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.