Violent protests break out at largest iPhone factory in China
BEIJING: Violent clashes erupted between workers and security personnel at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central China’s Zhengzhou city early on Wednesday with employees living under tough Covid-19 restrictions for weeks breaking barricades and rushing out of the premises.
Workers at the Foxconn Technology Group plant, which makes Apple iPhones and which has been roiled by Covid-10, streamed out of dormitories in the early hours of Wednesday to confront security personnel and hazmat-suit wearing health workers, widely circulated footage on Twitter and temporarily on Chinese social media showed.
Wednesday’s clash was the latest case of anti-Covid protest in China where resentment over restrictions is boiling over even as authorities battle a countrywide outbreak, dampening economic recovery and slowing an exit from the country’s controversial “zero-Covid” strategy. The national health commission on Wednesday reported 29,157 cases nationwide for Tuesday.
Dubbed “iPhone city”, the plant in Zhengzhou has been operating in a “closed loop” bubble for several weeks amid complaints that wages have not been paid regularly and workers have not been allowed to leave the premises.
The footage showed bloodied and agitated workers in groups raising slogans. “Onlookers yelled “fight, fight!” as throngs of people forced their way past barricades. Police were deployed around the factory on Wednesday.