The most urgent reason for the scramble is the need to spread operational risk. Two decades ago the garment industry beefed up its operations outside China after the SARS epidemic paralysed supply chains. “SARS made it very clear to everyone operating in China that you needed a ‘China+1’ strategy,” observes Dominic Scriven of Dragon Capital, an investment firm in Vietnam. Covid taught tech firms the same lesson. Lockdowns in Shanghai in the spring temporarily shut a factory run by Quanta, a Taiwanese firm, believed to be making most of Apple’s MacBooks. Avoiding this kind of chaos is the “primary driving force” for Apple’s supply-chain moves, says Gokul Hariharan of JPMorgan Chase.
之所以仓促脱钩，最紧迫的原因是需要分散运营风险。20年前，在非典疫情导致供应链瘫痪后，制衣业加强了在中国大陆以外的业务。“非典让所有在中国经营的人都非常清楚，你需要一个‘中国+1’战略。”越南投资公司龙资本（Dragon Capital）的多米尼克·斯克里文（Dominic Scriven）表示。新冠疫情给科技公司上了同样一课。今年春天，上海的封控导致台企广达的一家工厂暂时关闭，据信苹果大部分的Macbook都由广达生产。避免再出现这种混乱是苹果转移供应链的“主要推动力”，摩根大通的戈库尔·哈里哈兰（Gokul Hariharan）表示。