In October, a COVID outbreak at a Foxconn iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou led to many employees abandoning the "iPhone city" to avoid the stringent lockdown procedures.Apple is "extremely limited in their options," according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, as it relies heavily on China to manufacture a bulk of its devices."The zero China COVID policy has been an absolute gut punch to Apple's supply chain with the Foxconn protests in Zhengzhou a black eye for both Apple and Foxconn."Now is the painful waiting game to see what ramped production looks like over the next week for Apple to ease some iPhone shortages that are building globally."And Apple may not be able to exit its tenuous relationship with China anytime soon, even when considering its recent moves to diversify manufacturing to other countries like Vietnam and India."