In China, local tax authorities fined a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group.
The mentioned measure of impact affected the unit of the specified company, which is currently the main smartphone manufacturer of the American technology giant Apple, Foxconn Industrial Internet Co., based in Wuhan. The National Center for Public Credit Information stated that this organization overstated research and development costs in 2021 and 2022.
The amount of the fine was 20,000 yuan ($2,800). This is not a sensitive measure of influence, but it has an important symbolic character and is significant in some sense by a symptomatic meaning in the context of the fact that the Chinese authorities are currently investigating the activities of the iPhone manufacturer. These measures of Beijing should also be interpreted taking into account, not the most favorable relations between the Asian country and the United States at the current historical stage.
The Chinese authorities have already demonstrated their special attention to Apple, which in this case is a negative factor for the tech giant. In early September, the media reported that Beijing had restricted the use of the iPhone by some companies and organizations. Also at that time, the Chinese authorities announced problems with the security of the technology giant’s smartphones. Experts noted that this officially designated position of Beijing, which has to some extent an abstract form of expression, is at the same time an indirect confirmation of the gradual narrowing of the use of the iPhone in the country and a signal of a not-very friendly attitude towards Apple.
Chinese authorities are currently investigating Foxconn’s tax affairs in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces and land use in Hubei and Henan provinces, where the company produces the bulk of the American tech giant’s smartphones.
Foxconn founder Terry Gou plans to run in the presidential election in Taiwan in January 2024. He also expressed confidence that an official statement of this intention would make it impossible for Beijing to take any measures of influence against its business empire. But, as it turned out, the Chinese authorities did not see any obstacle in these plans.
