Following a series of suicides by Chinese employees at the Foxconn (富士康) plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, more than 150 academics and researchers yesterday called for an end to sweatshops and urged the government to stop offering subsidies and economic incentives to companies like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
The petition, which was initiated on June 6 by Lin Thung-hong (林宗弘), associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology, and Daniel Yang (楊友仁), associate professor of sociology at Tunghai University, said comments by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that he “hopes everyone will give [Hon Hai chairman] Terry Gou (郭台銘) encouragement” was a form of complicity in corporate exploitation of human labor and encouraged Taiwanese companies to violate labor rights.
Six professors and researchers from the fields of sociology, public policy and others yesterday attended a press conference to petition the government not to turn a blind eye to violations of workers’ rights to avoid harming Taiwan’s international image in the name of economic growth.
“When Yahoo provided its lists [of personal information] to the Chinese government, they were grilled at a congressional hearing [in the US],” Lin said. “However, throughout the entire Foxconn crisis, the people who acted with the most indifference are Taiwanese government officials.”
Lin said Foxconn’s treatment of its workers constituted a form of financial crime, but rather than getting punished, the government is offering subsidies and favorable policies to allow Hon Hai to bring its production facilities back to Taiwan and continue to expand its operations.
Huang Te-pei (黃德北), professor and director at Shih Hsin University’s Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, called Gou “the shame of Taiwan” and said that all advertisements that feature endorsements by Gou should be taken down.
“The Taiwanese government should not encourage Hon Hai to bring its factories back to Taiwan, along with all the social problems associated with its treatment of its workers,” Huang said.
He said that even though Hon Hai had announced wage increases in response to the suicides at the Shenzhen plant, the root of the problem — the almost perpetual overtime that workers must put in if they want to earn enough to support the high cost of living in the city — persists.
Consumers should boycott goods made by companies like Apple, which buys Hon Hai’s products and indirectly contributes to workers’ exploitation, until Apple’s suppliers can make significant improvements in labor conditions, the petition said.
Academics also said that Hon Hai should open its factories to independent academics so they could conduct investigations into working conditions there.
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
The Republic of China (ROC) is celebrating its 114th Double Ten National Day today, featuring military parades and a variety of performances and speeches in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. The Taiwan Taiko Association opened the celebrations with a 100-drummer performance, including young percussionists. As per tradition, an air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet flew over the Presidential Office as a part of the performance. The Honor Guards of the ROC and its marching band also heralded in a military parade. Students from Taichung's Shin Min High School then followed with a colorful performance using floral imagery to represent Taiwan's alternate name
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the