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China commerce minister meets Apple's Cook

March 22, 2024 at 11:41 pm EDT

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's commerce minister, Wang Wentao, met with Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Friday, exchanging views on Apple's development in China, and Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations, the ministry said.

The meeting came a day after Cook opened Apple's newest store in Shanghai, as the phone maker battles falling iPhone sales in China and rising competition from domestic rivals such as Huawei.

Wang said that China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is a stabilising force for bilateral relations, and that China is willing to work with the United States to create a fair, stable and predictable environment for business cooperation between the two countries, according to a ministry statement on Saturday.

Cook is expected to attend the China Development Forum in Beijing next week, a gathering of foreign CEOs with top Chinese policymakers.

(Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsrooms. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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Tim Cook

Timothy D. Cook is, since the resignation of Steve Jobs August 24, 2011, the CEO of Apple Inc.

Tim Cook grew up in Alabama. His father worked in a shipyard and his mother was a housewife. Graduated in 1982 from Auburn University in Alabama in industrial engineering, he obtained his MBA in 1988 at Duke University in North Carolina, one of the most prestigious American universities.

Tim Cook has worked for 12 years at IBM, where he supervised the production and distribution in North America and Latin America. Then, he joined Compaq and became vice president in charge of the production, the procurement and the inventory management.

Steve Jobs poached himself Tim Cook at Compaq in 1997. Tim Cook joined Apple in March 1998, a year after the return of Steve Jobs at the helm. Under the authority of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is responsible of the supply chain managing: sales, support, customer services. He works for all markets where the company is present.
Tim Cook puts in place a strategy: the company must reduce its products range and the number of distributors and resellers. Another strategy initiated by Tim Cook: subcontracting in Asia. Tim Cook is the man of the relocation in the company.

In 2000, Tim Cook became director of international sales, and in 2004 he took head of the Macintosh division, which is responsible of MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac.
Since that day, Mac sales are constantly raising. Tim Cook knows how to sell. These excellent results allow him to evolve in the company. In 2007 Tim Cook became Chief Operating Officer of the company.

In 2004, when Steve Jobs was convalescing after a surgery against a pancreatic cancer, Tim Cook replaced him for two years. In 2009, Steve Jobs takes leave for a liver transplant; Tim Cook is CEO during several months. In January 2011, even if he is on the sick list, Steve Jobs is always CEO but Tim Cook is at the helm of the company daily.

Tim Cook is a brilliant man and very intelligent. Less impulsive than his predecessor, he can seem emotionally detached and implacable. This is a quiet man who does very few public appearances.

Tim Cook is on the Board of Directors of Nike, where he took lessons in marketing in contact with Phil Knight, the founder of Nike.

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