After a COVID outbreak caused a lockdown at the workplace, workers have escaped Apple’s largest production plant in China.
A video shows people leaping a barrier outside the Foxconn manufacturing facility in Zhengzhou, located in the heart of China.
President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID policy is still a problem for the Chinese people and economy.
The number of COVID cases found at the factory is still unknown.
According to the Reuters news agency, Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s Henan province, recorded 167 locally transmitted diseases last week, up from 97 the week before.
As a result, Chinese authorities locked down part of the city of around 10 million people. As China continues to combat COVID.
With hundreds of thousands of employees at its Zhengzhou site, Foxconn is a supplier to US-based Apple but has not released an official estimate of how many of them are affected.
On Sunday, the Taiwan-based corporation asserted that it would not prevent employees from quitting.
However, according to a video posted on Chinese social media and shared by Stephen McDonnell, the BBC’s China reporter. Employees abandoned the property and started their long journeys back to their hometowns. While avoiding arrests in public transportation.
Conditions for workers in China
One employee, identified only as Xia, 22, told the Financial Times that the dormitories housing co-workers were “chaos.”
Foxxon sealed off the area around the plant to contain the spread. The company also continued to test and quarantine workers who test positive for COVID.
On October 19, Foxconn prohibited all dine-in catering, and employees at the Zhengzhou factory must eat in their rooms.
While the plant scaled up manufacturing of the newest iPhone 14 models, the firm told reporters that it maintains “regular production.”
Workers in Tibet protest
The video appears to show unusually large-scale protests against the strict COVID-19 regulations in Lhasa, the regional capital of Tibet.
Videos posted on social media show large crowds protesting and tussling with police. They are reportedly mostly migrant laborers of the Han Chinese ethnicity.
The city has been in lockdown for almost three months as it fights an illness wave.
Tibet is a closely guarded Chinese territories.
According to reports, the demonstrations began on Wednesday afternoon and continued into the evening.
Local officials reported on Thursday that eight new COVID instances had been detected in Lhasa. Neither the state nor the media have given official statements on the protests.
All video of the incident has been removed from Chinese social media sites. However, searches on Douyin revealed that many people were looking for information about the protest, such as “what happened in Lhasa tonight.”
Zero-COVID policy in China
Lockdown has been in effect in Lhasa since late August. Numerous Tibetans are have committed suicide since the lockdowns started according to rights organizations.
The zero-COVID policy in China has saved lives. Still, it has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy and populace, with people becoming weary of lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The demonstration on Wednesday is reportedly the largest the city has witnessed since the revolt in 2008, which claimed at least 19 lives.
Back then, Chinese security personnels violently beat up protesters. Afterwards, Tibet became off-limits to outsiders. The state deployed tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers.
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Tibet is an autonomous part of China, and Beijing claims the province has advanced significantly throughout its reign.
However, rights organizations assert that China still infringes on human rights, charging Beijing with suppression of politics and religion. Beijing disputes any wrongdoing.
