Apple's CEO Tim Cook has called on China to continue opening up its market for truly relishing the fruits of globalization. The Apple boss was speaking at a government sponsored development forum in Beijing on Saturday.    

Cook's message on 'liberalized market' comes at a time when Donald Trump's protectionist trade policies have propelled a heated debate on globalization across the world.

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"I think it's important that China continues to open itself and widens the door if you will," cook said at the forum. The talismanic CEO noted that anti-globalization policies never contributed to people's growth.

"The reality is countries that are closed, that isolate themselves, it's not good for their people," he added.  

Ahead of cook's speech, Apple announced on Friday that it would set up two new R&D centres in Shanghai and Suzhou, which are in addition to two separate R&D centres that are coming up in Beijing and Shenzhen cities. All the four centres will start operation later this year. The company also announced it will invest more than invest more than 3.5 billion Yuan ($507.1 million) in these centres.

Apple's ambitious expansion plans come amid falling sales in China, which has greatly dampened its revenue prospects. The ferocious competition from a hosts of homegrown brands like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and ZTE has left Apple's iPhone sales slogging in the world's largest smartphone market.

It is not only the competition factor that has left the American tech behemoth vulnerable in the lucrative Chinese market. The threat from China's nationalistic media has made the legendary Steve Job's company feeling equally uncomfortable.

An article in the state-owned The Global Times warned that Apple may have to face ire from Chinese people in the wake of the trade war between the U.S. and China.

TagsApple China, Tim Cook, china, China Globalization, globalization