Wow, don’t think I’ve seen Apple issue a PR like this before. No doubt Apple’s considering now more than ever to continue to diversify their supply chain. China seems to have no issue continuing with their Zero-Covid approach.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/31/fearing-covid-workers-flee-f...
These sources include some dramatic video:
https://nypost.com/2022/10/31/chinese-workers-jump-fence-to-...
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/11/05/we-were-scared-workers-at-...
- Foxconn workers have to walk on highways for hundreds of miles with their luggage to go back home
- Villagers nearby set up free food and water distribution stalls en route
- Some scoundrels steal all the food and water
- The thief are forcibly sent to quarantine because they are now classified as close contacts to COVID positives
For anyone wondering why: It it because they are labeled as COVID close contact by health code system, so they cannot take public transport system even they have enough money.
But someone within 10km of home is scarcely a 'migrant worker' - you could start in south Mumbai, walk 30km north, and still be in Mumbai :)
- Zhengzhou Foxconn Factory: 10,000+ workers flee covid lockdown/Apple iPhone Production Plunges (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9DXebls8Bc)
- Zhengzhou Foxconn workers keep on fleeing and now China locks down area around 'iPhone city' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKBAeie5wY)
Are they twisting the truth? It is difficult to say without corroborated information that poses an alternate read of the facts.
Is it cherry picking information? Almost certainly.
If you trust the translation in the voice overs or subtitles and the sources of the videos themselves, there is still a lot of material there.
Spotlight on China is another that has news about China's economics / industry / politics for outside of China consumption that doesn't appear to be state media.
https://nitter.net/StephenMcDonell/status/158663367115021107...
It looks very disturbing to see them hauling their luggage (why do they have luggage at their place of employment?) out of something that I can only interpret to look like a prison.
Because it's also their place of residence.
I thought the concept of company towns was more financial and economic slavery, eg your company gives you a mortgage to a buy a house from the company, all near work so you can work long hours, and you're essentially an indentured servant.
But this is actual slavery, these people are literally locked in and can't leave except by crawling over barbed wire fences.
It was so crazy.
In other cities authorities literally welded doors and cut small windows: https://newtimes.kz/storage/news/news/2020/04/05/5e8973f787b...
Thankfully this hysteria did not last long.
The real question is why these factories are built in the middle of nowhere. There's no clear need for it; no reason they couldn't just be built in cities. They're not heavy industrial polluters or anything that would make people not want them in city limits.
Japanese companies also own worker housing, sometimes even owning the CEO’s house (as a way of making his wages look lower). Some of them are also abusive, doesn’t mean they all are.
If it were that bad, Apple would have said something more in their press release.
If things get worse, there will be another press release.
Based on FY22 total net sales[1], the entire Mac category accounted for 10.2%, whereas iPhone category accounted for 52.1%.
In other words, if iPhone production volume were reduced by just -10% of FY22 levels going into the holidays, that would be equivalent to half of Mac revenue!
The press release was making forward-looking statements so you may be correct, but this thought experiment suggests that even if they were experiencing Mac throughput issues, it's almost irrelevant if the same facility is being shared with iPhone production.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/0000320193220...
Mens' clothes have adapted significantly over the past 15 years to accommodate growing devices - it's just happened slowly enough that it's hard to notice.
Modern jeans are made with deeper front pockets; and a lot of sportswear has added/redesigned pockets. I have running clothes from 20 years ago with nothing but a space for some keys, and others with only shallow pockets with no button or zip - hardly suitable for carrying a $1000 phone! Modern running clothes often add a large, zipped, sweat-proof pocket specifically designed for carrying a phone.
People's experience of this will vary with their style preferences, naturally - nothing modern exceeds the pockets on a 1990s pair of cargo pants or JCNO jeans! And if you update your clothes regularly, your entire wardrobe might have gained large pockets without you noticing.
Yes, never understood them either. It's no issue to sit with a phone and wallet in the pocket/backpockets. This is more of a The Princess and the Pea-style issue than a real problem....
My iphone 7 fits ok-ish in my front pokets if I stand but I have to adjust it and pull it down when I want to sit. It's the main reason why I was looking at the 13 mini as opposed to the regular.
As for a coat/suit jacket I can always tell when someone has a large phone in their suit jacket pocket. If you care about that sort of thing it really ruins the line and drape of the jacket.
An iPhone 14 plus barely fits 100% in some tighter pockets on jeans/trousers and gives significant restriction in movement and comfort. YMMV.
Because Apple didn't upgrade the CPU in the non-pro this year the iPhone 13 Pro is still the better device.
Supply might be good for now but there's consequences in the near term.
Do we know what’s now changed?
1. Workers only get food if they show up for their shift. If they are sick and don't work, there is no place to get food in the Foxconn campus. Due to the lockdown, the workers can't order food delivered online if sick.
2. When local governments force people to quarantine, they are supposed to provide basic meals. However, it seems most workers who were quarantined recently did not receive any food or water for days because the local government expected Foxconn to provide it instead.
3. Someone made a viral video suggesting everyone who was quarantined in a dormitory room died of a new deadly disease.
This is now just routine, very easy way to get views (courtesy government of some country that chose to hush the beginnings of a pandemic).
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/02/apple-iphone-assembly-plant-...
From different news outlets and youtube channels that cover china's zero covid policy I feel the statement above referring to the health and safety of the Foxconn workers is pure PR puff.
I really like this youtube channel call China Insights witch gives some decent information on this exact Foxconn issues and how the workers are fleeing the lock-down.
I imagine it's politically difficult. If they open the floodgates, it's going to be worse than for most other countries because they haven't had a chance to build natural immunity from exposure, only from vaccines. And any wave of infections is going to be seen as a failure of zero-covid, making the hardships of it meaningless; a failure of the party.
I'm not sure how they are going to get out of it without letting some heads roll. Maybe a wonder vaccine that will make all of China immune.
If they end zero-covid policy it's admitting they were wrong and that its failed.
On the flip side their covid vaccine has also being a failure.
I think this is the bigger one -- studies indicate it's not nearly as effective as the western (mRNA) Covid shots, but China refuses to use the western shots. If they open the floodgates and (to absolutely no one's surprise) death rates spike, it proves that the Chinese shot was indeed mostly useless.
Implementing strict hygiene precautions is still important - especially in dense populated regions and at work places with close contact. But this isolation at all costs and without taking proper care for the isolated, is just a disaster. Especially, if it can only slow down the spread, but no longer contain it.
Note that you can't get immunity from exposure without .. being exposed, which means you get the side effects of exposure.
I think one problem in China is that old people have resisted being vaccinated because they don’t trust the authorities. And old people are obviously the most at risk of dying or being seriously ill. It’s a made in China problem, for sure.
Nada.
The first thing he after he arrived in the US was to get vaccinated.
Perhaps you have evidence that Sinovax works?
It’s really quite amazing China hasn’t forced them to vaccinate.
When companies want to bury the news, they release it on Friday. It's called "taking out the trash."
/Former journo
More likely these are new developments and Apple just heard of them relatively recently, keeping in mind that it's already Monday morning in China.
This is also quite likely retaliation from China for Biden's latest trade war actions. Apple, is after all, one of two major US companies whose share price has not been turned into rubble. Doing this days before Midterms, knowing how desperate the Democrats are, is perfect timing. If Apple's share price falls drastically, it will be headline news and will likely also materially impact most indexes.
What's the other major US company whose share price hasn't been rubble-ized? Why Tesla of course. And their biggest and - most likely - only profitable factory is in China.