(Oct 30): Workers are departing Apple Inc's biggest iPhone plant in China, seeking to escape hastily enacted Covid-19 measures that left many of the 200,000 staff grappling with inadequate living conditions. Tensions at the Zhengzhou plant underscore the economic and social costs of Xi Jinping’s Covid Zero policy, a rigorously policed system of mass testing and quarantine lockdowns that has fostered growing resentment. The company hires many temporary workers from nearby regions to assemble electronics including Apple Inc's latest iPhone 14 devices. Over the past few days, photos and video clips flooded social media sites such as Douyin and Weibo, purportedly taken by Foxconn workers dissatisfied with conditions at the plant. Foxconn said on Wednesday it was assisting a "small number of employees affected by Covid-19" at its Zhengzhou facility.

Source: The Edge Markets October 31, 2022 03:08 UTC