The New York Times Digs in on the ‘Young Chinese Women Have Small Fingers’ Claim

Julia Carrie Wong, a reporter for the Guardian, has a whole thread over on Bluesky digging into the bizarre “young Chinese women have small fingers” line in Tripp Mickle’s New York Times story that tries to pretend that maybe sorta kinda Apple could assemble iPhones in the US. Mickle attributed the claim to “supply chain experts said”. Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander emailed Wong a statement that included the following:

Our reporting does not make racial or genetic generalizations, but simply cites experts who have experience with the industrial process in U.S. and Chinese factories.

I didn’t write my piece on Mickle’s story until about a day after it appeared, and I fully expected while I was writing it that the Times would have removed or significantly edited that goofy claim. But no, it was still there Saturday, and it’s still there today. They’re standing behind it.

You know how Peter Navarro — Trump’s crook of an economic advisor who is the mastermind behind this whole tariffs thing — wrote a book that cited a purported expert named Ron Vara, and it turns out Ron Vara doesn’t exist and his name is just a dumb anagram for “Navarro”? I’m thinking maybe the “supply chain experts” behind this notion that Apple assembles iPhones in China because “young Chinese women have small fingers” are the well-known supply chain masterminds Mipp Trickle and Trick Mipple.

★ Monday, 26 May 2025