BEIJING (AP) – Employees at Apple’s world’s largest iPhone factory were beaten and detained in protests over pay amid virus checks, according to witnesses and videos on social media Wednesday, as tensions rose over the efforts Chinese to fight a further rise in infections. .
Videos said to have been filmed at the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou showed thousands of masked people facing lines of white-suited police with plastic riot shields. Police kicked and beat a protester with batons after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to beat him.
Frustration over restrictions in areas across China that have closed shops and offices and confined millions to their homes has turned into protests. Videos on social media show residents tearing down barricades set up to enforce neighborhood closures.
The ruling Communist Party pledged this month to try to reduce disruptions by shortening quarantines and making other changes. But the party is sticking to a “zero COVID” strategy that aims to isolate all cases while other governments relax controls and try to live with the virus.
Last month, thousands of workers walked out of the iPhone factory operated by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group over complaints of unsafe working conditions following cases of the virus.
A protest erupted on Tuesday over complaints that Foxconn changed conditions for new workers who were lured by offers of higher wages, according to Li Sanshan, an employee.
He said he quit a catering job in response to an advertisement promising 25,000 yuan ($3,500) for two months of work. Li, 28, said the workers were angry after being told they had to work two more months at a lower salary to receive the 25,000 yuan.
“Foxconn threw out very tempting recruitment offers, and workers came from all over the country, only to find they were being tricked,” Li said.
Foxconn, based in the city of New Taipei, Taiwan, said in a statement that the “labor subsistence” has “always been fulfilled based on the contractual obligation.”
Foxconn denied what it said were online comments that employees with the virus were living in dormitories at the Zhengzhou factory. He said the facilities were disinfected and passed government checks before employees moved in.
“Regarding any violence, the company will continue to communicate with employees and the government to prevent similar incidents from occurring again,” the company’s statement said.
Protests have escalated as the number and severity of outbreaks have increased in China, prompting authorities in areas such as the capital Beijing to lock down neighborhoods and impose other restrictions that residents say go beyond the which is allowed by the national government.
More than 253,000 cases have been found in the past three weeks and the daily average is rising, the government reported on Tuesday. This week, authorities reported the first deaths from COVID-19 in China in six months.
On Wednesday, the government reported 28,883 cases found in the past 24 hours, including 26,242 without symptoms. Henan province, where Zhengzhou is the capital, reported 851 in total.
The government will enforce its anti-COVID policy while “resolutely overcoming the mentality of paralysis and laxity,” said a National Health Commission spokesman, Mi Feng.
The city government of Guangzhou, the site of the largest outbreak, announced it had opened 19 temporary hospitals with a total of nearly 70,000 beds for coronavirus patients. The city announced plans last week to build hospitals and quarantine facilities for 250,000 people.
Also on Wednesday, Beijing opened a hospital in an exhibition center and suspended access to Beijing University of International Studies after a case of the virus was found there. The capital earlier closed shopping malls and office buildings and suspended access to some apartment complexes.
Foxconn previously said its Zhengzhou factory uses “closed-loop management,” meaning employees live in their workplace without outside contact.
The protest lasted until Wednesday morning when thousands of workers gathered outside the dormitories and confronted factory security workers, according to Li.
Other videos showed protesters spraying fire extinguishers at police.
A man who identified himself as the Communist Party secretary in charge of community services was shown in a video posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo urging the protesters to withdraw. He assured them that their demands would be met.
Apple Inc. has warned that deliveries of its new iPhone 14 model will be delayed due to disease controls at the factory. The city government suspended access to an industrial zone surrounding the factory, which Foxconn has said employs 200,000 people.
News reports said the ruling party had ordered “grassroots” to replace Foxconn employees in Zhengzhou who left. The company did not respond to requests for confirmation and details about that deal.
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Zen Soo reported from Hong Kong. AP News Assistant Caroline Chen contributed.