00:00After Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs last year,
00:04electronics maker Ajulian Technology saw its U.S. orders frozen for months.
00:08Many clients canceled purchases, while some demanded that the company set up production outside China.
00:14As Beijing retaliated, escalations pushed the levies above 100% on both sides.
00:20Back then, the company found a factory to partner with in Malaysia,
00:24was in the midst of setting up a facility in India, and even looked at moving production to the U
00:29.S.
00:29But it found foreign supply chains were incomplete,
00:32leaving it stuck with tariffed Chinese components and higher labor costs in the overseas factories.
00:37Then, a Washington-Beijing deal removed most of the levies imposed.
00:41Now, Ajulian has decided to press ahead with setting up some facilities outside China
00:46as insurance against future turmoil.
00:48But it's found that overseas operations take way longer to do anything compared with China.
00:53And Chief Executive Fabian Gasorg says the cost and quality of Chinese components
00:58also make having a base there more indispensable than ever.
01:01We are changing the world from a free trade system somehow to a multi-tariff situation
01:07where having tariff is not only about 5%, 7%, something, but more like 10, 50, 100 as it fits their
01:18business.
01:19So this is the trend we are going there.
01:22However, on our side, we see China as the trend that built China for electronic products is just incredible.
01:29A typical example is the capability to develop electronic components, which was very weak before,
01:35but now they start to have very strong electronic industries, microelectronics,
01:41so developing chips, which is very, very future-proof.
01:48Now, Trump is set to visit China in May.
01:50Against a backdrop of new uncertainty sparked by the Iran war,
01:54Gasorg isn't optimistic that the visit would produce a breakthrough.
01:57I don't think that Trump will come here, but he will come here will change much,
02:02but he will try to push more and more strategies anyway, that's for sure,
02:07and try to bring more and more instabilities as he used to do.
02:12Deal or no deal, however, Agilien says customers have stopped asking about shifting production overseas.
02:17In the end, a year of Trump's tariffs has done nothing to dent this firm's commitment to China.
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