An exodus of Foxconn workers in Zhengzhou has become a major topic on Chinese social media this weekend. A mismanagement of a Covid outbreak at the huge ‘factory city’ – the world’s largest iPhone factory – led employees to leave the locked-down campus, starting their long journey home on foot.

Foxconn (富士康), the world’s largest technology manufacturer and Apple supplier, is trending on Weibo after its factory in Zhengzhou, Henan, was recently hit by a Covid outbreak.

On social media, there has been confusion about what the actual situation is like in Zhengzhou and at Foxconn, as there has been a stark difference between what official channels are reporting and what social media users are sharing about the situation.

The Foxconn complex in Zhengzhou, where half of the world’s iPhones are made, employs approximately 300,000 people. Factory workers live at the Foxconn dormitories and usually eat inside the campus.

But since October 19, as reported by Reuters, Foxconn banned all dine-in at their canteens and required factory workers to take their meals in their dormitories.

In early October, Zhengzhou official channels reported zero new daily Covid cases, with numbers going up after one new Covid infection was reported on 4 October. The week after, the daily new Covid cases count peaked at 40 new cases on 9 October, after which it went down again.

Officially, the total new cases in Zhengzhou from 4 October-29 October was 432, but it is unclear if the Foxconn Covid cases are included in this official number. Actually, there is a lot that is not clear about this situation at all.

What mainly caught the attention on Chinese social media is how an unspecified number of Foxconn employees fled the Foxconn ‘factory city’ this weekend, starting their long journey home on foot, walking on highways and fields across the Central Plains while carrying their blankets, bags, and other personal belongings.

Besides the many posts on WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin showing hundreds of Foxconn workers on their way home by foot, there were also images showing how locals had set up little stands offering free water and other refreshments to Foxconn workers to help them stay hydrated and fed during their long journey home.

On Sunday, official channels reported that Foxconn issued a statement saying their employees are free to leave if they want to, and that they are doing everything they can to ensure a safe trip home for their workers. But many on social media did not take their statement seriously.

“When these employees return to their hometowns on foot, Foxconn has already completely lost, their statement is just to cover up their embarrassment,” some said.

Covid Chaos at Foxconn Zhengzhou

So what actually happened at Foxconn that made factory workers flee by foot? That is what many people want to know: “So what went on in the factory? Why would so many employees want to flee? So much that they would be willing to return to their hometown on foot?”

One WeChat post by a young Foxconn worker alleges that the first Covid cases at Foxconn Zhengzhou appeared as early as October 8, but that it did not attract any attention until October 14, when the factory suddenly implemented a ‘closed-loop system’ (闭环管理), which made the staff realize how serious the situation must have become.

The most important thing the closed-loop approach does is basically shutting off the workers from the outside workers by creating a barrier between the ‘inside’ community and the ‘outside’ world, with very strict checks on who can enter and exit the area, and usually a ban on group gatherings within the area.

For the Foxconn workers, it meant their lives were restricted to the dorms and factory workshops in a ‘point-based work resumption’ style (点式复工). According to the ‘point-to-point’ (点对点) strategy, employees are staying within the closed loop of their workplace and (work) community, making sure that work can resume amid a Covid outbreak.

But according to the anonymous Foxconn worker, the closed loop and point-to-point systems were failing because thousands of workers were still living, working, and commuting together, with some people being careless about wearing masks, smoking, and still spitting on the ground. The epidemic situation within Foxconn Zhengzhou was therefore allegedly getting worse.

Although those who were testing positive for Covid-19 were isolated elsewhere, there was nowhere to isolate their close contacts, so they just stayed within the dorms and later were allegedly even allowed to resume work, mixing all the workers together.

Then there were more problems with supplies and planning. Some factory workers only received one KN95 mask every three days, and for lunch they received a lunch box that they were supposed to eat at the dorms; but that meant a 40-minute walk back and forth for some depending on their dorm location. If they would not clock in to work, they would not receive a meal, so this meant some people risked getting Covid by going to work just in order to get their meal.

Foxconn even offered a bonus to those who would come in to work, clearly prioritizing production over Covid risks.

Some videos circulating on social media show the incredibly filthy circumstances at the Foxconn dorms.

As the chaos at Foxconn Zhengzhou reportedly reached a boiling point, some factory workers were required to come into work even after they found that someone in their workshop had tested positive.

Image allegedly showing how trash coming from those isolated at Foxonn dorms was not dealt with.

The Foxconn worker writes:

“Facing disaster, every individual is so insignificant, and we all just want the same thing: to live well. But under these circumstances, living well seems to have become an excessive wish. I don’t know whether it is the weakness of life or the sadness of the current situation. We are fully aware in the eyes of Foxconn, production always comes first. But we really just want to live a normal life, we don’t want to be scared and on edge all day long, we just want to eat a normal meal, take off our masks when we go to sleep, take a look at the outside world, and restore the beauty of life.”

These sentiments and the despair among Foxconn workers in Zhengzhou become so strong that many Foxconn workers literally decided to jump the fences and break the barriers over the past weekend to go home. Without any other available transportation, they just went by foot.

Workers have broken out of #Apple’s largest assembly site, escaping the Zero #Covid lockdown at Foxconn in #Zhengzhou. After sneaking out, they’re walking to home towns more than 100 kilometres away to beat the Covid app measures designed to control people and stop this. #China pic.twitter.com/NHjOjclAyU

— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) October 30, 2022

Despite censorship of articles, videos, and images relating to this story, there have been widespread discussions on this incident and the situation at Foxconn.

Compilation of some footage (no audio) showing the mass exodus of Zhengzhou Foxconn workers, starting a long journey home on foot after serious Covid mismanagement at the Foxconn 'factory city'. pic.twitter.com/c1nEUhqCVI

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) October 30, 2022

The majority of people show sympathy for the Foxconn workers who fled the factory city, and the major incident also triggered some sensitive discussions on the feasibility of China’s zero-Covid policy.

Foxconn China, the largest private-sector employer in the mainland, has come into the spotlight multiple times over labor exploitation and unethical working conditions. A series of worker suicides at Foxconn factories linked to low pay and brutal working conditions focused attention on the Foxconn conditions and sparked widespread criticism in 2010.

One Weibo commenter wrote: “The fact that people do not denounce those who fled Foxconn, but instead give them kindness, still gives me hope in our present-day society.”

Read a 11.23.22 update to the Foxconn situation here.

By Manya Koetse , with contributions by Miranda Barnes

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