The Labor Question in China: Apple and Beyond

Apple's co mmercial triumph res ts in part o n the o uts o urcing o f its co ns umer electro nics pro ductio n to As ia. D rawing o n extens ive fieldwo rk at China's leading expo rter-the Taiwanes e-o wned Fo xco nn-the po wer dynamics o f the buyer-driven s upply chain are analys ed in the co ntext o f the natio nal terrains that mediate o r even accentuate glo bal pres s ures . Po wer as ymmetries as s ure the do minance o f Apple in price s etting and the timing o f pro duct delivery, res ulting in intens e pres s ures and illegal o vertime fo r wo rkers . Res po nding to the high-pres s ure pro ductio n regime, the yo ung generatio n o f Chines e rural migrant wo rkers engages in a cres cendo o f individual and co llective s truggles to define their rights and defend their dignity in the face o f co mbined co rpo rate and s tate po wer.

Springer, 2021

In 2010, 15 young migrant workers committed suicide in the Foxconn Technology Group factories in Shenzhen City, China (East Week Magazine 2010). This startling tragedy brought global attention not only to Foxconn but also to sweatshops throughout China. In response, a group of Chinese academics advocated for justice for young migrant workers in China’s sweatshops (Chan and Pun 2010). In 2012, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) launched a special investigation of Apple’s assembly supplier factories and found excessive overtime and unsafe conditions among workers (FLA 2012). Some argue that the poor factory conditions are caused by the emergence of China’s monopoly capitalism brought about by the economic transformation and decentralization of local government and business (Guo et al. 2012). However, the larger context that has given rise to the Foxconn phenomenon has been less well examined. This article examines the history of the development of Foxconn’s manufacturing system, not only from a dynamic local economy perspective, but also from the perspective of cross-scale investigations of the global industry transfer. We use mixed research methods in this investigation, including literature review, media review, field research, and projective drawing making. On site, observation and collaboration with workers through photo taking and interview have been made. We argue that the impact of Foxconn on social, cultural, and environmental conditions at multiple scales is an inescapable consequence of global capital flow under local laissez-faire policies and will continuously diffuse to more developing and industrializing countries. Furthermore, we argue that the stressful working ethics and severe environmental conditions in Foxconn manufacturing plants have serious negative impact on workers’ mental health, physical health, and well-being.

This study used an international perspective to analyze how newspapers in the United States and China framed a specific global sweatshop issue: a continuous spate of suicides at the Foxconn Technology Group, a major supplier to Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 92 newspaper articles appearing in US and Chinese newspapers, this study found Chinese newspapers framed the suicides mainly as the psychological problems of a young generation rather than a sweatshop issue. Newspapers in the US used a traditional human rights abuser frame to portray the suicides. Foxconn was the main social actor cited in most news coverage. Both the US and Chinese newspapers framed the case as a China-specific problem, ignoring global social justice and world economy aspects. This study contributes more broadly to framing research by developing an approach that is distinctly used for cross-cultural framing studies about a global issue.

Globalization has become a prominent theme of inquiry among social scientists. The pace, breadth and depth of globalization today is unprecedented, and local self-sufficiency has been reduced while global interdependence has increased. Advanced information and communication technologies, logistics and transportation, and trade networks contribute to an increasing global division of labor. The division of labor is a key concept that links Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Karl Marx's concept of alienation and critique of political economy, and Émile Durkheim's concept of anomie and study of social solidarity. This paper situates the tragic plight of Foxconn factory workers in China within Adam Smith's division of labor, Karl Marx's concept of alienation and four main aspects of alienated labor, Marx's concept of commodity fetishism, and Durkheim's concept of anomie, social solidarity, anomic division of labor and suicide. I bring together information from a variety of sources to investigate the spate of attempted suicides, suicides, injuries, and deaths that occurred in 2010 at Foxconn factories in China.

A startling 17 young workers attempted or committed suicide at the Foxconn production facilities in China between January and August 2010 attracted worldwide attention. This article looks at the historical development of Foxconn Technology Group as a case to reveal the advent of rapid capital expansion in China and its impacts on Chinese workers' lives. It also provides an account on the social and political origins of the advent of monopoly capital in China through a detailed study of Foxconn production expansion. As a legend of capital expansion in manufacturing industry, Foxconn is important and typical of its speed and its scale in the process of capital accumulation on all regions of China. We attempt to look at this miracle of capital by understanding the enigma of global capital, the nature of the transformative state, and the Chinese growth model that results in rapid capital expansion but precarious working conditions of workers. At stake, we argue that under the global competition context a strong political regime with a divided nature and the making of an unfinished working class contributed to the advent of monopoly capital and the tragedy of working lives.

China at Work. A Labour Process Perspective on the Transformation of Work and Employment in China, 2016

eCommons (Cornell University), 2016

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This article examines how global value chains (GVCs) have shaped a world factory regime, based on the case study of the Foxconn group in Shenzhen, China. We identify three features that characterize a world factory regime: the GVCs’ impacts, the fragmented structure of corporate governance, and workplace despotism, and propose a concept of “global fragmented despotism” to explain changing labor conditions, workers’ suicides and resistance uncovered in Foxconn since 2010.

BMC Public Health, 2011

Background: Media reporting of suicide and its relationship with actual suicide has rarely been investigated in Mainland China. The "Foxconn suicides" is a description referring to a string of suicides/attempts during 2010, all of which were related to a giant electrical manufacturing company, Foxconn. This study aimed to examine the clustering and copycat effects of the Foxconn suicides, and to investigate temporal patterns in how they were reported by the media in Mainland China, Hong Kong (HK), and Taiwan (TW). Methods: Relevant articles were collected from representative newspapers published in three big cities in Mainland China (Beijing (BJ), Shenzhen (SZ), and Guangzhou (GZ)), HK, and TW, together with searching intensity data on the topic conducted using the Baidu search engine in Mainland China. The temporal clustering effects of the Foxconn suicides and their media prominence were assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The media reports of the Foxconn suicides' temporal patterns were explored using a nonparametric curve estimation method (that is, the local linear method). The potential mutual interactions between the Foxconn suicides and their media prominence were also examined, using logistic and Poisson regression methods. Results: The results support a temporal clustering effect for the Foxconn suicides. The BJ-based newspapers' reporting and the occurrence of a Foxconn suicide/attempt are each found to be associated with an elevated chance of a further Foxconn suicide 3 days later. The occurrence of a Foxconn suicide also immediately influenced the intensity of both Baidu searching and newspaper reporting. Regional diversity in suicide reporting tempopatterns within Mainland China, and similarities between HK and TW, are also demonstrated. Conclusions: The Foxconn suicides were temporally clustered. Their occurrences were influenced by the reporting of BJ-based newspapers, and contagion within the company itself. Further suicide research and prevention work in China should consider its special media environment.

Critical Sociology, 2022

As the first ethnographic account of Foxconn in Zhengzhou—the world largest iPhone manufacturing base—this paper shows that a new labor regime featuring "hegemonic precarity" has arisen since capital's move to inland China. Despite being offered formal contracts with long-term benefits, inland Foxconn workers choose a more precarious employment status. I argue that this surprising pattern is a result of the interaction between dynamics at the point of production and that of social reproduction. Through the mechanism of "hoarding of time," Foxconn's management pays relatively high wages to a minority of workers while keeping the majority's wages minimal. Meanwhile, changing dynamics in the realm of social reproduction makes Foxconn workers, especially women with children, constantly struggle between work and the family. Working together, these factors have led to extremely high turnover rates, bleak prospects for labor solidarity, and the rise of "gig manufacturing" in China.