Question

In the article by John Micklethwait, Jeff Immelt on Dealing With Trump and Globalization, BloombergBusinessweek, February‎ ‎09‎, ‎2017, how does Immelt’s respond the question about whether or not he worries about the prospect of a trade dispute between the U.S. and China?

a. Immelt says that a unilateral relationship is important—for the whole world.

b. Immelt says that there’s no good case for the two biggest economies on earth being in a trade war.

c. Immelt says that the Chinese are good with a worldview, and it is under a good communist rule.

d. Immelt says that it does not matter, since Trump is to fix it.

e. The president is yet to understand that having some kind of day-in-and-day-out relationship between the U.S. and China is critical.

In the article by David Barboza, How China Built ‘iPhone, NY Times, December 29, 2016, the presences of Apple and Foxconn and their relationships between Apple and Foxconn are described as

a. Apple is Foxconn’s largest supplier.

b. Foxconn is Apple’s largest customer.

c. Apple is China’s largest private employer.

d. Foxconn and Apple are intertwined in Zhengzhou, as seller and buyer, and Apple is also the main exporter using the customs facility here.

e. Foxconn, a Chinese company, has enormous leverage in the negotiations for those incentives.

In the article by David Barboza, How China Built ‘iPhone, NY Times, December 29, 2016, some examples that China has penalized overseas companies include all the following, except

a. China is also scrutinizing Western technology companies over national security issues.

b. China forced American mobile chip giant, Qualcomm to reduce prices for companies that sell smartphones within the country.

c. China wants Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi to undercut Apple and Samsung on price.

d. China requests Apple to store more of its local data on Chinese servers and Apple must undergo “security audits” on new models of the iPhone before gaining approval to sell the product.

e. China pressed Apple to hand over its source code.

In the article by David Barboza, How China Built ‘iPhone, NY Times, December 29, 2016, worker recruiting for Apple’s contract manufacturer Foxconn is described as:

a. Provincial officials call townships and villages to ask for help finding potential workers.

b. As part of its deal with Apple, the state recruits, trains and houses employees.

c. Every city’s department of labor and ministry of human resources is involved, according to Foxconn personnel.

d. The government pays the new hires a subsidy, and if the demand is high, the subsidy is high, if the demand is low, the subsidy is low.

e. its labor force, the size of a national army, relies heavily on the generosity of the Zhengzhou government and Apple.

In the article by Susan Berfield, Domino’s: Delivering a $9 Billion Empire, BloombergBusinessweek, Mar 15, 2017, some of the negative operations at Domino the company went public were described as

a. Domino had several fatal accidents in the deliveries that had led to two lawsuit verdicts that cost the company millions of dollars.

b. Domino’s went down after the economy in recession.

c. In 2006, the company reported its first full-year sales flat in the U.S.

d. Domino’s pizza remained expensive, but the recipes and ingredients hadn’t kept up with the foodie movement.

e. A Domino’s employee at a store in North Carolina filmed another putting cheese up his nose and adding snot to a sandwich.

Answer 1

Ans 1

b. Immelt says that there’s no good case for the two biggest economies on earth being in a trade war.

Immelt holds the view that any trade war between the two biggest economies of the world is bad, in both GE’s (General Electric) and economic contexts. He says that a bilateral relationship between the two countries has significant importance for the world.

Ans 2

d. Foxconn and Apple are intertwined in Zhengzhou, as seller and buyer, and Apple is also the main exporter using the customs facility here.

When the Foxconn facility opened in Zhengzhou, Apple was the only client of Foxconn. But even today most of the products made at this facility of Foxconn are for Apple. Around half of all the iPhones manufactured in the world are made at this Zhengzhou plant. Apple is the main exporter as well at this region of China and uses the customs facilities available for the purpose.

Ans 3.

c. China wants Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi to undercut Apple and Samsung on price.

While this is true that the Chinese brands including Xiaomi and Huawei are undercutting MNC brands including Apple and Samsung on price and are heavily dominating the Chinese mobile and smartphone market, this is not a result or consequence of any direct government initiative.

Ans 4.

a. Provincial officials call townships and villages to ask for help finding potential workers.

As part of a deal with Foxconn, the government actively recruits workers. The provincial officials do this by calling the townships and villages. According to Liu Miao (the owner of a private recruitment center in Zhengzhou), the department of labour and the ministry of human resources of all cities are involved in the recruitment process. The state not only recruits the workers, but it also trains and houses them. Any recruiters who are engaged for hiring the workers are also provided with a subsidy for every worker they hire.

Ans 5

e. A Domino’s employee at a store in North Carolina filmed another putting cheese up his nose and adding snot to a sandwich.

After the video capturing this mischief went viral, the government’s health department shut down the restaurant temporarily. Two employees were arrested for tampering with food, and the company's Vice President of U.S. Operations issued an apology.