude Chinese-made products from tariff scope. However, this time, the Trump administration first targeted Apple before temporarily canceling tariffs on some electronic products. They believed that imposing heavy taxes would prompt companies to move production lines back to the U.S. "Those millions of workers screwing and assembling iPhones - such things will return to the U.S.," Howard Lutnick, U.S. Commerce Secretary, said in an interview earlier this month. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt also said last week: "President Trump has clearly pointed out that the U.S. can no longer rely on China for key technology products such as semiconductors, chips, smart phones, and laptops." She added: "Under the President's instructions, these companies are accelerating the relocation of production back to the U.S." However, the outside world generally does not believe this claim. The idea of Apple moving assembly operations back to the U.S. is "pure fantasy," said Eli Friedman, a former member of Apple’s Academic Advisory Board. He stated that when he joined the board in 2013, Apple mentioned diversifying its supply chain and reducing dependence on China, but never considered the U.S. Friedman added that Apple made limited progress over the next decade until the pandemic, when it "really began to make efforts." "The most important new assembly locations at present are Vietnam and India, although the majority of assembly still takes place in China." Apple did not respond to BBC inquiries, but its website noted that its supply chain spans "thousands of companies across more than 50 countries." Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829973245468684/ Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author only.