WWSG Exclusive
San Francisco Correspondent, Financial Times; Author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
Patrick McGee is a compelling keynote speaker, bringing over a decade of global journalism experience from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. His award-winning reporting on Apple, electric vehicles, and emerging technologies offers audiences unparalleled insights into the forces shaping our digital future. As the author of Apple in China, he delivers a deeply researched, behind-the-scenes look at how the world’s most valuable company became entwined with America’s biggest rival. With his engaging storytelling and sharp analysis, Patrick provides event attendees with thought-provoking perspectives on technology, business, and global markets.
Patrick McGee reflects on writing 'Apple in China'
America’s biggest challenge in the 21st century is the rise of China as a technological powerhouse and a belligerent foe that seeks to undo Pax Americana. When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, this outcome wasn’t foreseen — indeed, it would have been seen as fanciful. But as multinational corporations shifted their manufacturing to China in the early 2000s, they weren’t calling the shots as they believed; they were actively being lured by the siren call of an emerging superpower. Get the inside perspective on this extraordinary transformation, including the Beijing policies that helped to make it happen and the actions of Western executives who unwittingly facilitated Technology Transfer on an epic scale.
Apple’s history since the comeback of Steve Jobs is supposedly a well-known tale. But this story is superficial, overly dependent on Jobs’s perspective and lacking in the most basic details of how and where the world’s most valuable company makes its products. Drawing on 200+ interviews with Apple sources, Patrick tells a nuanced, fascinating story involving the central characters you’ve never heard of. It’s a story that spans decades and continents, informing the listener about the rise of China, the development of modern supply chains, and why Apple’s future is in peril.
Patrick McGee is San Francisco Correspondent for the Financial Times, where he’s been a reporter since 2013 on three continents. He joined the paper in Hong Kong to cover Asian business and markets, moved to Frankfurt to report on the Volkswagen diesel scandal and emerging crises in German industry, and since 2019 has been based in the Bay Area covering Apple and tech hardware.
Patrick’s tech reporting won a San Francisco Press Club Award — best tech article for a newspaper, 2023 — for his deep dive into Apple’s HR problems. His FT magazine cover article, “Inside Peloton’s epic run of bungled calls and bad luck,” received an Honorable Mention for SABEW’s Best in Business Awards, 2022 (co-authored with Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson).
His focus over the past decade has been on Apple, digital advertising, robotaxis, electric vehicles, German industry, and connected fitness.
Previously, he was a bond reporter at The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has a Master’s in global diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, where he wrote a thesis arguing that America’s military budget and strategy were not fit for 21st century threats. He also has degree in religious studies from the University of Toronto. Originally from Calgary, Canada, Patrick resides in the Bay Area.
Patrick’s forthcoming book, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, is a three-decade narrative on Apple’s ascent from the brink of bankruptcy to world’s most powerful company. The first major history of Apple in the 21st century, the book is based on 200+ interviews with current and former Apple executives and engineers. It tells the story of how tech giant tied its fortunes to America’s biggest rival, transforming both company and country. Apple in China was called “absolutely riveting” by Oxford historian Peter Frankopan and “a once-in-a-generation-read” by Foreign Affairs writer, Robert Kaplan. It has also been named a most anticipated title of 2025 by both Foreign Policy and Publishers Weekly, and was listed in “What to Read in 2025” by the Financial Times.
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