In Apple’s shareholder meeting held yesterday Senior Vice President of retail Ron Johnson stated that Apple is planning to open up to 25 retail stores in China in the next 24 months.

Worth noting, Apple opened their first store in Beijing, China in July 2008. Apple COO Tim Cook stated at the Goldman Sachs conference that another store will be opening in Shanghai this summer.

Granted China is drowning in cheap knock-offs of name brand products, but China with a population of 1.3 Billion people, represents almost unlimited possibilities.

Bloomberg is reporting on remarks made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the company’s shareholder meeting held yesterday regarding Apple’s massive (and growing) cash reserves. Jobs claims these cash reserves will be used for future investments that shareholders will see a better return on compared to simply returning money to shareholders.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said he prefers having cash for investments to paying dividends or doing stock buybacks.

Apple is holding onto cash to take “big, bold” risks, Jobs said at the company’s shareholder meeting today. The company had about $25 billion in cash and short-term investments as of December.

Apple COO Tim Cook earlier this week stated that Apple has looked at acquiring larger companies, but none seemed to fit into the company’s larger strategy. Instead, Apple has opted to buy smaller companies such as Quattro Wireless, and Lala Media, or their technologies and talent.

This falls in line with an earlier report suggesting Apple will be “more aggressive” with company acquisitions in the future.

Lastly, All seven members of Apple’s Board of Directors were re-elected by shareholders.

Apple has published their annual Supplier Responsibility report which outlines Apple’s efforts to promote responsible business practices through it’s suppliers and partners around the world.

Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive Supplier Code of Conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the Code through a rigorous monitoring program, including factory audits, corrective action plans, and verification measures.

Apple highlights the number of audits of it’s suppliers, claiming that they audited 102 facilities in 2009, which is up from 39 audits in 2007. Apple has also trained 133,000 workers, supervisors, and managers on topics like worker’s rights, and management responsibility. Many of these facilities point out the fact that they have been audited only by Apple, which indicates Apple has strict guidelines and tolerances.

Speaking of guidelines, Apple claims to have developed guidelines in seven areas and how these suppliers can meet Apple’s standards of code of conduct.

Apple found in 2009 only 17 instances of something they call “core violations” of it’s code of conduct. The violations involved things like overcharging of agency recruitment fees to employees, hiring underaged workers, falsifying records, and so on. Apple reports that in each instance they worked with the suppliers to resolve any outstanding issues.

In short, it sounds like Apple is getting out in front of this thing much like they did with their environmental initiative. They are trying to make the company look spotless so if you do criticize them, it’s not in one of these “serious” areas.

Steve Jobs, Apple Co-founder and CEO turns 55 today. Regardless of what you think of the man, few can say they have started a successful company, then been exiled from it for ten years, and then come back and save the company from ruin. Here’s to wishing Steve better health, and many more years to come.