China has reported another record high of daily COVID-19 infections, prompting stricter measures across the country.

China has reported another record high of daily COVID-19 infections, prompting stricter measures across the country. On Thursday, 32,695 new local infections were recorded with numerous major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou reporting outbreaks. Wednesday saw 31,527 cases recorded, higher than the previous peak in April of 28,000.

Tighter restrictions were put in place last month but started to ease a few weeks ago; the quarantine period for close contacts was cut from seven days in a state facility to five days and three at home. Recording secondary contacts was also stopped. But now, any hopes of easing restrictions further have been curtailed as cases continue to rise. China’s zero-COVID policy has saved many lives and kept the official death count at 5,200, a tiny proportion of its 1.4 billion population. However, the restrictions have faced pushback as they continue to impact the economy. Lockdowns hit 20% of China’s GDP, according to the Financial Times. Chaoyang, Chongqing, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shijiazhuang are some of the places that have closed businesses and restricted people leaving their homes. 

Zhengzhou is to enforce an effective lockdown for its 6 million residents from Friday, officials announced, just as protests errupted at the Foxconn factory. Workers at the flagship iPhone plant have been protesting this week after a build-up of frustrations. Reuters reports the protests were triggered by plans to delay bonus payments, and some workers had complained they were forced to share dormitories with colleagues who had tested positive for COVID-19. Over 20,000 workers, mostly new recruits, have reportedly left the site. Videos posted online showed hundreds of workers involved in demonstrations being beaten with batons and sticks by police and other officials in white hazmat suits. Last month, thousands of employees walked out over unsafe working conditions. In October following a rise in COVID cases, Foxconn put the site’s 200,000 workers under closed-loop management (staff live and work on site, isolated from the outside).

Foxconn said in a statement that it had fulfilled its payment contracts and that reports of infected staff living on campus with new recruits were false. The Financial Times reported that Foxconn offered payouts of Rmb10,000 ($1,400) to newly recruited staff who elect to leave the iPhone factory and vowed to honour pay agreements. The payout, proposed on Wednesday night, was Foxconn’s attempt to quell unrest, intending to cover money owed to new workers for quarantining, transport to the factory and hours worked. Workers who take the deal are set to receive Rmb8,000 when they submit their resignation and the remaining Rmb2,000 after boarding buses home.

70% of iPhones are made at the factory, and Apple has warned of lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments. It is the world’s largest Apple iPhone factory, and more than 30% of the site’s November production is reported to be affected. “Customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products”, Apple said, as the factory in Zhengzhou is “operating at significantly reduced capacity.” Foxconn said it was working with the government in a “concerted effort to stamp out the pandemic” so that it can resume production at full capacity as quickly as possible. The drop in output has raised concerns at Apple’s ability to meet demand for the busy holiday period.

An Ongoing Problem

Foxconn has faced criticism over the years for its labour abuse and poor practices. The Borgen Project, a non-profit addressing poverty, published a report in 2020 on Foxconn’s labour exploitation. As one of the largest contract electronics manufacturers in the world, Foxconn employs over 350,000 people and bans the outside world from entering its large factory town which is commonly referred to as “Foxconn city”. It produces products for not only Apple but other major tech companies: Amazon, Dell, Google and Hewlett-Packard. Workers experience long workdays, harsh management and minimal pay, as well as public humiliation by managers, the report states.

In 2010, “labor exploitation at Foxconn China came into the spotlight when numerous workers committed suicide by throwing themselves off their dorm buildings. Reports determined that there were 18 suicide attempts and 14 confirmed accounts of death in 2010.” Labour exploitation takes various forms; many line workers are part-time working students who are usually underpaid as little as $3.15 an hour. In 2019, Amazon came under scrutiny for violating Chinese labour law concerning student labourers. Chinese labour law does not allow student workers to do overtime and night shifts, but these “intern” student workers were doing such shifts to meet their production quota.

Apple also came under fire in 2019 for also breaking Chinese labour laws. China Labour Watch’s investigation revealed that, as of August 2019, 50% of workers in Foxconn City were temporary workers, 40% over the legally allowed percentage of a company’s workforce. Apple did admit that the number of part-time workers in its Foxconn facilities exceeded the Chinese labour law’s regulation.

The book Dying for an Iphone: Apple, Foxconn and the Lives of China's Workers, by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai also details Foxconn’s dire practices. “Suicides, excessive overtime, hostility and violence on the factory floor in China. Drawing on vivid testimonies from rural migrant workers, student interns, managers and trade union staff, Dying for an iPhone is a devastating expose of two of the world's most powerful companies: Foxconn and Apple.”

The tensions between workers and officials, as well as the incoming lockdown, highlight the problem with Apple’s reliance on the Foxconn factory for so much of its product. The drop in output will contribute to Apple’s poor trading performance this year, amidst the laying off of 10,000 employees last month and a decrease in the company’s overall market value. It also once again puts Foxconn in the spotlight for its poor working conditions, and raises the question of how big tech companies continue to co-sign the exploitation rampant in the production processes of their products.

(Sources: Reuters, BBC News, Sky News, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Borgen Project, Pluto Press)