Apple Built Its Empire With China. Now Its Foundation Is Showing Cracks.
New York TimesNov 08, 2022
After large-scale protests erupted at Foxconn's iPhone factory in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou on Wednesday, Apple's major supplier apologized to workers on Thursday, saying a "technical error" had occurred when hiring new recruits at the COVID-hit factory.
The Zhengzhou plant is the world’s largest iPhone factory, with approximately 200k workers. In mid-October, unconfirmed estimates said around 10% of the workforce had been placed in quarantine on site, and thousands were driven to flee when the company allegedly failed to address complaints about unsafe working conditions.
China's “zero Covid” policy has slowed factory output and quickly turned Apple's close ties with the country from an asset into a liability. While Apple is taking steps to try and slowly extract itself, this is difficult given just how entangled its business is with Beijing. The Chinese government must loosen COVID restrictions if Apple is to recover any of its supply shortages and meet demand.
The Chinese government’s insistence on strict COVID lockdowns should not be used as an excuse by companies like Foxconn and Apple to enact forced labor, and closed-loop management practices are exactly that. Foxconn is choosing to prioritize profit over workers’ health and human rights, and Apple refuses to acknowledge the harms committed under its watch. Western consumers have a responsibility to speak out.
There's a 50% chance that China will officially cease to be a socialist state by March 7, 2086, according to the Metaculus Prediction Community.