It appears that China is still locking down their people to achieve zero COVID. This time it sparked huge riots in the largest iPhone Factory operated by FoxConn in Zhengzhou, China. The 200,000 person factory has been in total isolation for weeks and the workers are working in grueling shifts to churn out iPhones. On Nov. 23 hundreds of workers, angry to learn that they need to stay through mid-March to get the $10K RMB (about $1400 USD) per month pay advertised, pushed past the security staff guarding their living quarters, setting off huge riots. It’s total chaos as shown in the video above. Considering the restrictions and the working environment the Foxconn workers are facing, it’s understandable why this happened.
Foxconn later apologized for the *misunderstanding* about the work contract. Many workers thought they only needed to work until the end of November to receive their $10K RMB/month pay and it’s optional for them to stay through Chinese New Year and into Spring next year. But apparently, the recruiting advertisements (written by the local government officials) have some discrepancy from the actual contract and the workers actually need to stay in the factory for at least another three months to get the pay. This made the workers super frustrated. Foxconn later resolved the issue by giving all the workers the option to leave the factory immediately and to receive at least $10K in pay. Many workers started their job in October before the strict lockdown. But the COVID cases started skyrocketing and the whole factory was locked down. The workers didn’t have enough food to eat and their dormitories were littered with trash. It’s basically a living hell that most people will want to escape from. But these workers were lured by the good pay and big brand names like Apple and Foxconn.
I am glad that the situation is now under control. The workers could have risked their lives by starting such a big (justifiable) riot. Anyhow this zero COVID policy is crazy. I can’t believe China is still locking people down while the rest of the world is fully open. I hope the world won’t be dragged down by China and I pray for Chinese people to get through the COVID lockdown torture with little suffering.