China widens COVID curbs, Apple factory unrest adds to economy worries

BEIJING — Chinese cities imposed more curbs on Wednesday to rein in rising coronavirus cases, adding to investor worries about the economy as fresh unrest at the world’s largest iPhone plant highlighted the social and industrial toll of China’s strict COVID-19 measures.

In Beijing, malls and parks were shut and once-bustling areas of the capital resembled ghost towns as authorities urged people to stay home.

Shanghai barred recent arrivals from restaurants and other venues, and numerous cities have imposed localised lockdowns as infections neared highs seen in April.

The measures are darkening the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy and dampening hopes that China would significantly ease its outlier COVID policy any time soon.

“While there is little prospect of the authorities opting to step back from the zeroCOVID policy during the winter, there is a significant risk that containment efforts fail,” analysts at Capital Economics wrote. Such a failure could result in more lockdowns which would cause unprecedented damage to the economy, the analysts added.

China’s COVID curbs, the tightest in the world, have fuelled widespread discontent and disrupted production at manufacturers including Taiwan’s Foxconn, Apple Inc’s biggest iPhone supplier.

On Wednesday, scenes uploaded on social media showed Foxconn workers pulling down barriers and fighting with authorities in hazmat suits, chanting “give us our pay”. The unrest follows weeks of turmoil which has seen scores of employees leave the factory over COVID controls.

Localities accounting for nearly one-fifth of China’s total GDP under some form of lockdown or curbs, brokerage Nomura estimated earlier this week, a figure that would exceed the GDP of the British economy.