The Foxconn suicides were a spate of suicides linked to low pay and brutal working conditions at the Foxconn City industrial park in Shenzhen, China, that occurred alongside several additional suicides at various other Foxconn-owned locations and facilities in mainland China. [1] The series of suicides drew media attention, and employment practices at Foxconn—one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers—were investigated by several of its customers, including Apple and Hewlett-Packard (HP). [2]
While 2010 was a notable year for the company in the number of suicides, preceding years saw suicides being reported as well.
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ms. Hou | Unknown; Family name: 侯 | Female | 19 | 18 Jun 2007 | Hanged herself in a company bathroom. [3] [4] | Deceased |
Sun Dan-yong | 孙丹勇 | Male | 25 | 16 Jul 2009 | Threw himself from an apartment building [5] after losing an iPhone prototype in his possession. [6] Before death, he claimed he was beaten and his residence searched by Foxconn employees. [6] | Deceased |
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ma Xiang-qian | 马向前 [7] | Male | 19 | 23 Jan 2010 | Threw himself from building [8] [2] | Deceased |
Mr. Li | Unknown; Family name: 李 [7] | Male | 28 [2] | 11 Mar 2010 | Threw himself from building [9] | Unknown |
Tian Yu | 田玉 [7] | Female | 17 | 17 Mar 2010 | Threw herself from building [9] | Paralyzed from waist down [10] |
Mr. Lau | Unknown; Family name: 刘 [7] | Male | 23 | 29 Mar 2010 | Threw himself from building [9] | Unknown |
Rao Shu-qin | 饶淑琴 | Female | 18 [2] | 6 Apr 2010 | Threw herself from building [9] | Survived [2] |
Ms. Ning | Unknown; Family name: 宁 | Female | 18 | 7 Apr 2010 | Threw herself from building [9] | Deceased [2] |
Lu Xin | 卢新 [7] | Male | 24 | 6 May 2010 | Threw himself from building [9] | Deceased [11] |
Zhu Chen-ming | 祝晨明 [7] | Female | 24 | 11 May 2010 | Threw herself from building [12] | Deceased [2] |
Liang Chao | 梁超 [7] | Male | 21 | 14 May 2010 | Threw himself from building [13] | Deceased [2] |
Nan Gan | 南刚 [7] | Male | 21 | 21 May 2010 | Threw himself from building [14] | Deceased [2] |
Li Hai | 李海 | Male | 19 | 25 May 2010 | Threw himself from building [15] | Deceased [2] |
Mr. He | Unknown; Family name: 贺 [7] | Male | 23 | 26 May 2010 | Threw himself from building [16] | Unknown |
Mr. Chen | Unknown; Family name: 陈 [7] | Male | 25 | 27 May 2010 | Suicide | Deceased [7] |
Mr. Liu | Unknown; Family name: 刘 | Male | 18 | 20 Jul 2010 | Threw himself from the sixth floor of a dormitory building [17] [18] | Deceased [18] |
Unknown | Unknown | Male | 23 [19] | 5 Nov 2010 | Threw himself from building [20] [21] | Deceased [21] |
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wang Ling | Unknown | Female | 25 | 7 Jan 2011 | Jumped from building after being sent to a psychiatric hospital | Deceased [22] |
Unknown | Unknown | Male | 20 | 26 May 2011 | Threw himself from building. Died in Deyuan town, Chengdu (possibly in Pi County) | Deceased [23] |
Mr. Cai | Unknown; Family name: 蔡 | Male | 21 [24] | July 2011 [25] | Threw himself from building at Shenzhen plant. [25] | Deceased |
Li Rongying | Unknown | Female | 20 | 23 November 2011 | Threw herself from building | Deceased [26] |
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unknown | Unknown | Male | 23 | 14 June 2012 | Threw himself from building | Deceased [27] |
Additionally, 150 Chinese workers threatened suicide in protest on 2 January 2012. [28]
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Xu Lizhi | 许立志 | Male | 24 | 30 September 2014 | Threw himself from building | Deceased [29] |
Eva Dou of The Wall Street Journal reported the suicide of a 31-year-old night shift worker at Foxconn's production building in Zhengzhou on 18 August 2016. [30]
English name | Chinese name | Sex | Age | Suicide attempt date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Li Ming | 李明 | Male | 31 | 6 January 2018 | Threw himself from building | Deceased [31] |
Apple issued a public statement about the suicides, and company spokesperson Steven Dowling said "[Apple is] saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn... A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events, and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made." The statement was released after the results from the company's probe into its suppliers' labor practices were published in early 2010. Foxconn was not specifically named in the report, but Apple suggested poor treatment of workers in facilities that manufacture its products may include violations of labor laws, violations of Apple's own rules for suppliers, and child labor [32] (workers as young as 14 could legally work in China through special programs around the time this report was compiled).[ citation needed ]
Apple committed to the implementation of changes following the suicides, but in late 2014 news reports of labor issues at another factory of a Chinese supplier also surfaced. [33]
The 2010 suicides prompted 20 Chinese universities to compile an 83-page report on Foxconn, which they described as a "labor camp". Interviews of 1,800 Foxconn workers at 12 factories found evidence of illegal overtime and failure to report accidents. The report also criticized Foxconn's management style, which it called inhumane and abusive. [34] Additionally, long working hours, [35] discrimination towards Mainland Chinese workers by their Taiwanese coworkers, [36] and a lack of working relationships [37] were all presented as potential problems in the university report.
A 2012 audit of Foxconn performed by the Fair Labor Association, at the request of Apple Inc., suggested that workplace accidents might be commonplace and that workers may consider overtime pay insufficient. [38]
During the first two and a half months, which included six of the fourteen deaths from suicide, Foxconn took a "no comment" approach to their business crisis. [39] This left them vulnerable to media attacks, allowing the media to fill in their own information about the suicides. [40] Li and Xu made a statement, in their case study about the business' suicides, that "Foxconn's series of employee suicides were severe events in the mind of the general public, and its 'no comment' strategy led to a more negative perception of its reputation and severe consequences." [39] After the sixth suicide, Liu Kun, a spokesperson for Foxconn, stated that they were handling the crisis. [39] He also started using a "denial strategy" to avoid any blame for the suicides and instead directed the fault at "the victims and societal problems." [39]
Employees were made to sign a waiver stating that Foxconn would not be made liable if any individuals were to die by suicide. [41] This, however, caused more trouble for Foxconn, leading them to eventually retract the document. After they removed the waiver, they installed safety netting around the facility to prevent future suicides. [41] Foxconn also implemented a pay raise from 950 yuan to 1200 yuan, but they in turn increased their quota by twenty percent. [42] Buddhist monks were brought in to conduct prayer sessions. [35] Lastly, Foxconn opened their doors to two-hundred journalists. [39] Foxconn informed the writers that they were taking extra steps for the future; which included safety netting and more help hotlines for employees to be able to call. [39]
The chairman of Foxconn, Terry Gou, made the following statement at a press conference focused on the controversy: "We are certainly not running a sweatshop. We are confident we'll be able to stabilize the situation soon. A manufacturing team of 800,000 people is very difficult to manage." At the time of the company's press conference, the factory complex where the deaths occurred employed up to 300,000 people. [32] [43]
In May 2010, the Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) group held a protest in the lobby of Foxconn's Hong Kong headquarters. Around 25 protestors laid mannequins to rest and conducted funeral rites, while a spokesperson informed the media and onlookers: "We are staging the protest because of the high death rate [at Foxconn], with an abnormal number of workers committing suicide in the past five months". [43] Activists from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions were also present and held signs that read "Foxconn lacks a conscience" and "Suicide is no accident". They also burned cardboard cutouts resembling iPhones. [32]
The family of Ma Xianqian, one of the dead workers, protested outside the Foxconn factory. On 28 May 2010, demonstrators protested outside Hon Hai's Taipei headquarters laying flowers for those who had died at the Foxconn plant. Taiwanese unions and labor activists were also present at the Taipei protest and displayed banners that displayed Chinese text that translates into English as: "For wealth and power—physical and mental health spent, hopes lost" and "For profit of the brand—youth spent, dreams shattered". [45]
On 8 June 2010, the date of Foxconn's Annual General Meeting, student protesters from SACOM, Hong Kong labor unions and rights groups demonstrated outside a Hong Kong Apple store. [45]
A small group of young organizers picketed at an Apple store in San Francisco on 17 June 2010. The protesters carried placards showing the names and ages of the dead workers. [45]
The Economist [46] asserts that although the number of workplace suicides at Foxconn was large in absolute terms, number of people who died by suicide at Foxconn factories was lower than the overall suicide rate of China [47] . Steve Jobs has asserted that it is lower than the rate of suicide for the US. [48] According to a 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, China had a high suicide rate with approximately 22.23 deaths per 100,000 persons. [49] In 2010, the company's employee count was a reported 930,000 people. [50]
Labor activists stated the suicides supported their assertion that numerous labor abuses take place at Foxconn. [32] Economic conditions external to the company also might have been influential; during the same year, several major strike actions at other high-profile manufacturers occurred in China, and the Lewis turning-point is a macro-economic factor that might provide context for the events. If the above factors are true, it shows that there could be inconsistency between Foxconn's labor conditions and any progress in China's economy. [51]
However, one expert claimed that employees were treated comparatively well at Foxconn. Boy Lüthje, of Germany's Institute of Social Research, told TheEconomist that the company pays a minimum monthly wage of 900 yuan (US$130) as well as providing free recreational facilities, food, and lodging for employees at some of its factory complexes. [52] Overtime, however, may be routinely demanded. [53]
The Foxconn suicides have become the basis of works including the song Chairman Gou by James Supercave. The song mentions two persons involved in the incident, Chairman Terry Gou and Lu Xin. The content of the song is specifically referencing the suicide of 24 year old Chinese rural migrant worker Lu Xin, who committed suicide at the Shenzhen factory on 6 May 2010, certified dead onsite. By the end of May, CEO Terry Gou brought in psychiatrists to offer advice to depressed workers over phone and installed “safety nets” to deter employees from jumping off a building. [54] [55] This is reflected in the lines "Hire a hundred telephones/To talk the kids out of meaninglessness" and "Pay the right man to build a suicide net". [56]
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor or illegal working conditions, including little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting and ventilation, or uncomfortably or dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging, or underpaid. Employees in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and may be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits.
Terry Gou is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and politician. Gou is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. Founded in 1974, Foxconn grew to become an international business empire, becoming the largest private employer and exporter in mainland China with a workforce of 1.2 million. As of 2024, Gou had a net worth of US$10.4 billion.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (鴻海精密工業股份有限公司), doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團) in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集团) in Mainland China, and Foxconn (富士康) internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. In 2023, the company's annual revenue reached 6.16 trillion New Taiwan dollars and was ranked 20th in the 2023 Fortune Global 500. It is the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. While headquartered in Taiwan, the company earns the majority of its revenue from assets in China and is one of the largest employers worldwide. Terry Gou is the company founder and former chairman.
Thomas Andrew Merritt is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several podcasts. He is a former co-host of Tech News Today on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an executive editor for CNET and developer and co-host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud. As of March 2023, Merritt hosts Daily Tech News Show, Cordkillers and Sword and Laser, among other programs.
The Fair Labor Association (FLA) is a non-profit collaborative effort of universities, civil society organizations, and businesses.
Zhang Yin, also known as Cheung Yan according to the Cantonese pronunciation of her name, is a Chinese entrepreneur and one of the richest people in greater China. She currently ranks as the fourth richest woman in Mainland China, and 24th richest overall, according to the Hurun Report China Rich List 2013. She is the founder and director of the family company Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited, a recycling company that buys scrap paper from the United States, imports it into China, and mainly turns it into cardboard for use in boxes to export Chinese goods. The company is China's biggest paper maker.
China Labor Watch (CLW) is a U.S.-based non-profit organization founded in 2000 by labor activist Li Qiang. The organization focuses on investigating labor conditions affecting Chinese workers and raising awareness of labor rights issues. CLW conducts investigations, produces reports, offers educational programs for workers, and operates a hotline to provide support and resources for workers facing labor-related issues.
As of 2021, Apple, Inc. uses components from 43 countries. The majority of assembling is done by Taiwanese original design manufacturer firms Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal Electronics with factories mostly located inside China, but also Brazil, and India.
As the economy of China has rapidly developed, issues of labor relations have evolved. Prior to this reform, Chinese citizens were only allowed to work where they originated from. Since 1978, when China began labor force reforms, the overwhelming majority of the labor force were either working at State owned enterprises or as farm workers in the rural countryside. However, over time China began to reform and by the late 90's many had moved from the countryside into the cities in hopes of higher paying jobs and more opportunities. The only connection between the countryside and the city soon became that there was a huge floating population connecting them. Independent unions are illegal in China with only the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) permitted to operate. China has been the largest exporter of goods in the world since 2009. Not only that, in 2013 China became the largest trading nation in the world. As China moved away from their planned economy and more towards a market economy the government has brought on many reforms. The aim of this shift in economies was to match the international standards set by the World Trade Organization and other economic entities. The ACFTU that was established to protect the interests of national and local trade unions failed to represent the workers, leading to the 2010 crackdowns. However, these strikes were centered around foreign companies.
The 2010 Chinese labour unrest was a series of labour disputes, strike actions, and protests in the south of the People's Republic of China that saw striking workers successfully receive higher pay packages.
The 2011 Chengdu Foxconn explosion occurred on May 13, 2011 in Chengdu, Sichuan province, People's Republic of China.
SACOM, or Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour is a non-government organization founded in 2005 by a group of students and scholars from tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. SACOM monitors and publicizes the misconducts of multinational corporations through first-hand investigations in supplier factories.
Xu Lizhi was a Chinese poet and factory worker. Xu worked for Foxconn and attracted media attention after his suicide, after which his friends published his collection of poems.
Science and Technology Park (深圳富士康龙华园区) is a technology park in Longhua Town, Shenzhen, in the south of China, that is Foxconn's largest factory site worldwide. It gained notoriety in 2010 after a spate of suicide attempts, many of them successful, by employees at the Foxconn facilities in the area, totaling 15 attempts that year, 10-13 of which were fatal.
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With over 1 million union members in China, the Foxconn Trade Union is the world's largest trade union, and is also a company union. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., better known as Foxconn, is the largest private employer in China, with 1.4 million employees. In 2006, Foxconn workers established the first trade union in Shenzhen, China.
Luxshare Precision Industry Co. Ltd., also known as Luxshare-ICT, is a Chinese electronic components manufacturer.
Foxconn Industrial Internet Co., Ltd. is a publicly listed company that engages in the manufacture and sale of electrical equipment that includes telecommunications equipment, cloud computing equipment, precision tools and industrial robots.
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The Zhengzhou Foxconn protests, officially referred to by Foxconn Technology Group as the "Zhengzhou Mass Gathering Incident", began in November 2022. These protests, strikes, and violent clashes were initiated and participated in by some employees at the Zhengzhou factory in Henan Province, China, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, in response to Foxconn Technology Group's breach of contract and the Chinese government's "dynamic zero-COVID" policy.
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