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China Iphone Apple

Violent Protests Break Out At Foxconn's 'iPhone City' (theverge.com) 90

Posted by BeauHD from the nightmare-conditions dept.
Protests have broken out at Foxconn's vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, as footage circulating on social media shows workers clashing with baton-wielding riot police and hazmat-suited officials. The Verge reports: The protests started after workers, who have been under strict covid lockdown for weeks, learned bonus payments would be delayed, reports The Wall Street Journal. Zhengzhou, known locally as "iPhone city," is home to an estimated 200,000 workers who are responsible for the vast majority of all iPhone production.

The Wall Street Journal reports that protests started on Tuesday evening near Foxconn employee accommodations at the Zhengzhou facility. Foxconn's strict covid controls have reportedly isolated its employees, forcing them to live and work on-site (with limited food and supplies) in order to prevent further outbreaks in Zhengzhou. Since October, many workers have escaped from the locked-down facility, leading Foxconn to promise incentives like higher salaries and bonuses to retain staff.

Video footage captured on Wednesday shows hundreds of workers protesting at the campus, chanting "give us our pay" while surrounded by riot police and people in hazmat suits. Livestream footage later that night saw protests escalating, with workers chanting "Defend our rights! Defend our rights!" as they confronted police officers, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. "Foxconn never treats humans as humans," said another person in a social media video at the scene. Other workers captured on live streams said they were protesting over food shortages in addition to the delayed payments. "They changed the contract so that we could not get the subsidy as they had promised. They quarantine us but don't provide food," said one Foxconn worker during a live stream as reported by the BBC. "If they do not address our needs, we will keep fighting."
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Violent Protests Break Out At Foxconn's 'iPhone City' More

Violent Protests Break Out At Foxconn's 'iPhone City'

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  • Foxconn is a Taiwanese company, so Taiwan will be blamed, not China.

    • Re:This isn't a revolution (Score:5, Interesting)

      by youngone ( 975102 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @05:55PM (#63075456)
      I'm blaming Foxconn, not Taiwan, because Foxconn is not owned by Taiwan, it's a publicly traded company.
      It does look like there's plenty of blame to go around though, so I'm saving some for Apple, who allow their major supplier to treat workers like cattle, and China too for sending police in to take a side in an industrial dispute.

      • Re:This isn't a revolution (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TWX ( 665546 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @06:10PM (#63075482)

        I'm blaming Foxconn, not Taiwan, because Foxconn is not owned by Taiwan, it's a publicly traded company.

        It does look like there's plenty of blame to go around though, so I'm saving some for Apple, who allow their major supplier to treat workers like cattle, and China too for sending police in to take a side in an industrial dispute.

        And this is how you know that the Chinese state is not Marxist. It's autocratic with corporatist leanings.

        • Nope. This kind of protest is allowed ONLY with non-CCP owned companies. The nation remains communist ( never was Marxists ),

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by youngone ( 975102 )

            The nation remains communist ( never was Marxists ),

            You're wrong with both of your assertions.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by sjames ( 1099 )

            China is more state capitalist.

            • China is an Autocratic Dictatorship with a thin veneer of capitalism. Who makes money and how they are allowed to spend it are both tightly controlled. Capital doesn't control the means of production, the Dear Leader and the Party do.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I thought all medium/large corporations in China were (partly) CCP owned, and had CCP members on the board...

            Of course that sort of thing happens in the UK too, so I guess we are commies as well.

            • Really?
              UK has a single communist party that controls the nation, with no election, and is going to invade France, while claiming that all of Norwegian sea, Celtic sea, North Sea, English Channel, and arctic ocean belongs solely to them?
              When did the limeys do this and make it happen?

              Or were you just being the normal obtuse wanker that you are?

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                In the UK the government holds significant stakes in many companies. Not as much as in Denmark where the majority of people work for the government (through government owned corporations), but still quite a few. For example, when rail franchises failed they were re-nationalized, including the track and stations which are all state owned now.

                The government also uses the police to limit the impact of strike action. The narrative is very much "you can't strike, it will inconvenience people and damage the econo

                • But that does not make them a communist country, or authoritarian. It makes them a government trying to figure out issues and likely needing to be voted out.

                  • But that does not make them a communist country, or authoritarian.

                    Obviously wrong, therefore on brand for you. It does make them "a communist country, or authoritarian" because it does make them authoritarian, and you included an "or" clause. Learn English before debating in it.

        • You could argue that. They seem to argue they're still Socialists. I think they're full of it.
      • Why would you blame the government for sending the police? We do it too. Here they come hitting everyone with batons, pepper spray, tear gas canisters, and using "less than lethal" ammo. Plus add the idiots that think that they are above the law and start shooting at protesters and "looters" like they did during the BLM protest. Also our corporations hiring Pinkertons to spy on pro union employees, and our government funding and encouraging "banana wars" (oil/energy wars currently).

        • Why would you blame the government for sending the police? We do it too.

          Yes, I'm aware of that. We do it in my country too. I'm sure there are people reading this that think the Chinese police assaulting workers to protect a foreign-owned factory are all Communists though.

      • Very few people seem to know that the same kinds of shit went on in the USA 120 years ago.

        • Re:This isn't a revolution (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @06:58PM (#63075632)

          Very few people seem to know that the same kinds of shit went on in the USA 120 years ago.

          A lot of people know that. Most of us consider that history, not a source for whataboutism.

          • No, he's right. The Red Scare of the early 20th century has been largely erased from American history. Probably because episodes like the Elaine Massacre and the Palmer Raids are so shameful.
            It did enable the labour movement to be crushed before it could get any real power though, and J. Edna Hoover made sure not to let a good crisis go to waste, so it was entirely successful.

            • No, he's right. The Red Scare of the early 20th century has been largely erased from American history. Probably because episodes like the Elaine Massacre and the Palmer Raids are so shameful.

              I never quite get the "no one is talking about" memes. You can find a whole lot about the various items that are supposedly "erased"

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

              Accuse someone of "McCarthyism, and only the willingly ignorant will not know you are talking about a movement to root out presumed Communists that eventually ate itself.

              Generally, the people; who claim that no one is talking about something something have their own axes to grind, not realizing they are either expressing their own ignor

        • Very few people seem to know that making these kinds of arguments doesn't somehow erase the fact that what is happening in China right now is still wrong.

        • What's the point of that comment?

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      Foxconn is a Taiwanese company...

      Apple fans with the copium.
      "HOW DARE YOU SAY MY 'MURICAN PHONE IS MADE IN CHINA!!!!"

    • Nah, this happens every time Gavin Belson visits.

  • Sounds an awful lot like slavery doesn't it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @05:58PM (#63075462) Homepage
    You might want to take another look at that iPhone in your pocket - your golden token of pride that should remind you of funding that factory and it's working conditions.

    Think of it every time you unlock your iPhone.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Not cool to make light of slavery like that.
      The factory conditions are bad, but people choose to work there because its better than a rice paddy in their home village, and the first step on the road to middle class for their children. Hundreds of millions of Chinese wave walked that road.
      However, China is getting wealthy now, and can afford to set better conditions for their migrant workers.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by Freischutz ( 4776131 )

        You might want to take another look at that iPhone in your pocket - your golden token of pride that should remind you of funding that factory and it's working conditions.

        Not cool to make light of slavery like that. The factory conditions are bad, but people choose to work there because its better than a rice paddy in their home village, and the first step on the road to middle class for their children. Hundreds of millions of Chinese wave walked that road. However, China is getting wealthy now, and can afford to set better conditions for their migrant workers.

        Not to ruin the OP's hategasm but the PRC in it's entirety is a gigantic stinking shit pile containing lots of different kinds of corruption. This probably has more to do with some corrupt bastard pocketing the pay, subsidy, food and salary money than it does Apple going out of it's way to torture workers and if it is happening in one factory it is happening in a whole bunch of others and affecting multiple other manufacturers. Apple should get hosed for this but so should anybody else who supports this kin

      • It's not quite as bad as slavery, but they're not really choosing to work there. It's desperation. When they're physically not permitted to leave the facility and aren't provided enough food, causing some people to escape, that's a sign they don't want to be there.

      • Re:Sounds an awful lot like slavery doesn't it? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Digital Avatar ( 752673 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @07:23PM (#63075706) Journal

        People do not choose to have their pay withheld. You're no better than people who try to excuse muslim enslavement of their housekeepers by claiming "Well, the housekeepers CHOOSE to work there." Same energy, same result, same bullshit.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by quenda ( 644621 )

          People do not choose to have their pay withheld.

          "Slavery is bad, X is bad, therefore X is slavery"
          Awesome logic there Mr Avatar.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Digital Avatar ( 752673 )

            They're being confined against their will and denied pay. That's not a choice. That's slavery.

            • But thatâ(TM)s the fate of many people in communist China. They have been locking down hard on COVID without any evidence of lockdowns working, they regularly confine people and withhold pay for lots of reasons, itâ(TM)s how the communist party keeps control.

              As with every communist country, the government (not the people, that would be capitalism) control the means of production, every company is owned by and/or has political officers from the Chinese Communist Party. Thus they can exert influence

      • The moment you're not allowed to quit under penalty of death is the moment it is slavery. I think this qualifies.

      • The factory conditions are bad, but people choose to work there because its better than a rice paddy in their home village

        Yeah, because they don't get paid fairly for that, either. They're being offered two choices which both amount to slavery. What a great deal! Why don't you defend the slavery in the USA next?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      I don't and never have or will own an iPhone, but I have no doubt the phone in my pocket was made under the same conditions as who makes and assembles almost all the major brands of phones

      All together now.... FOXCONN

      and FOXCONN is a brutal dictator owning their own cities at this point exploiting slave labor

    • The majority of things people buy are made by de facto slaves. Unfortunate.

    • Think of it every time you unlock your iPhone.

      If we thought of every atrocity committed in the name of western lifestyles we'd all go mental. Everything from the food we eat, often harvested with the help of massively underpaid migrant workers, the cloths we wear made in sweatshops, nearly all of our electronics assembled by people in horrible conditions, heck even the trash we throw away in many cases ends up just making some third world person's life just that little bit more of a living hell.

      Think of it every time you do anything we enjoy with weste

      • Think of it every time you unlock your iPhone.

        If we thought of every atrocity committed in the name of western lifestyles we'd all go mental. Everything from the food we eat, often harvested with the help of massively underpaid migrant workers, the cloths we wear made in sweatshops, nearly all of our electronics assembled by people in horrible conditions, heck even the trash we throw away in many cases ends up just making some third world person's life just that little bit more of a living hell.

        Think of it every time you do anything we enjoy with western privilege.

        All of this is true. Much of it can be minimised by simply _buying less stuff_. Buy used stuff where possible. Borrow the tool you need for a one-off job instead of buying it. Try to buy local food, or even grow some of your own... even if it's just some parsley and chives on a windowsill.

        Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. It usually has the very real benefit of saving money too.

        No, our privileged Western lives aren't blameless, and no, we can't reduce our harm to zero. Trying to do zero harm leads to m

    • You might want to take another look at that iPhone in your pocket - your golden token of pride that should remind you of funding that factory and it's working conditions.

      Think of it every time you unlock your iPhone.

      And you think an Android phone is made under better conditions?

  • but then are ya'll prepared to pay triple for your smartphone addiction?
    • Why are these problems always at Foxconn? I never hear a peep about problems like this at other Chinese manufacturing facilities. Or is it because only Apple deserves news? Or just Apple facilities doing this?
      • You will not hear about protests at CCP owned companies ( most of them ). They never last long enough to get a lot of protesters. In fact, neither do those that try to start a protest at a CCP owned company.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

        there's no such thing as "apple facilities" in a company who has 200,000 employees in one factory and that is not the only thing they make there, its just the most recognizable thing they make there

      • Because Apple gets more views. If some shitty Chinese manufacturer you've never heard of has a similar issue, no one would care. Apple at least claims to try to be responsible so they can be pressured to do something about it. Foxconn is also one of the largest manufacturers on the planet and do business with a lot of tech companies, but they don't have one of most popular products on the planet so the stories aren't about them because it won't get as much attention.

      • Re:I love the comments slagging off China etc... (Score:5, Informative)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @07:16PM (#63075682)

        Why are these problems always at Foxconn? I never hear a peep about problems like this at other Chinese manufacturing facilities.

        A well known thing called "observer bias". You don't hear stories from other factories? Really? You likely only read Apple articles. The ASPI did a quick and short research into just one specific subcategory of slave labour and identified the following company's products were made by Uyghurs in forced labour factories:

        Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BAIC Motor, Bestway, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, BYD, Calvin Klein, Candy, Carter’s, Cerruti 1881, Changan Automobile, Cisco, CRRC, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Founder Group, GAC Group (automobiles), Gap, Geely Auto, General Motors, Google, Goertek, H&M, Haier, Hart Schaffner Marx, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, iFlyTek, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Japan Display Inc., L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Li-Ning, Mayor, Meizu, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, SAIC Motor, Samsung, SGMW, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Tsinghua Tongfang, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, Zara, Zegna, ZTE.

        And that is only from looking in a 1 year window of customers of 27 specific factories.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      If cell phone OS suppliers and phone manufacturers were forced to provide support for the long term, then yes. I would be willing to spend $1200 on a phone instead of $400. That would mean that the phone would last a decade or more for me as I am generally careful with personal devices.

      Most recent upgrade was forced because the applications that I had a work-stipend for ended up being upgraded, and the new versions were incompatible with the OS on the phone. I simply couldn't run them anymore so I had to

      • I don't think you can do that, only because the companies making the phone can't guarantee the longevity of all parts of the tech. Look at the crap that's been going on in 5G. It might not last 5 years, let alone 10.

        Having said that, Apple is still supporting the iPhone 6s, which is circa 2016.

    • If all had to pay triple to raise their wages three times, give me the button to press. Unfortunately there is no button to press. I can benefit from their suffering, or I can not benefit ... but they will suffer nonetheless.

      Who knew commies + globalism would result in cheap electronics.

    • More like 50% more. I read somewhere that moving the iPhone production to the US would add about 400 bucks to the cost. Ouch, but people would still buy them.

      More likely production would move to Vietnam, Indonesia or India. With a result somewhere in between China numbers and US numbers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      um I didn't get my first smart phone until 2013, and I am only on my second one from 2017 so... yea its not going to butthurt me any

    • I mean, they're already paying a premium for buying an iPhone, so...

    • but then are ya'll prepared to pay triple for your smartphone addiction?

      They're iPhone owners. They're always prepared to pay triple.

  • Possible future followup story: "Chinese Workers' Addiction To Liveable Wage 'Resolved', Says Foxconn"...

  • ...workers! Stand up for your rights & your dignity! They're getting horribly abused & ripped off by their employers & they need all the help & support they can get to get what they deserve & a little justice on top of that. I wonder if a certain US company could use its influence to help these exploited workers out a little? It's not like Foxconn are the only company that can make smartphones, is it?
  • The Proletariat is fighting against the Bourgeoisie. That's not suppose to be happening in a Communist country!
  • In attempt to support these poor schlockâ(TM)s Iâ(TM)m halting all apple purchases . maybe apple can read dollar signs

    • Foxconn produces hardware for pretty much every computer out there. Also cancel your nVIDIA, AMD and other purchases, especially that solar panel system you wanted to get at an affordable cost.

      The US senate had the opportunity to ban slave labor for the production of its electronics, every democrat voted against it.

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