Because of a corona outbreak, Foxconn is sealing off the important iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China. Hundreds of thousands of people work there. After imprisoned employees have to beg for food, some now climb over the fences to escape.
In China, employees of the Apple supplier Foxconn fled after a corona lockdown. Numerous videos of workers leaving the company's factory premises in the eastern Chinese metropolis of Zhengzhou circulated on social media. You could see how people sometimes climbed over fences and escaped across fields with suitcases and belongings.
The city government later released a statement saying that the Taiwanese company Foxconn had promised to improve living and working conditions for any workers who chose to stay. Orderly transport should be provided for others.
The plant in Zhengzhou, where several hundred thousand people work in normal times, is one of the most important production sites for Apple's iPhones. There had already been reports of extremely poor conditions in the past few days after strict corona measures had been imposed in parts of the city. Employees were therefore no longer allowed to leave the premises, but should continue to work. Workers also complained about problems with the food supply.
China's economy is suffering because Beijing does not want to move away from its strict "zero corona policy". The aim of this is to nip any outbreak of the virus in the bud. According to a factory worker anonymously quoted by the Financial Times, the plant and its campus have been sealed off from the outside world since October 7. The week before, production had come to a standstill due to the public holiday. Around the Chinese holidays, millions of migrant workers traditionally make their way to their home province to visit their families. The brisk travel in these times causes the number of infections to explode again and again.
