Apple’s Tim Cook goes on China charm offensive amid slowing iPhone sales

Apple CEO Tim Cook is making a high-profile visit to Shanghai as part of Thursday’s opening of an enormous new flagship store, as the iPhone maker makes a deeper push into its biggest international market amid declining sales.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is making a high-profile visit to Shanghai as part of Thursday’s opening of an enormous new flagship store, as the iPhone maker makes a deeper push into its biggest international market amid declining sales. The new $11.6 million store — located in Shanghai’s central district of Jing’an, which is named after a historic temple — is the biggest in China and the second largest globally after the one in New York’s Fifth Avenue, according to Chinese state media reports. “Nonghao Shanghai!” Cook said in a Weibo post on Wednesday, which means “hello” in Shanghainese. “I’m always so happy to be back in this remarkable city.” Cook said he had spent the morning enjoying a traditional breakfast of what appeared to be soup dumplings and soy milk and taking selfies along the city’s famous Bund waterfront with local actor Zheng Kai. In Shanghai, mainland China’s financial hub, Apple now has eight stores, the largest number of any city in the country. There are currently 47 Apple stores in 24 cities across mainland China. The new addition comes as Apple (AAPL) tries to fend off competitors and revive sales in a rocky market with growing headwinds, ranging from an economic slowdown to geopolitical tensions and rising nationalist sentiment.