Peeling Back the Apple: Shareholder Activists Seek to Expose Company’s China Entanglements

19 Feb 2026Peeling Back the Apple: Shareholder Activists Seek to Expose Company's China Entanglements

Washington, D.C. - Ahead of next week's Apple, Inc. annual shareholder meeting, the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project (FEP) is urging Apple investors to support its shareholder proposal requesting a "China Entanglement Audit."

At Tuesday's meeting, FEP Executive Director Steve Milloy will explain how an audit assessing the risks and costs associated with the company's involvement with China has the potential to reveal "how tangled up with Communist China the company is."

He will say:

Entanglement with China is clearly an existential corporate and national security risk. Should tensions increase or hostilities break out between the U.S. and Communist China, we shareholders could very well bear the brunt of that existential risk in the value of Apple stock. Per Apple's most recent disclosure statement, substantially all of Apple's hardware manufacturing is done in China and in China's immediate neighbors.

China has all but promised to invade Taiwan. What would happen if the U.S. defended Taiwan? Does anyone believe Communist China would not retaliate, including with sanctions, export bans and confiscations of shareholder assets in China? And what would happen to the supply chains with China's neighbors? Would China leave those alone?

China would also like to be the lone global superpower by 2049. Taiwan is not the only possible flashpoint. It's scary stuff. Yet management continues to depend on China while leaving shareholders in the dark about the risks….

Knowing the risks is a "no brainer." Management buries its head in the sand at our peril.

In Proposal No. 5, FEP suggests that this "China Entanglement Audit" include "clear, quantified information on: 1. The financial exposure under high tariff scenarios and mitigation strategies. 2. The dollar value of revenues and profits at risk from regulatory or geopolitical actions in China. 3. The danger and risks associated with intellectual property theft from Chinese firms. 4. The timeline and cost implications of supply chain diversification away from China."

FEP allies such as the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) are also rallying behind Proposal 5. In a letter to Apple investors, NLPC called our proposal "a common-sense request for transparency that would allow shareholders to evaluate the true risks of their investment. Without this report, investors are left with a materially misleading picture of a company that claims to be 'American' and 'diversifying' while remaining fundamentally tethered to the CCP's political and economic whims. The potential for sudden, catastrophic loss-whether through tariffs, IP theft, or geopolitical conflict-is too high for the Board to continue hiding behind generic disclosures."

Apple shareholders can vote FOR Proposal 5 using their proxy ballots.

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The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors.

The Free Enterprise Project, the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life, aims to push corporations to respect their fiduciary obligations and to stay out of political and social engineering. More relevant information about individual corporations and FEP's proxy voting recommendations (including how to automate voting your values) can be found in FEP's mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.

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