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Comment by toasterlovin | Hacker News Reader

Because China is important. And, unlike the Arab oil producers, China actually has the human capital to create a university that competes with Harvard for prestige. Get used to stuff like this. Tim Cook is about 10 steps ahead of everybody who gives him a hard time for how Apple deals with China.

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Tim Cook is 10 steps behind if you look at the rest of the board members list. Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Nadella, all have already found a spot on the board.

Depends, if you want to create an independent company of governement influence.

He's 10 steps behind, his internal mail in Apple showed that.

Why now? Are they using Tim Cook or is he a visionary?

It's mutually beneficial. The university gains the prestige of having the CEO of one of the world's largest companies on their board. And it allows Tim Cook to be on the board of one of China's most prestigious university. See my other replies down thread for why doing this in China specifically is important.

Can you elaborate on the importance and how that factors into Apple’s strategy? Saying that China is important and Tim Cook is Very Smart doesn’t make for a very enlightening comment nor a suitable rebuttal. If you’re onto something, I’d like to know what! :)

China is already Apple's second largest market. Right now China's GDP per capita is about $9,600. South Korea has a GDP per capita of about $31k and Japan has a GDP per capita of about $39k. Assuming that China reaches those levels at some point in the not too distant future (which seems likely given cultural and genetic similarities), China will be Apple's largest market. And they will be where Apple manufactures most of its products. At that point, China will be as important to Apple as the U.S., possibly more so. This is the long game that Tim Cook is playing.

Cost of doing business. Hedging a no deal scenario.

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