Foxconn, one of Apple’s suppliers, is facing a crisis at its iPhone meeting plant in Zhengzhou, China, after shutting down the facility in accordance with the country’s zero-COVID policy.
Videos circulating on social media appear to show plant staff jumping fences and hitchhiking with passing trucks and cars to escape quarantine. 19 instances on campus.
The workers escaped from #Apple’s largest gathering site, escaping the Zero #Covid blockade at Foxconn in #Zhengzhou. After sneaking in, they march to their villages more than a hundred kilometers away to beat the Covid app measures designed for other people and prevent this. # China pic. twitter. com/fShxj8WpIl
– Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) October 30, 2022
Since early October, Zhengzhou, a city in central China that is home to some 12 million people, has been under partial lockdown in line with the country’s zero-tolerance policy toward COVID-19 that gives cities sweeping powers to adopt quarantines and mass requirements, even when the number of instances is low.
In mid-October, a lockdown was also instituted at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou campus, which houses 200,000 employees as part of a “closed-loop” system, where staff live on-site to keep production lines running at China’s largest production plants.
Foxconn has not yet provided an official tally of the number of employees inflamed.
Yuan, a factory employee who spoke to Reuters, said he and his colleagues closed the factory on Oct. 14.
“We had to do PCR tests, and after about 10 days, we had to wear an N95 mask and were given classical Chinese medicine,” Yuan said.
Every time a positive or suspected case was detected on a production line, it was broadcast to the public, but the pictures continued, he told Reuters.
“People would be called to half work, and if they don’t show up the next day, it would mean they’ve been taken away,” Yuan said.
After several days of confinement, Yuan joined others fleeing and scaled fences Saturday night to escape the compound, he said. He and others feared the COVID-19 outbreak inside the facility would spread, though their employers gave them little advice on important points about the situation.
Staff fleeing #Foxconn posted images. Here’s an organization of them coming home in the back of a truck. Some truck drivers who were helping them were reportedly quarantined. #ZéroCovid #Chine pic. twitter. com/YJKDh8FX76
– Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) October 31, 2022
On Sunday afternoon, Foxconn issued a statement saying they were allowing staff to leave the factory if they wished and would help those who wanted to return home by arranging transportation to outside quarantine sites.
Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam told CNN that 10 to 30 percent of iPhone 14 production could be affected in the short term if the scenario at the Zhengzhou plant is controlled. He estimates that the Zhengzhou campus accounts for up to 85% of all iPhone production.
On a Tuesday, Foxconn said it was quadrupling daily bonuses for the staff remaining at the plant this month.
— With Reuters archives