Residents barred from leaving area in Zhengzhou
Published on: Saturday, November 26, 2022
By: AFP
BEIJING: Six million people were on Friday under Covid lockdown in a Chinese city home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, after clashes between police and workers furious over pay (pic).Authorities have ordered residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan, not to leave the area for the next five days, setting up barriers around “high-risk” apartment buildings and checkpoints to restrict travel.
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There have been only a handful of coronavirus cases in the city but under China’s zero-Covid policy even tiny outbreaks can spark gruelling lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing.
China’s daily caseload stood at 33,000 on Friday—a record for the country of 1.4 billion although small by global standards.
The lockdown in Zhengzhou follows protests by hundreds of employees over conditions and pay at Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory on the outskirts of the city, with images of fresh rallies emerging Friday.
Footage published on social media and geolocated by AFP showed a large group of people walking down a street in the east of the city, some holding signs.
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Workers previously told AFP the demonstrations had begun over a dispute over promised bonuses at the factory.
Scores of workers left the plant Thursday with payouts of 10,000 yuan ($1,400) from Foxconn.
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On Friday posts on Chinese short-video apps said the Taiwanese tech giant was turning away many of thousands of people who had answered hiring ads from the firm after a raft of departures last month.
Some who arrived to take up newly vacant posts had been sent to quarantine hotels outside the plant despite in the end being refused a job, multiple workers told AFP.
He added that there had been multiple small protests in other Henan cities by Foxconn workers made to quarantine and unable to start work.
The unrest in Zhengzhou comes against the backdrop of mounting public frustration over the government’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid.
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