Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook gave a show of support for China as a market and manufacturing base during a visit to Beijing Saturday, even as trade and tech sector tensions escalate between the United States and the world’s second-largest economy.

 

Ednews reports citing CNN that apple and China had “grown together” over the past three decades, Cook told the government-organized China Development Forum, adding that he was thrilled to be back in the country, which only reopened its borders this year after abandoning its strict zero-Covid policy. The last time Cook visited China was in 2019.

 

“We have a very large supply chain in China. We also have a thriving App Store,” the Apple chief was quoted as saying in state-run China Daily.

 

Cook’s visit has raised eyebrows in some quarters, given the ongoing tech battle between the United States and China and reports that Apple has been looking to India as a potential alternative production base.

 

On Friday, Cook had posted a picture of himself smiling with customers and staff at the Apple store in the shopping district of Sanlitun on China’s Twitter-like social media site Weibo.

 

That post came just a day after Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok was grilled in a five-hour hearing before a Congressional committee in Washington, where US lawmakers remain convinced the Chinese-made social media app represents an urgent threat to national security.

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