Videos on Chinese social media sites have surfaced that show several Chinese migrant workers scaling a fence outside a Foxconn plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones. The videos show workers fleeing China’s largest iPhone plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus, according to a report by news agency ANI.
Photographs and videos are being circulated on Chinese social media sites that show how Foxconn’s migrant workers are returning home, trekking across fields during the day and along roads at night.
The Covid-19 outbreak had forced the Foxconn unit’s workers into a lockdown. In the videos shared, several people were seen scaling the fence of a Foxconn plant in China’s Covid-hit Zhengzhou. The video of workers leaving the manufacturing facility was also shared by Stephen McDonnell, BBC’s China correspondent.
A migrant worker was quoted as saying by Financial Times that they jumped a plastic and metal fence to escape the campus. They said that the area surrounding the plant had been “locked down for days” and those who tested positive for Coronavirus are being tested daily to check the transmission.
Zhengzhou city is home to about 10 million people and is currently under partial lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak, a report claimed.
Meanwhile, according to news agency Reuters which cited a source, iPhone supplier Foxconn’s Covid-19 woes at its vast iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou city could slash the unit’s November iPhone shipments by up to 30 per cent. In order to meet demand, Foxconn is, however, working to boost iPhone production at its facility in the southern city of Shenzhen, the Reuters report added citing the source.
Meanwhile, Apple has decided to cut down on the production of the iPhone 14 Plus due to the low demand for the model. The iPhone maker has asked at least one Apple supplier to immediately halt production of the iPhone 14 and has also contacted two component suppliers to lower production of the iPhone 14 by up to 90 per cent.