The minister’s remarks come as Apple is reportedly making efforts to reduce its dependence on China, where it manufactures a bulk of its products.
These efforts follow years of growing trade and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China and major disruptions to the company’s supply chain last year due to Beijing’s harsh Covid lockdown policies.
According to Bloomberg, Apple fell short of its production target for its latest iPhone 14 models by nearly 6 million units worldwide as a result.
Protests in Zhengzhou—the world’s largest iPhone factory—saw workers clash with authorities while protesting delayed bonus payments and poor living conditions as nearly all of Apple’s flagship iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Plus models were being manufactured in the factory, which led to stock shortages and long wait times of over six weeks for people looking to buy the top-tier models.