Phone Production Plunges As Tens of Thousands of Foxconn Employees Flee Zhengzhou

Phone Production Plunges As Tens of Thousands of Foxconn Employees Flee Zhengzhou

Phone Production Plunges As Tens of Thousands of Foxconn Employees Flee Zhengzhou

Recently, a massive COVID-19 outbreak occurred at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, the world's largest Apple iPhone assembly plant. Dissatisfied with the extreme epidemic prevention measures taken by the authorities, tens of thousands of employees fled the plant and returned to their hometowns on foot, staging a "great exodus" that shocked the world.

Since Oct. 29, a large number of TikTok videos from Zhengzhou, showed many employees escaping from the factory by climbing over the wire fences in the Foxconn Industrial Park. These employees were walking on foot late at night through wheat fields, in the woods, or on the highway. Some of them were carrying luggage and wearing blankets or quilts. Fearful of being caught, these escapees were afraid to buy bus tickets or disturb people along the route. They walked along the paths of the fields during the day and along the highways at night, carrying their luggage. They traveled day and night, eating on the move and sleeping on the roads. Some of them already walked for two days and nights.

Foxconn is Apple's largest iPhone maker, producing 70% of its global iPhone shipments, half of which are made at its Zhengzhou plant. This employee exodus will certainly affect iPhone production. According to Reuters, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Oct. 31 that iPhone production at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou could drop by as much as 30 percent next month. The source said Foxconn is trying to increase production at another factory in Shenzhen to make up for the shortfall. What’s more, this is just before the year-end holiday season, the golden period for suppliers like Apple and when electronic manufacturers are usually busy.

Some netizens say that Zhengzhou really is a peculiar city. Last year, a flood took the lives of many people; this year, the bank deposits of hundreds of thousands of people disappeared. In June, a nationwide wave of loan suspensions for unfinished buildings erupted, and Zhengzhou was widely regarded as the city with the most unfinished buildings in China. And now, there’s the great exodus of Foxconn employees. These events really highlight the brutality and incompetence of the CCP officials.