In Newsletter 101, we introduced the Foxconn/Hon Hai factories in Zhengzhou, a city of 10 million people, where half of the world’s iPhone are made.
It started during the night of Nov 22nd: a Twitter user (Teacher Li) based in Europe with almost 200,000 followers got some video from China.
He wrote: Breaking! Some internet user provided the following information: Foxconn in Zhengzhou has recruited new employees from all over the country, but the new employees believe that they were deceived by Foxconn. They are gathering at the gate of Foxconn and they want to break out.
In the next video, he updated: it is out of control now, the security guards are fighting against the workers.
Teacher Li then explained the reason with a screenshot from his source: Foxconn just recruited 100,000 new workers from all over the country, with promise of good pay and separation between the new and old employees (for COVID reason). Upon arrival, the workers discovered that both promises were false.
The next day, at 5am, a video showed that the fight has escalated : the police used tear gas on the workers, the workers fought back with fire extinguisher.
A video of workers beaten was uploaded, with someone angrily shouting: the police beat up people!
More videos from Chinese livestreaming website Kuaishou were uploaded to Twitter, in one video, people are saying that the gate of Foxconn is burnt by the workers and the police is using water to stop the fire. People were discussing the relation between Foxconn and the local government, as Foxconn is a big component of their GDP, so the local government is against the workers. Workers want to spread the news on social media but they think they have been blocked. They want the “higher up” to know what is happening.
At 9am, the police and the workers are facing off. Foxconn tried to solve the issues, but the police and the workers started fighting, and some workers were again badly beaten.
Later, on Foxconn campus, some workers destroyed the PCR testing stations and overthrew trucks. The other side (local government?) sent in 20 buses of riot police.
Teacher Li noticed that Weibo and other social media have not censored the Kuaishou livestreaming service, people can still find those videos with keywords search. He noted that this is quite rare.
Later, in another video, someone was announcing that people from Henan province can leave Foxconn with 10,000 RMB payment. The audience applauded the solution, and they started queuing to get out of Foxconn. Later, they were told that the 10,000 were actually 3,000 RMB, and people decided to continue to fight. Teacher Li commented, lots of people were ready to leave Foxconn peacefully, but the change of the amount of compensation made them stay and start protesting again. Someone in another livestreaming video said that about 40 workers have been arrested. He says that he is a CCP member and he will not join the protesters, he is doing the livestreaing because it is fun.
During the night of Nov 23rd, an executive of Foxconn came and promised that everyone will be paid 10,000 RMB so that they can leave. Some video showed that the workers had overpowered the riot police. Another video showed the police beating up a worker.
<<<<<<< HEAD The situation is chaotic, we don’t know who made the decision to pay how much to the workers and why they changed the amount in the middle. Obviously Apple is under stress from Western media. Even WSJ criticised Apple for not treating the worker and unions with respect. And it seems that the local government and CCP have a lot of control over Foxconn.
The next day, the workers get words from the management that they will receive 10,000 RMB if they decide to leave. 8,000 will be wired to their account by noon. Another 2,000 will be wired when they board the trains. Someone on social media reported that 30,000 workers decided to leave, and 20,000 workers decided to stay for work. He also claimed that the money comes from the local government, not from Foxconn. There are also workers who are still in quarantine, they will be given 2,400 RMB if they decide to leave. But the workers want more: it seems that as of night of Nov 24th, there are still physical conflict between the workers and the police.
One guy posted on social media that he used the 8,000 in his account to buy an iPhone. Designed in California, assembled in Zhengzhou.
Some press coverage: AP: Protesting workers beaten at Chinese iPhone factory, WSJ: iPhone Factory Workers Clash With Police at Covid-Hit Plant in China (alt link), and The Verge: Violent protests break out at Foxconn’s “iPhone city”.
Now lockdowns are so widespread that many people I know on Wechat are complaining of the lockdowns.
Even Beijing is in a defacto lockdown:
Beijing officials aren’t calling it a lockdown (likely never will) but the city in many ways has an early 2020 feel to it. Schools, stores, parks closed; most told to work from home. This is the lower 3rd Ring Road during what should be a chaotic 6pm rush hour.
A small portion of people started doubting the logic of COVID testing and lockdowns. One person even went onto Wechat public account to list 10 quite technical questions about COVID directed at the national health commission. But the 10 questions were erased on Chinese internet and his public account is cancelled.
One man in Chongqing challenged the COVID management of his residential area, his questions and comments got lots of applause from his neighbours. The police came and attempted to arrest him, luckily he asked his neighbours to help him and they rescued him from the police.
On social media, many people told their sad story of having zero income in the last two months and not knowing how to survive. We don’t know the toll of zero-COVID policy on ordinary people, but we can see a little bit of the tip of the iceberg via social media.