Frankly, it’s starting to get a little old — that in less than two years after NLPC submitted multiple shareholder proposals at U.S. companies seeking more transparency about risks related to doing business in China, a massive shift is underway away from operations and manufacturing in the communist country. Our proposals were shot down thanks to the alleged vote advisory brilliance (ahem, that’s sarcasm) of proxy advisers like Glass Lewis and ISS, and the big shareholder voting stewards at places like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity.
A Wall Street Journal report today highlights the most recent development:
For a growing number of Western tech companies, “Anything But China” is the order of the day.
In recent years, many multinationals decided they had become overreliant on suppliers in China, prompting them to pursue a so-called “China Plus 1” strategy of augmenting China-based suppliers with those in other countries.
Now, with U.S.-China tensions soaring again, many tech businesses are accelerating moves to shift production out of China and look for suppliers elsewhere, signifying a global tech world that is increasingly bifurcated between the two powers.
“Everybody is trying to look for an alternative to China,” said Wong Siew Hai, the head of the Semiconductor Industry Association in Malaysia, a destination for many tech companies leaving China. “Companies are redesigning their business. There’s no more ‘just-in-time’ strategy. Some people call this new strategy ‘just in case.’”
Read more about our previous “#WeToldYouSo”s here.
(Pictured above: Apple CEO Tim Cook in China)
