Other major players—including Lenovo, Acer and Asus—are also considering shifting their manufacturing out of the country. The shift is a result of a prolonged trade dispute between China and the U.S., by which hardware companies have been particularly impacted. In May, the Donald Trump administration threatened to impose additional tariffs of up to 25 per cent on smartphones and laptops imported from China. (Nikkei Asian Review, Reuters)

Talking point: Google, Amazon, Sony and Nintendo had previously announced they’re shifting their respective production capacities out of China. China’s tech manufacturing sector is already declining. The country’s production of industrial robots fell by 12.1 per cent in 2018. And, production of some smartphone components, computers and other electronic devices including some military products fell by 2.1 per cent in December 2018. But some companies are continuing to manufacture in China. While Apple is reportedly looking into moving up to 30 per cent of its smartphone production out of the country, it is also reportedly shifting the production of its Mac Pro computers from the U.S. to China.