[westiseast]

I for one feel like there’s actually limited play in this - America already is and has been the boogeyman for years.

Whipping up nationalistic sentiment and expecting consumers to fall in line is a transparent tactic and younger, affluent consumers are fairly cynical. It rarely has any long term effect either (see previous nationalistic anti-Japan and anti-Korea consumer boycotts).

Also don’t underestimate the power of Apple brand - it’s not like banning Google or Facebook which had very limited presence in Chinese minds. Moves to limit access to Apple products, tax them, ban them etc would not go down well.

The government could offer more subsidies to domestic companies, better credit terms or financial incentives, but then that’s just China paying for the cost of Trumps tariffs - Trump wins.

That said, Huawei and other phone makers have been taking chunks out of Apple by making better phones at competitive prices - that’s what actually moves consumers.