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 says he’ll 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.”
From his prepared-in-advance remarks: 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 FEP’s proposal “a common-sense request for transparency that would allow shareholders to evaluate the true risks of their investment. Apple shareholders can vote FOR Proposal 5 using their proxy ballots.
About
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, describes itself as “a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank.” The Free Enterprise Project describes itself as “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.”
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
