on Thursday December 30, 2021 @06:30PM from the behind-the-scenes dept. According to a new report from The Information, Apple has increased its reliance on Chinese partners , both as a way of cutting costs as well as to "curry favor with Beijing." 9to5Mac reports: Today's report from The Information comes on the heels of a separate report from the publication earlier this month in which it described a so-called secret deal between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chinese government officials. Through this deal, Apple reportedly committed to investing more than $275 billion in China over five years. The report details…