{"id":1754471,"date":"2022-11-29T08:58:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T13:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1754471"},"modified":"2022-11-29T08:58:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T13:58:31","slug":"apple-cant-ignore-its-giant-china-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/apple-cant-ignore-its-giant-china-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Can\u2019t Ignore Its Giant China Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fapple-cant-ignore-its-giant-china-problem%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1754471&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>While Americans were enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with their families and friends last week, protests\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/iphone-factory-workers-clash-with-police-at-covid-hit-plant-in-china-11669193001?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broke out<\/a>\u00a0at the world\u2019s largest iPhone factory in China, and protesters clashed with police. The incident is a reminder that Apple can no longer afford to ignore its China problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company and one of Apple\u2019s most important suppliers, owns the factory in Zhengzhou, China. The factory\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/iphone-factory-workers-clash-with-police-at-covid-hit-plant-in-china-11669193001?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a>\u00a0employs about 200,000 people. Last week\u2019s protests were driven mainly by two grievances.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>First and foremost was workers\u2019 dissatisfaction with the company\u2019s strict Covid protocols and poor living conditions. It has been three years since the first Covid outbreak in Wuhan, China, became known. Yet Beijing has continued to stick to its \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/04\/08\/china-abuses-its-people-with-new-lockdowns-as-it-struggles-to-contain-covid-surge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">zero Covid<\/a>\u201d policy and to enforce it with harsh measures, including frequent lockdowns. <\/p>\n<p>To avoid shutting down its factory, Foxconn has been running a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.assemblymag.com\/articles\/96967-closed-loop-systems-allow-chinese-plants-to-operate-during-lockdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">closed-loop system<\/a>, keeping employees confined within the factory and company-run dormitories. Following the Chinese government\u2019s Covid protocols, workers have been subjected to daily mass Covid testing and mandatory quarantine for those who tested positive and everyone in their proximity. The company also compels workers to wear N95 masks and take Chinese traditional medicine (there\u2019s no independent research supporting Beijing\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2020\/02\/01\/asia\/chinese-traditional-medicine-claims-coronavirus-intl-scli-hnk\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claim<\/a> that certain traditional Chinese medicine can fight Covid).<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-11-25\/china-iphone-factory-tensions-flamed-by-xi-jinping-s-covid-zero-policy?leadSource=uverify%20wall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bloomberg<\/a>, these Covid protocols are deeply flawed. For instance, \u201cAs many as 20 workers\u2019 throat swabs were put into one tube to speed testing and lower costs. If the results came back positive, all the workers whose samples were in that one tube were put into isolation for further testing. Those who worked on the same production line with someone who tested positive were also immediately removed from their duties and put into quarantine.\u201d As of October, about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/10\/31\/fearing-covid-workers-flee-from-foxconns-vast-chinese-iphone-plant.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">20,000<\/a>\u00a0workers were reportedly put in quarantine on-site.<\/p>\n<p>Unable to go outside, workers complained about long physical isolations from friends and families. They were also unhappy with the living conditions inside their dorms. They\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-11-25\/china-iphone-factory-tensions-flamed-by-xi-jinping-s-covid-zero-policy?leadSource=uverify%20wall\">told<\/a> reporters that they either received poor quality food or sometimes no food at all. \u201cIn some dormitories, trash piled up for weeks because no one was allowed to leave the building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Workers Flee <\/p>\n<p>The Chinese government\u2019s \u201czero Covid\u201d policy created much fear among the Chinese. In October, when rumors about a Covid outbreak inside the plant began to spread, thousands of workers who were already sick of the isolation and the pathetic living conditions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/10\/31\/fearing-covid-workers-flee-from-foxconns-vast-chinese-iphone-plant.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fled<\/a> the factory on foot. <\/p>\n<p>Foxconn tried to lure workers back by promising to pay an extra 30 yuan (about $4.19) in hourly pay. It might not sound much to Americans, but before this additional bonus, only those holding key positions inside the factory earned about 38 yuan ($5.30) per hour. Thus, the bonus was significant enough to entice some workers who fled in October back to work. But last week, when a rumor began to spread that Foxconn would delay the bonus payment until next March, workers had enough, and they staged a protest to express frustration with both the company\u2019s and the government\u2019s inhuman Covid policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week&#8217;s protests at an iPhone plant affirm that the company\u2019s compromised approach to China is risky and unsustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":1754474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1754471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1754471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1754471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1754471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1754471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}