Employees at the world’s biggest Apple Inc iPhone factory were beaten and detained in protests over contract disputes amid COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, videos on social media showed yesterday.
Videos that said they were filmed at the factory in Zhengzhou showed thousands of people facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields.
Police kicked and hit a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him.
Photo: AFP
Other videos showed protesters spraying fire extinguishers toward police.
A protest began on Tuesday over complaints that Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, changed conditions for new workers who were attracted by offers of higher pay, said Li Sanshan, an employee.
Li said that he quit a catering job in response to advertising that promised 25,000 yuan (US$3,500) for two months of work.
Li, 28, said that workers were angry after being told they had to work two additional months at lower pay to receive the 25,000 yuan.
“Foxconn released very tempting recruiting offers and workers from all parts of the country came only to find they were being made fools of,” Li said.
The protest lasted through yesterday morning as thousands of workers gathered outside dormitories and confronted factory security workers, he said.
Foxconn yesterday confirmed overnight “violence” at its iPhone factory in Zhengzhou and vowed to “avoid similar incidents.”
The company said that workers had complained about pay and conditions at the plant, but it denied that it had housed new recruits with staff who had tested positive for COVID-19, it said in a statement.
“Regarding any violence, the company will continue to communicate with employees and the government to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” the statement said.
Foxconn said earlier that the Zhengzhou factory uses “closed-loop management,” which means employees live at their workplace with no outside contact.
A man who identified himself as the Chinese Communist Party secretary in charge of community services was shown in a video posted on the Sina Weibo social media platform urging protesters to withdraw.
He assured them that their demands would be met.
Protests have flared as the number and severity of COVID-19 outbreaks have risen across China, including in Beijing, while images of maskless crowds at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar have sparked anger, with people questioning the Chinese government’s “zero COVID-19” approach.
“Some people are watching World Cup matches in person with no masks, some have been locked at home for a month, locked on campus for two months without even being able to step out the door,” a Guangdong resident wrote online yesterday.
“Who has stolen my life? I won’t say,” they wrote.
Another user from Shaanxi Province said they were “disappointed” in their country.
“The World Cup has allowed most Chinese people to see the real situation abroad, and worry about the economy of the motherland and their own youth,” the second user wrote.
An open letter questioning China’s COVID-19 policies and asking if China was “on the same planet” as Qatar spread on the WeChat messaging app on Tuesday before censors removed it from the platform.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS