According to local media, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, praised China’s role in the company’s supply chain when visiting suppliers on Wednesday, including BYD Electronics. The visit coincided with a decline in Apple’s sales in China.

Cook shared a post on his Weibo social media account, stating that he had eaten a local breakfast and had spent the morning strolling alongside Chinese actor Zheng Kai along Shanghai’s iconic Bund river. What additional plans he had for this visit to China, he did not reveal.

Cook stated in an interview that “no supply chain in the world is more critical to us than China,” according to the China Daily.

At the company’s Shanghai headquarters, Cook also had meetings with representatives from Lens Technology and Wang Chuanfu, the founder and president of BYD Electronics, an Apple supplier, the China Daily continued.

Cook’s visit coincides with the company’s announcement on Thursday that it will open a new retail location in the centre of the Chinese financial district. Apple is now facing declining iPhone sales in China as well as increased competition from local rivals like Huawei.

China is Apple’s third-largest sales market, and Cook visited the country at least twice last year. Around the same period last year, he also went to Beijing, where he went to the China Development Forum and saw an Apple store.

(Adapted from Business-Standard.com)