Samsung has achieved something that Tim Cook, chief of its arch-rival Apple, has suggested would be all but impossible: it has moved its smartphone manufacturing out of China.
At the end of last month, the South Korean electronics group, quietly closed its last remaining Chinese smartphone plant in Huizhou, Guangdong, handing out gifts of its flagship Galaxy S10 and Note 10 phones, along with some cash bonuses, to long-serving employees.
The departure of the world’s largest smartphone maker was the latest blow to China’s long dominance in high-end manufacturing, as wages rise and the threat of US tariffs weighs on other companies, such as Apple.