Last week Apple's COO Jeff Williams met with Chinese Officials who urged Apple to aggressively participate in China’s modernization process. In quick order we learn today from ITHome that Apple will be expanding the scale of its applied research laboratories in China, including enhancing the capabilities of the Shanghai Research Center along with opening an applied research laboratory in Shenzhen later this year to deepen cooperation with local suppliers.

The research laboratory in Shenzhen will soon be put into operation. The laboratory will focus on the reliability, quality and material analysis testing of products such as iPhone , iPad , and Apple Vision Pro.

Apple has invested more than 1 billion RMB in its applied research labs, and says the investment will continue to grow. The labs help engineering and design teams test prototypes, make improvements, and work closely with suppliers to help them improve efficiency and save time.

Apple said that  new technologies such as titanium metal, and new products such as Apple Vision Pro all benefited from the simulation experiments of the applied research laboratory.

Over the past five years, Apple's R&D team in China has doubled in size, with R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Shenzhen. In the past 30 years, Apple has created more than 5 million jobs in China through direct employment, supply chain and iOS App economy.