The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 8 | Issue 37 | Number 2 | Article ID 3408 | Sep 13, 2010

1

Suicide as Protest for the New Generation of Chinese MigrantWorkers: Foxconn, Global Capital, and the State　　若手出稼ぎ中国人の抗議自殺−−フォックスコン、グローバル資本、国家

Jenny Chan, Pun Ngai

Suicide as Protest for the NewGeneration of Chinese MigrantWorkers: Foxconn, Global Capital,and the State

A German translation of this article is availableh e r e(https://apjjf.org/data/3408_Foxconn_Deutsch.pdf). Chinese translations are available:T r a d i t i o n a l(https://apjjf.org/data/Traditional_Translation_34 0 8 2 . p d f ) a n d S i m p l i f i e d(https://apjjf.org/data/Simplified_Translation_34082.pdf).

Jenny Chan and Ngai Pun

Abstract

A startling 13 young workers attempted orcommitted suicide at the two Foxconnproduction facilities in southern China betweenJanuary and May 2010. We can interpret theiracts as protest against a global labor regimethat is widely practiced in China. Their defiantdeaths demand that society reflect upon thecosts of a state-promoted development modelthat sacrifices dignity for corporate profit in thename of economic growth. Chinese migrantlabor conditions as articulated by the state, areshaped by these intertwined forces: First,leading international brands have adoptedunethical purchasing practices, resulting insubstandard conditions in their globalelectronics supply chains. Second, managementhas used abusive and illegal methods to raiseworker efficiency, generating widespreadgrievances and resistance at the workplace

level. Third, local Chinese officials in collusionwith enterprise management, systematicallyneglect workers’ r ights, result ing inwidespread misery and deepened socialinequalities. The Foxconn human tragedy raisesprofound concerns about the working lives ofthe new generation of Chinese migrantworkers. It also challenges the state-drivenpolicy based on the use of internal ruralmigrant workers, whose labor and citizenshiprights have been violated.

Key words: suicide, protest, new generation ofmigrant workers, global labor regime, migrantwages, electronics manufacturing service(EMS) industry, Foxconn, international brands,citizenship, China

To die is the only way to testifythat we ever lived

P e r h a p s f o r t h e F o x c o n nemployees and employees like us

– we who are called nongmingong,rural migrant workers, in China –

the use of death is simply to testifythat we were ever alive at all,

and that while we lived, we hadonly despair.

- a worker blog (after the 12th jumpat Foxconn)1

Introduction

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

2

Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, betterknown by its trade name Foxconn (Fushikang),was founded in Taipei in 1974.2 Foxconn iscurrently the world’s largest contractelectronics manufacturer, meaning that itmakes most of its money as a made-to-ordermanufacturer, not by selling its own brandproducts. The company is poised to take in over50 percent of global electronics manufacturingservice industry revenue by 2011.3 Under theleadership of founder and CEO Terry Gou,Foxconn declares itself “the most trusted andpreferred partner in all aspects of globalelectronics outsourcing to help customers de-risk their business.”4 Tragically, in the first fivemonths of this year as of 27 May 2010, astartling 13 young workers attempted orcommitted suicide at the two Foxconnproduction facilities in Shenzhen City insoutheastern China, bringing a public relationscrisis, and a crisis of corporate responsibility,to virtually all Foxconn’s image-consciouscustomers, including Apple, HP, Dell, IBM,Samsung, Nokia, Hitachi and other electronicgiants. Ten Chinese migrant workers died,while three survived their injuries. All werebetween 17 and 25 years old—in the prime ofyouth. Their loss should awaken Chinese andinternational society to reflect upon the costs ofa development model that sacrifices dignity foreconomic growth.

Foxconn’s success testifies to the export-leddynamism of the Shenzhen Special EconomicZone under China’s open policy. In the overtwenty years since its initial investment in1988, Foxconn has grown to be China’s largestexporter. The electronics maker has a 900,000-strong workforce in the country, 85 percent ofwhom are young people from rural areas.5 Wemay say that Foxconn is a microcosm of thelives of Chinese migrant workers. When Timemagazine nominated workers in China as therunners-up in the 2009 Person of the Year, theeditor commented that Chinese workers havebrightened the future of humanity by “leadingthe world to economic recovery.”6 The new

generation of Chinese migrant workers(xinshengdai nongmingong), however, seems toperceive themselves as losing their futures. TheFoxconn tragedy has been dubbed the “suicideexpress” by Chinese media.7

Foxconn Factory, Shenzhen

We can interpret Foxconn employees as havingkilled themselves to protest a global laborregime in which China provides the cuttingedge. Under the reform and open-door policy,China’s export-oriented economy proved itcould deliver economic growth. Asian-investedenterprises and domestic manufacturers onmainland China have risen quickly to becomecontractors and sub-contractors to Westernmultinationals, based on the exploitation oflow-paid migrant workers. On the factory floor,work stress associated with the race to thebottom and the just-in-time production mode isintense. Suicide is merely the extrememanifestation of what migrant workers in theirhundreds of millions experience. Some suicidesmay have been triggered by personal troubles,as Foxconn management would like to claim.But there is a broader social context shared byits workers and many others that underlies thedesperate individual actions.

This article reviews the recent Foxconnsuicides as a means to probe the working livesof the new generation of Chinese migrantworkers. We share the vision of the Chinese

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

3

and international scholars who signed anunprecedented letter of concern about theFoxconn victims in June 2010 calling forimplementation of humane labor standards atFoxconn and other global workplaces.8 Wedraw on worker interviews from our ongoingoff-site investigations at Foxconn facilities insouthern and eastern China that began in May2010 in order to learn about their conditions.We have also gained insights from industry andgovernment sources about the characteristicsand changing worldviews of younger workersfrom their predecessors. By providing an insidelook at the global labor regime, throughempirical study of the Foxconn labor system inChina, we highlight the urgent need forprogressive reforms. Young migrant workers,who have been placed in the “best” Foxconnfactory-cum-dormitory environment,9 seemedonly to show greater anxieties, and to see feweralternatives than their peers. Remedial effortsshould rest on the cornerstone of workers’direct involvement in decisions that concernthem, in the workplace and beyond.

In the next section, we discuss the emergenceof the global labor regime in China since the1980s. Foxconn employees are a typicalrepresentation of the young generation ofChinese migrant workers. They want to changetheir dagong10 or working-for-the-factory-bossstatus in the city, but they face insurmountablehardships. Foxconn is an extreme form of thislabor predicament, as we show in the thirdsection on Foxconn’s rise to become “theelectronics workshop of the world.” Then, wepropose a three-fold framework to explain thestructural causes of the Foxconn suicides. First,leading international brands have adoptedunethical purchasing practices, resulting insubstandard conditions in their supply chains.Second, Foxconn management has usedabusive methods to raise worker efficiency,generating widespread grievances andresistance. Third, local Chinese officials havecolluded with enterprises like Foxconn todeprive workers of legitimate rights and

welfare, resulting in deepened misery andwidened social inequalities. It appearsimpossible for many young workers to strugglethrough the daily lives they live and eventuallyfulfill the dreams they have for the future.

We conclude that the Foxconn human tragedyra ises profound concerns about thesustainability of Chinese development andglobal production. At the heart of the biggerproblem, we suggest, is that workers in Chinado not have a functioning labor union to maketheir voices heard. On the bottom rung of theinternational commodity supply chain, millionsof Chinese migrant workers are permanentlydeprived of decent wages and benefits. Youngworkers with rural origins (hukou, officialhousehold registration), like their parents, aremarginalized citizens. These better-educated-youths long for a life attuned to the times, andthe city is where everything is happening. Thehigher their aspirations for a better future, themore obvious the contrast to their harsh realitybecomes. Through various forms of protest, ofwhich suicide is the most desperate expression,they are trying to reclaim their rights anddignity.

Global Labor Regime

At a communal setting in a workers’ dormitoryin an industrial town of Shenzhen, China’sfastest growing city with a 2008 populationofficially estimated at 14 million, we weresurrounded by Foxconn workers who werechatting and watching a soap opera program atthe grocery store in the summer of 2010. It wasan open area where young rural migrantworkers, most without a family, spent theirlimited leisure. The factory compound wasgated and inside the gate, more than tendormitory buildings were situated to the southof the company’s production facilities. Outsidethe gate, more than 50,000 workers haveoccupied every single village house, turningthem into collective dormitories. Barred fromstaying in the city where they sell their labor

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

4

p o w e r , t h e w o r k e r s h a v e t o f i n daccommodation close to their employer or livein company dormi tor ies . The newlyindustrialized towns and cities in China featurenumerous collective dormitories where a five-storey building can house several hundredworkers. On windy nights, the clothes of theworkers in the dormitory corridors flew likecolorful multinational flags. These were theflags of the new Chinese working class,symbolizing the borderless flow of capital andthe wretched of the socialist earth.

China, if once characterized by non-capitalistsocial relations,11 is now the largest case of theexpanded reproduction of capital in the 21st

century. China recently weathered the worsteconomic crisis of the postwar era to becomethe world’s second largest economy, surpassingJapan. With transnational and private capitalpouring into industrial zones set up in mostcoastal and some inland cities and towns, Chinasince the 1970s has experienced the world’smost rap id increase in imports andexports.12 “Made in China”, a label that beliesthe actual wealth distribution in the globalproduction chain, has contributed to China’sgrowing importance in the global economy.

Chinese wages

China’s wage competitiveness is both theattraction for international and domesticcapital and the outcome of governmentpolicies.13 During the two decades between themid-1980s and 2004, state development planshad, in effect, bankrupted remote rural areasthat experienced massive labor outflows.14 The“surplus” laborers left for more prosperouscoastal towns and cities to find work throughtheir historic native-place networks.Meanwhile, local governments encouragedrural labor to move to urban-industrial districtsthrough “poverty alleviation” projects, furtherdraining better-educated and able-bodiedyoung people who are most needed to build thelocal rural economy.15 Under this dichotomized

rural and urban social structure, Chineseindustrial wages have remained very low, and itwas not until 2005-06 that we witnessed anysignificant increase.16 The large volume of ruralmigration is driven by an urban-biasedeconomic model. While there have beenimportant, long-term demographic changes inthe national working population as a result ofthe one-child family policy implementedbeginning in the 1970s, successive generationsof rural-urban migrants and the potential poolof migrants in the countryside have been andremain large. Chinese migrant workers havebeen incorporated within a global industriallabor regime.

Foxconn workers on the assembly line

Chinese manufacturing wages as a percentageof US wages,17 compared to those of Japan andEast Asian Tigers like South Korea and Taiwanin the early years of their economic takeoffs,have remained consistently low. EconomistsErin Lett and Judith Banister (2009) estimatedthat the average hourly compensation costs ofChina’s manufacturing workers in 2006 wasonly US$0.81.18 The Economist stated that as ofJuly 2010, the Chinese migrant workforce “is

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

5

still cheap…just 2.7 percent of the cost of theirAmerican counterparts .” 1 9 Based ongovernment statistics, the labor income shareof China’s gross domestic product (GDP)declined from 56.5 percent in 1983 to 36.7percent in 2005; by contrast, many OECDcountries maintained the ratio of labor returnsto GDP at 60 percent or more for thecomparable period of 1978 to 2008.20 If wages,particularly wages of rural migrants haveremained low, corporate profits in China haveincreased rapidly, growing by 20 percentbetween 1978 and 2005, the sole exceptionbeing the recession accompanying the1997-1998 Asian financial and currencycrisis.21 The export sector has turned most of itsprofits into enterprise savings, dividends, andre-investment, rather than sharing it withworkers.

Rural migrant workers’ income is scarcelyenough for them to make a minimal living inurban areas. A 2004 survey report of theMinistry of Labor and Social Security revealedthat monthly minimum wages had increased byas little as 68 yuan over the previous 12 yearsin the Pearl River Delta in GuangdongProvince—the core of the “workshop of theworld.”22 Worse yet, non-payment of wages andunfair treatment remain commonplace whilelabor disputes have been on the rise since the1990s.23

In response, the new government leadership ofHu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took several reliefmeasures targeting the peasantry and ruralmigrant labor. The Ministry of Labor and SocialSecurity codif ied the minimum wagerequirements by implementing the Provisionson the Minimum Wage on 1 March 2004 (ZuidiGongzi Guiding), with an attempt to strengthenthe protection offered to workers by theminimum wage.24 In June 2007, the NationalPeople’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committeepromulgated the Labor Contract Law with theaim of protecting workers’ legitimate right towages, benefits, welfare, and employment

security. Scholars have called the law the mostsignificant piece of Chinese labor legislation inmore than a decade.25 This year, the CentralCommittee of the Communist Party of China(CPC) and the State Council jointly issued the“No.1 Central Document” (zhongyang yihaowenjian) calling for better coordination of ruraland urban reforms, which highlighted theneeds of the new generation of migrantworkers.26 These rebalancing efforts acrossdifferent government levels, coupled withworkers’ spontaneous protests, have had someimpact on both rural incomes and migrantwages.27

But the global financial crisis resulted in thefailure of tens of thousands of factories in late2008 and early 2009, hit migrant workersparticularly hard.28 The vulnerability of theChinese economic model that remains heavilydependent on the export sector was clearlyexposed. Sociologist Ho-Fung Hung (2009) usesa provocative image of China as America’s headservant—leading other servants like Japan, theoriginal Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan,Singapore, and Hong Kong), and late exporterssuch as Thailand, the Philippines, andIndonesia—which provides cheap goods for USconsumer markets through large-volumeexports and foreign-exchange holdings in theform of purchase of US Treasuries.29 China andits trading partners in the global network ofproduction are increasingly trapped in thevicissitudes of unstable international marketsand the vulnerabilities of international financewhile international capital reaps the profitsfrom China’s low wage labor.

New-generation of Chinese migrant workers

Rural migrant workers are the mainstay ofChina’s industrial workforce. A March 2010survey released by China’s National Bureau ofStatistics (NBS), based on a national samplethat covers more than 7,100 villages spreadacross all 31 provincial-level units of thecountry, the number of migrant workers

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

6

reached nearly 230 million in 2009, up 1.9percent from the previous year.30 A subgroup of145 million migrant workers had employmentoutside their home villages and towns (waichunongmingong), an increase of 3.5 percent year-on-year.31 Of this migrant group, a majority(61.6 percent) is between 16 and 30 years ofage (see Table 1). Most of the 100 million new-generations of Chinese migrant workers—aged23 on average—are unmarried;32 and, withfinancial and social difficulties, these youngermigrants have lots of problems in gettingmarried, raising children, building homes in thecity, and supporting their village families.

Young rural migrant workers (qingniannongmingong) are facing a huge discrepancybetween their expectations and reality, andbetween the returns to their labor and thegains made by better paid urban workers,p r o f e s s i o n a l s , a n d g o v e r n m e n temployees.33 The Shenzhen Municipal TradeUnion and Shenzhen University, based on thejoint survey of 5,000 young migrant workers inShenzhen city during April and June 2010,found that the respondents’ average monthlywage was only 1,838.6 yuan (US$267)—lessthan half (47 percent) the amount Shenzhenresident employees get.34 This lump-sum,including a basic wage and hard-earnedovertime premiums, scarcely covers minimal,“extra” expenses for one’s studies or leisureactivities. Despite the surveyed migrantworkers’ strong desire to own property in thecity, the cheapest housing price in mostdesignated towns (jianzhi zhen) is 5,000 yuanper square meter, a level far beyond theirreach.3 5 As holders of rural householdregistration status (nongcun hukou), young

migrants share deep anx iet ies overemployment and frustrations about their futurethat are a product of being permanently lockedinto minimum wage jobs with few benefits orrights.

Between March and May 2010, the All ChinaFederation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)investigated the social and economic conditionsof young migrant workers in 10 cities inGuangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Liaoning, andSichuan provinces.36 In June, the ACFTU teampublished a report that showed “the post-80sgeneration” is different from their parents orthe older working migrants with regard to theirdemand for decent working conditions. Thesechildren of the reform era have grown up. Theycame from rural areas with aspirations of livingthe Chinese dream in the city. Some youngpeople were raised in urban settings when theyfollowed their families on the move duringchildhood (liudong ertong, translated literallyas “mobile children”), that is, they are secondgeneration urban dwellers, yet their formalresidence remains in the village.37 A largernumber left their villages or towns (xiangzhen)immediately after finishing school to seekurban jobs. Wage employment in large townsand cities has become young migrants’ primarymeans of making a living.

Nationally, the 2009 NBS data showed that65.1 percent of the rural migrant populationwas male.38 Marriage reduces the probability oflabor outflow, especially if there are smallchildren. While gender segmentation in thelabor market is persistent, young single womenand increasingly men are recruited in exportfactories where demand for unskilled, low-costlaborers grows. The ACFTU researchers foundthat the new generation of migrant workers isbecoming more concerned about the overallworking environment—wages and benefits aswell as opportunities for self-development.Migrant workers are primarily employed inmanufacturing and service work, as shown inTable 2.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

7

Young migrants are increasingly aware ofequal i ty and r ights, and have higherexpectations of getting fair work opportunities,labor and social welfare, and other basic publicservices. This is partly explained by theirhigher educational qualifications. Of the 145.33million migrant workers, based on the 2009NBS data, nearly one-third (31.1 percent) ofthose between 21 and 25 years of age hold highschool diplomas or degrees.39 They have higheraspirations for career advancement than theirolder counterparts. A 2007 China Youth andChildren Research Center report, based on asurvey of 4,673 young migrant workersemployed in four sectors—construction inBeijing City, mining in Tangshan City,manufacturing in Shandong Province, andservices in Chengdu City, reflected therespondents’ wish to equip themselves withspecialized knowledge and skills (69.7 percent),legal training (54.7 percent), and culturallearning (47.8 percent).40

Those classified as migrant workers, includingsecond generations living and working in cities,are categorically treated as part of the ruralpopulation, even though they work and live inthe urban areas, some for many years. In theireveryday life, they face numerous difficulties inaccessing basic community services becausethey are not recognized as local residents.Their legitimate rights are not effectivelyprotected: the ACFTU study found that only34.8 percent are provided with basic medicalcare, 21.3 percent pension insurance, and just8.5 percent are eligible for unemploymentbenefits.41 Factory owners, often protected byloca l labor author i t ies and jud ic ia ldepartments, frequently neglect legalresponsibilities for employees. Chinese Labor

Law, often honored in the breach, requires notonly 100 percent full coverage on all threetypes of social insurance but also mandatoryprotection and benefits for work injuries,occupational diseases, and child-birth (Article73). Collaboration between the local state andfactory management, however, allows manycompanies to evade their legal responsibilitiesto labor.

The global labor regime is rooted in thedeprivation of migrant workers’ labor andcitizenship rights. A topic of mainstreamdiscussion, if not outright criticism, concerningthe young generation of workers is theirinability to “eat bitterness” (chi ku). It iscommonly said that those who were born after1980, in the market economy and the newsociety, are not tough enough to endurehardsh ip . They a re emot i ona l l y o rpsychologically vulnerable to pressures. Whatthey need is to work diligently and to improvetheir skills. The elite groups of the governmentand employers have a stake in this discoursesince they need low-cost, disciplined laborersto fuel the Chinese export economy. But asexploitation intensifies, it may spark strongerlocal protests, as world labor theorist BeverlySilver (2003) has convincingly argued.42

Foxconn: “The Electronics Workshop of theWorld”

The subsidiary Foxconn was a product ofparent company Hon Hai’s massive productionof electronic connectors since the 1980s whenthe personal computer market took shape.43 In1988, chairman and founder Terry Gouinvested in low-cost manufacturing in mainlandChina, whi le retaining research andd e v e l o p m e n t ( R & D ) a t i t s T a i w a nheadquarters.44 From the early 1990s, thecompany set up more than 40 manufacturingfacilities and R&D centers in Asia (India,Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan,South Korea, and Australia), Russia, Europe(the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

8

Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, the UnitedKingdom, and Turkey), and the Americas.45 Thetechnology group boasts that it provides itscustomers with “the best speed, quality,engineering services, efficiency, and addedv a l u e , ” w h a t i t c a l l s t h e f i v e c o r ecompetences.46 But what has it done for the450,000 largely migrant workers who producethe products at its two Shenzhen plants orelsewhere? The results suggest continuedgrowth and high profits made possible byChinese workers, the vast majority of whomcontinue to labor at state-mandated minimumwages, and who have seen few if any gainsfrom the company’s growth.

In 2001, Hon Hai became Taiwan’s largestprivate-sector company in terms of sales,g e n e r a t i n g r e v e n u e o f U S $ 4 . 4billion.47 BusinessWeek, as early as 2002,a c c l a i m e d T e r r y G o u “ t h e k i n g o foutsourcing”48—when Foxconn was still behindlongstanding electronics manufacturing serviceleaders Solectron (FY 2001, US$18.7billion)49 and Flextronics (FY 2001, US$12.1billion).50 Since 2003, the Taiwan-basedcompany has been Ch ina ’ s b igges texporter.51 In 2008, Foxconn’s revenue reachedUS$61.8 billion,52 of which exports accountedfor US$55.6 billion, about 3.9 percent of allexports from China.53 Despite the sharpcontraction of American and European demandfor consumer electronics during the recenteconomic downturn, Foxconn generatedUS$59.3 billion in revenue in 2009, only aslight drop in sales of 4.1 percent from theprevious year (see chart 1).54

In the wake of the global economic recovery,Foxconn’s business has been growing fast. Bythe end of the first six months in 2010, thecompany’s sales had jumped 48 percent from ayear earlier to NT$1.2 trillion (US$37.43billion) and net income increased 22 percent toNT$34.7 billion (US$1.08 billion).55 Foxconn,despite bad publicity at home and abroadfollowed the string of 13 Foxconn workersuicides by May, and pressure to increasewages in Shenzhen and global calls for aboycott of Foxconn’s products including AppleiPhones for a month in June,56 recorded thrivingexports. In the electronics manufacturingservice market, Foxconn’s revenue is almostthree times higher than it closest rival,Singapore-based Flextronics.

Foxconn products and services

Foxconn executives control labor-relatedexpenses and reduce product time-to-marketaggressively. Foxconn churns out a wide arrayof products from low-end to technologicallysophisticated, for the world’s top brands. It alsoprovides design engineering and mechanicaltooling services.

The technology group has expanded its “3C”product range57—computers (desktop, laptop,and tablet computers), communicationsequipment (mobile phones and smartphones),and consumer products (digital music players,

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

9

digital cameras, and game consoles)—toinclude three more “C’s”: cars (automotiveelectronics), channels (for electronics andc o m p u t e r p r o d u c t s , s u c h a smotherboards),58 and content (e-book readers, asoftware and hardware platform for the displayof e-books).59 Diversity of products enhancesFoxconn’s market competitiveness. Thecompany is advancing into high-end fields ofnanotechnology, heat transfer, wirelessconnectivity, material sciences, and “green”manufacturing processes.60 The electronicsgiant has accumulated more than 25,000patents worldwide.61

Foxconn shortens its supply chain bymanufacturing some parts in-house.Spokesman Arthur Huang62 explained thecompany’s cost-saving strategy:

W e e i t h e r o u t s o u r c e t h ecomponents manufacturing toother suppliers, or we can researchand manu fac tu re our owncomponents . We even havecontracts with mines which arelocated near our factories.

Business integration is central to Foxconn’sexpansion and development. In verticalintegration, Foxconn synthesizes twospecialties to offer customers cost-effectiveadvantages:63

There are two categories ofmanufacturers in the informationand communication technology(ICT) supply chain. The firstfocuses on the des ign andassembly of electronic componentssuch as circuit boards, datastorage or displays….The secondcategory focuses on making thestructural elements for electronicproducts (the enclosures or cases

for electronic products)….Foxconnhas integrated these two formerlyseparated specialties to create anew, more efficient businessmodel.

Foxconn undercuts its competitors on the price,speed of delivery, and quality of its finishedproducts.

Foxconn customers

Foxconn possesses a large team of engineersand marketing managers to serve its worldwideclient base. The company ranked 112th byannual revenue in the Fortune Global 500 in2010—larger than some of the companies forwhich it manufactures products such asMicrosoft, Nokia, Dell, Apple, Cisco Systems,Intel, or Motorola (see table 3).64 On a revenuebasis, HP remains the largest company insegments of personal computers, servers, andprinters.

The growth in earnings of Foxconn, however, isnot comparable to that of leading brands suchas Apple and Microsoft. Based on marketcapitalization, in May 2010 Apple (at US$237billion) overtook Microsoft (at US$221 billion)as the global number one in the technologyindustry.65 Apple thus became the world’s mostv a l u a b l e i n f o r m a t i o n t e c h n o l o g y

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

10

company.66 Among all types of companiesworldwide, Apple’s market capitalization issecond only to oil giant Exxon Mobil (atUS$315 billion). By the end of fiscal year 2010,Apple’s revenue—by sales—is projected to grow46 per cent to US$62.6 billion,67 moving upquickly into the top 100 global companiesranked by Fortune.

Foxconn relies heavily on its made-to-orderbusiness from top technology firms (andincreasingly auto brands). Benefiting fromstrong orders during the economic recovery,Foxconn shipped over 6 million notebooks inthe first half of 2010.68 Foxconn’s laptopshipments to HP alone could reach 10 to 12million units by the end of this year, and totalshipments to HP are projected to increase to 20million units in 2011.69 As of July 2010, Foxconnhas surpassed Quanta Computer to becomeDell’s third largest supplier of notebooks(behind only Wistron and Compal Electronics).Foxconn will fulfill 4 to 5 million notebookorders for Dell in 2011.70

To cope with this expansive market, Foxconnhas built a huge workforce worldwide,including some 900,000 in China alone. It isexpected that the company will grow by morethan 40 percent to 1.3 million Chineseworkers71—most of them young rural migrantsand student interns—by 2011.

Foxconn production in China

Foxconn has taken advantage of China’smacroeconomic policies to expand itsinvestments. The technology company operatesfacilities in four strategic geographic regionsacross the country: the Pearl River Delta(Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, andZhongshan), the Yangtze River Delta(Shanghai, Kunshan, Hangzhou, Ningbo,Nanjing, Huaian, Jiashan, and Changshu), theBohai Gulf area of North China (Beijing,Langfang, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Taiyuan,Yantai, Yingkou, and Shenyang), and central

and western cities (Chongqing, Chengdu,Zhengzhou , Wuhan , J i ncheng , andNanning).72 Foxconn’s access to resources andtalent in major Chinese cities is fundamental toits growth.

While the Chinese government froze minimumwages throughout 2009 in response to theeconomic crisis, since early 2010, a number ofcities and provinces have raised minimumwages from 10 to 30 percent.73 In China, inshort, there is no national minimum wage but acheckerboard of city and provincial minimumwages. It is interesting to note that Beijing andTianjin retain minimum wages well under thosefor Shenzhen and Shanghai, while inland citiessuch as Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Chongqingbid for investment with minimum wages thatare far lower. Migrant labor shortage (mingonghuang or yonggong huang) in the Pearl RiverDelta and Yangtze River Delta has spurredhigher wages as the area competes for labor. Incontrast, investors like Foxconn find inlandcities increasingly attractive as they offercheaper land and improved infrastructure withlower wages and social insurance costs thanthe eastern and southern coastal regions thatinitially led export-oriented growth (see Table4).

In the face of the worker suicide scandal andanti-sweatshop campaigns targeting Foxconn athome and abroad, Foxconn reportedly raised itsShenzhen workers’ wages to 1,200 yuan

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

11

(US$176) a month beginning 1 June2010.74 Compared to the minimum wagestandard set in Shenzhen (effective 1 July2010), Foxconn’s adjusted base pay is only 9percent higher than the legal minimumlevel.75 Still, this meager pay raise for its450,000 employees—half of the company’sworkforce totaled 900,000 persons in thecountry—led cost-sensitive Foxconn corporatedirectors and shareholders to accelerate thepace of factory relocation. At the same time,facing growing consumer and public outcry,Foxconn announced a second pay raise for“qualified” workers up to 2,000 yuan (US$293)a month, effective 1 October.7 6 Seniormanagement, however, has refused to disclosethe details of the three-month review whichcould allow some workers to earn higher pay.As yet there is no indication of how many of theproduction workers will eventually benefit fromthe wage policy.77 Meanwhile, in June, followingthe first pay raise, Foxconn stopped hiring atits two largest Shenzhen campuses.78 Over thenext five years, according to company sources,the number of Foxconn workers at its Shenzhenfacilities will be reduced by over 30 percent toaround 300,000 persons.79 Foxconn Shenzhenemployees are now being relocated to othercampuses.

Foxconn is actively moving production to inlandcities and to the north to save on costs and totap new business opportunities. ZhongguoXinwen Zhoukan (China Newsweek)80 ran acover story titled “fight to grab Foxconn”(zheng qiang Fushikang) in its July 2010 issueat the peak of a new round of coordinatedefforts by local governments to woo Foxconn.Many inland and northern cities have competedfiercely for the chance to host a Foxconn base,providing both low wages and subsidies thatdrive down relocation costs.

As ear ly as 2009, Foxconn and otherelectronics makers 8 1 gained from thegovernment’s fiscal stimulus package to set upnew facilities in Chongqing municipality,

China’s largest and rapidly growing Westerncity.

Chongqing launched its WarmWinter stimulus plan [following theglobal financial crisis of 2008],spending vast sums, includingcredit programs to allow many ofthe 3.5 mil l ion unemployedworkers to s tar t the ir ownbusinesses, providing loans andcredi t guarantees to smal lbusiness, launching start-upindustrial parks, providing directsubsidies to 1,500 businesses.82

Chongqing employment promotion officialsgranted Foxconn a discounted corporateincome tax rate of 15 percent, 10 percent lowerthan the standard rate.83 Moreover, the localgovernment will lengthen the airport runwayb y 4 0 0 m e t e r s t o m e e t i n c r e a s i n gtransportation and logistical needs.84 In June2010, Foxconn signed an agreement with 119Chongqing vocational schools to arrangestudent internships and employment at its localplants.85 The company plans to recruit 100,000people in the city, whose minimum wage is afraction of that of Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Foxconn will continue to increase investment inwestern China, especially in Chengdu, capitalof Sichuan Province. In June 2009, Sichuanprovincial and Chengdu city officials led adelegation to Foxconn headquarters in Taiwanto sign a memorandum of cooperation. In 2010,Foxconn registered to build Futaihua PrecisionElectronics (Chengdu) and Hongfujin PrecisionElectronics (Chengdu), focusing on tabletc o m p u t e r a n d d i g i t a l s e t - t o p b o xassembly.8 6 Local government officialspromised to attract other industries to relocateand “go west” to boost economic growth.

On 2 August 2010, Foxconn began productionin Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of central

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

12

China’s Henan. A local government official saidpublicly, “We’ve provided many conveniencesfor Foxconn’s locating here, such as opening afast track for the import of its facilities andconstruction materials.”87 Foxconn rented arenovated factory and dormitory from the localgovernment for its 100,000 employees. Officialshave allocated land to build a permanent plantwith an eventual capacity of 300,000 staff,where the first phase of construction will cover133 hectares.88 The Henan Education Bureau,vocational schools, colleges and universities“mobilized” students to participate in Foxconninternship programs, which was reportedly arequirement to complete their vocationaltraining.89 Both temporary student workers andemployees are responsible for making AppleiPhones, which will hit a daily output of200,000 units at full capacity.90

It is obvious that Foxconn aims to consolidateits production clusters across China to build acost-competitive network. Local governmentincentives offered to Foxconn over these morethan 20 years have contributed greatly to itseconomic success. Beginning in the fall of2010, the company plans to open retail storesto sell electronics gadgets for domesticconsumption.91 This move is intended todiversify from its export-oriented businessmodel.

Young Workers: Struggling Inside“Foxconn City”

Foxconn describes its Shenzhen Longhuamanufacturing site, sub-divided into 11 zoneslisted alphabetically from A to K, as a campus.It is the biggest technological park in Chinawhere 300,000 workers, or as many as one-third of Foxconn’s workforce in the country, isbased . Company pro f i l e and med iareports92 mention that the 2.3-square-kilometercampus includes:

Factories, dormitories, banks,hospitals, a post office, a fire

brigade with two fire engines, anexclusive television network, aneducational institute, bookstores,soccer fields, basketball courts,track and field, swimming pools,supermarkets, and a collection ofcafeterias and restaurants.

Fieldwork confirms that most of the Foxconnemployees in China are young migrants whowork and live on the campuses. These workersproduce and assemble high-quality electronicsproducts. A tagline of Foxconn’s worldwiderecruitment advertisement reads, “TheFoxconn brand is the talent of its workforce”(in original Chinese, rencai shi Hon Hai depinpai).93 The evidence suggests, however, thatthe company is losing its most precious talent.By the end of May, 12 Foxconn workers hadjumped or fallen to their deaths and the 13th

jumper, a 25-year-old worker, slit his wristsafter being stopped from jumping from adormitory (see table 5). Given recent events,the term used to refer to employees, “thepeople of Foxconn” or fu kang ren, rings withdark irony as the Chinese, literally translated,means “wealthy” and “healthy” people.

Foxconn publicized visits by psychologists withthe dismissive suggestion that the number ofsuicides at its two Shenzhen workplaces is

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

13

below the national level,94 in an insensitiveattempt both to evade responsibility and to hidethe problem. No genuine scientific study wouldbase itself on such a comparison which leavesout of consideration that the Foxconn suicideswere of young people employed in thecity.95 Nor would it consider it the “norm” thatChinese workers commit suicide to fightterrible working conditions.

Grieving family of Ma Xianqian protests hisdeath outside the Foxconn factory

Here we present our field data, industryanalyses, and investigative reports by themedia and labor rights groups in order to gaina deeper understanding of the problems. Wecall on the three main players, namely,international brand-name corporations,Foxconn, and local and national governmentsto act responsibly to stop this trend of Foxconnemployees’ choosing to end their young lives.

Outsourcing, Apple profits, and low wages

From the perspective of supply chainpurchasing power, leading international brandshave tremendous influence over their contractmanufacturers. Thus far, however, we find thatApple and other global companies aresqueezing their suppliers worldwide with littleconcern for the effects of their actions on thepeople who produce these products. Apple has

reportedly expanded and diversified its Asianmanufacturing investment.96 Industry analystsestimate that the operating profit marginsamong major electronics suppliers were at best4 to 5 percent on average in 2007.97 By productsegment, competition for orders is expected tofurther lower notebook makers’ gross marginsin 2011 from the already low level of 4 percentin 2010.98

Apple, which enjoyed record profits amid theeconomic crisis, continues to seize everyopportunity to secure lower prices fromsuppliers. Indeed, industry sources suggestedthat Apple awarded iPhone orders to Foxconnafter Foxconn agreed to sell parts at “zeroprofit".99 Foxconn probably agreed to the dealin order to keep other more lucrative Applecontracts and to kill its competitors. It offered arock-bottom price made possible by its bigmarket size to secure a leading industryposition. Apple revenues for the fiscal 2009first quarter exceeded US$10 billion.100

Will Apple and other corporate icons beable to distance themselves from the plight

of Chinese workers assembling theirproducts? Steve Jobs addressed the

Foxconn issue at a press conference whilea Chinese protester demanded equitable

treatment for workers.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

14

Foxconn assembles best-selling hand-heldmobile devices for Apple like iPods, the iPhone4 (the latest design of Apple-brandedsmartphones), and iPads (tablet computers thatare thinner and lighter than netbooks or mininotebooks). According to market research firmiSuppli, the part-and-component cost101 of a16Gbyte version iPhone 4 is US$187.5, lessthan one-third (31.3 percent) of the sellingprice of US$599. It is estimated that Applecommands gross margins in the range of 50percent on the iPhone, compared to 20 percentto 40 percent for competitor products.102

Apple rides high-margin hardware to marketsupremacy, taking the lion’s share of the profit.The iPad went on sale on 3 April 2010. In June,Apple announced that it sold 3 million iPads inthe 80 days after its introduction in the UnitedStates . 1 0 3 iSuppl i analyzed that themanufacturing cost of an Apple iPad is onlyUS$9, or 1.8 percent of the lowest-pricedUS$499 iPad, and that the cost of materials isestimated at US$250.6, or 50.2 percent of theretail price.104 With less than 2 percent of thecost of the cheapest iPad per unit going to amanufacturer, Foxconn production workers geteven less.

In outsourcing production, Apple is the mostprofitable of the top technology firms. For itsfiscal 2010 third quarter, Apple posted all-timerecord revenues of US$15.7 billion, with a fatgross margin at 39.1 percent.105 The companystatement describes “a phenomenal quarterthat exceeded our expectations all around,including the most successful product launch inApple’s history with iPhone 4. iPad is off to aterrific start…and we have amazing newproducts still to come this year.” An analyst atDigiTimes says Apple has ordered 24 millionunits of the iPhone 4 for this year alone fromFoxconn,106 and many more orders for iPads areexpected to follow.

Buyers of Foxconn products want their iPhonesand computers manufactured fast to meet

global demand. For example, Apple is trying toget its white models of iPhone 4 out to themarket without delay, while keeping up withthe availability of black models.107 This drive forproductivity and quality leads to constantpressure on Foxconn workers. The electronicsparts and components are assembled quickly asthey move up the 24-hour non-stop conveyorbelts. At the same time, the workers’ youth andsweat are expended on the relentless machines.

Foxconn benefits from both the influx of big-volume orders and the hard work of youngmigrant laborers. However, its profit is not atall comparable to that of top brands. Under thedirect pressure of Apple and other buyers, andthe hunger for ever more corporate profit,Foxconn, as of 31 May 2010, paid 450,000production line workers at its two Shenzhenplants only 900 yuan (US$132) a month for a40 hour week. In other words, Foxconn has setits maximum base wages at the local minimumwage standard.

But how much did workers actually earn?Journalists from the Beijing Qingnian Bao(Beijing Youth Daily) published a wage stub of aFoxconn Shenzhen worker for November 2009on 7 June 2010.108 It clearly shows:

The worker’s total monthly incomeis 2,149.5 yuan. The basic salary is900 yuan, which is the localcompulsory minimum wage for anormal working month of 21.75days. All the remaining income isthe worker’s overtime payment for136 hours [precisely 100 hoursabove the legal maximum overtimelimit].

In this example, 60 percent of the monthly totalwage is from doing overtime work. The workeris not in the minority at Foxconn. According toa 5,044-person survey conducted by theShenzhen Human Resources and Social

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

15

Security Bureau, 72.5 percent of the Foxconnworkforce put up with working hours farbeyond legal limits to earn extra income.109

To safeguard workers’ rights to a basiclivelihood, rights group Hong Kong-basedStudents and Scholars Against CorporateMisbehavior (SACOM) calculated that the livingwage standard in Shenzhen should be 2,297.3yuan (US$337) a month.110 China Labor Bulletinagreed that a basic wage of 2,000 yuan amonth is “absolutely necessary” in Shenzhen,on the borderline of Hong Kong.111 Foxconnmanagement has not thoroughly reviewed itsmanagement method in the wake of thesuicides. Taiwan unions and labor groupsprotested at Foxconn’s headquarters asking,“What is the price of a human body” (xue rouhe jia)?112 At a press conference in Taipei,scholars read an open statement co-signed by180 Taiwan academics dated 13 June 2010. Itstated that “recent pay raises [at Foxconn] donot address the problem...we believe that theFoxconn suicide cluster is a bitter accusationmade with 13 young l ives against theinhumane, exploitative regime.” 1 1 3

What is the price of a human body? Dozensof demonstrators protested outside Hon

Hai’s Taipei headquarters on 28 May 2010,urging the company to respect life and

improve treatment of its workers. They laidflowers for the 10 dead Foxconn workers.

Photo credit: Wang Hao-zhong (2010).

At the root-cause level, global brands such asApple pressure suppliers like Foxconn tocompete against each other on price, quality,and delivery. To secure contracts, Foxconnminimizes costs, and transfers the pressure oflow profit margins to frontline workers. Thepressure to keep up with new, competitivelypriced orders forces Foxconn workers to newlevels of exhaustion.

Foxconn employees experience long hours ofrepetitive work for very low income. Theysubmit to management scrutiny on the job, andtheir low income and limited free time restrictstheir options outside of work. Many young menand women workers rarely stop working exceptto eat and sleep, simply to make ends meet.The result is a community of people underintense stress with few resources, a situationconducive to depression.

Taiwan unions and labor activists unfurlwhite banners to mourn the Young

Foxconn workers in a protest against HonHai on 28 May 2010, Taipei. (Left) For

wealth and power— physical and mentalhealth spent, hopes lost (Right) For profit

of the brand—youth spent, dreamsshattered. Photo credit to Wang Hao-zhong

(2010).

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

16

Foxconn management, labor discipline, andpressures

Foxconn executives continued to insist thattheir treatment of workers was “worldclass”114 even after the 8th jump since thebeginning of the year on 11 May 2010.Replying to international media inquiries,Foxconn insisted that the company “hasprovided workers with a far better environmentand benefits [than] the manufacturing industryas a whole.”115 Public criticism from ChinaLabor Watch (New York)116 and China LaborBulletin (Hong Kong)117 mounted, emphasizingnot the facilities per se but workers’ health andwell-being. Company boss Terry Gou finallybroke his silence over the then 10 workersuicides on 24 May, but only to deny that hewas running “blood and sweat factories.”118

The record number of suicides, said Foxconn,was not related to its management style,working conditions, or wage policies.Spokesperson Edmund Ding told the media thatsome of the workers had had “personalproblems.”119 Accordingly, Foxconn establishedan Employee Care Center and set up a 24-hourhotline service to help employees maintain“mental health.”120 Employees can hit punchingbags with pictures of their supervisors to venttheir anger and frustration in newly-openedstress-release rooms.121 Senior managementalso invited a group of psychologists to try tosuggest ways for Foxconn’s 300,000 youngemployees in the Longhua facility to cope with“ t h e p s y c h o l o g i c a l a n d e m o t i o n a lneeds.”122 Meanwhile, Foxconn brought inmonks in an attempt to release the souls of thedeceased employees from suffering and todispel misfortune.123 The conducting of thereligious rite, however, could not stop the 11th,12th, and 13th jumps from taking place. After theattempted suicide on 27 May, Foxconn beganto install 3,000,000 square meters of safetynets between dormitory buildings to preventemployees from killing themselves by jumpingoff the rooftop. CEO Terry Gou called them “ai

xin wang,” translated literally as “nets with aloving heart.”124 But the question is: can thenets really help save lives?

We question Foxconn’s framing of the suicidesas isolated, individual cases in a typicalinstance of blaming the victims. Following astring of employee suicides at the twoShenzhen plants, Foxconn announced that itwould test incoming employees to identify anyhidden “mental health” issues125 in all itsmanufacturing facilities across China.Management claimed the deaths wereprimarily related to the immaturity and fragilestate of mind of the young rural migrants. Theirvictim-blaming approach suggested that theyare reluctant to review workplace-basedproblems and their negative impact onworkers’ state of mind and body.

Military culture

“A leader,” says Terry Gou, must have thedecisive courage to be “a dictator for thecommon good” (ducai wei gong).126 Under hisleadership, the Foxconn Longhua flagship planthas constructed its own “city” within ShenzhenCity, where company managers and securityofficers retain supra-governmental control overits employees. An extreme example is thatFoxconn workers who made emergency calls tothe police through in-factory telephones wereautomatically transferred to Foxconn’s ownprivate security department!127 There seems noalternate avenue for workers to seek help andsupport.

Management has hired more than 1,000security guards to keep internal order in theFoxconn Longhua plant (no littering, no jay-walking, and so on) and prevent unauthorizedp e r s o n s f r o m e n t e r i n g s e n s i t i v eareas.128 Workers wear uniforms color-coded bytheir department. Every factory building anddormitory has security checkpoints with guardsstanding by 24 hours a day.

All employees, whether they are going to the

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

17

toilet or going to eat, must be checked.Workers swipe electronic staff cards at thegates, while outsiders such as truck driversleave their fingerprints on recognitionscanners.129 To thwart rivals intent on industrialespionage, the company bars employees frombringing music players or mobile phones ontothe shop floor. Body searches are notuncommon. Men reportedly must take off beltswith metal buckles and women their wired brasbefore they can pass the electronic securitysystems.

The “Foxconn Empire” is infamous for itsheavy-handed security. Reports from officialand media sources about detention, abuse, anduse of violence by company security personnelare numerous. A tragic example was the deathof Sun Danyong at Foxconn’s Longhua plant on16 July 2009. Sun, a 25-year-old Yunnangraduate from the Harbin Institute ofTechnology, was held responsible for losing oneof 16 prototypes of Apple’s fourth-generationiPhone. He jumped from the 12th floor of hisapartment building to his death. Foxconnissued a statement:130

Regardless of the reason for Sun’ssuicide, it is to some extent areflection of Foxconn’s internalmanagement def ic iencies ,especially in how to help youngw o r k e r s c o p e w i t h t h epsychological pressures of workinglife at the company.

The “psychological pressures” referred toincluded being suspected of stealing,interrogation, and solitary confinement bysecurity officers, and having his homesearched. He was allegedly beaten andhumiliated. His final online chat with hisfriends revealed both his agony and relief,“Thinking that I won’t be bullied tomorrow,won’t have to be the scapegoat, I feel muchbetter.”131

Scandals about Foxconn security officers’ useof force made headlines only weeks after theloss of the company’s young employee. Thelocation this time was Beijing, a main assemblysite for Nokia and Motorola mobile phones. InFoxconn’s Beijing plant, security guards,according to the company investigativereport,132 fought with workers on 6 August2009. Commentators, referring to online videosabout the fight and worker interviews, heldthat physical and verbal violence is systemic inFoxconn system.133 Workers are harassed andbeaten up without serious cause. A managerresponded to public concern by stating that“ t h e i n c i d e n t w a s amisunderstanding.”134 Disciplinary actionstaken against the workers, if any, were notpublicly reported.

In the name of keeping strict confidentiality forits buyers like Apple, Nokia, and Motorola,Foxconn retains a veritable army of privatesecurity officers. The high-level, round-the-clock alerting device installed at Foxconn isjustified by its contractual responsibility tosecure its customers’ rights to intellectualproperty. Any leak of “business information”will result in big financial losses.135 In this way,global technology multinationals havetransmitted extreme pressure all the way to theChinese shop floor. Foxconn workers arewatched on or off the production line.

Despair and loss of hope

The post-80s and post-90s new generation ofmigrant workers have higher expectations oflife than their elders, and feel greaterdisappointment and resentment at theirfailures. After 19-year-old Li Hai climbed thefence on the 5th floor of the company trainingcenter to jump to his death on 25 May 2010(dubbed the “11th jumper”), police found asuicide note apologizing to his family. The noteindicated that Li had “lost confidence in hisfuture.”136 It reads: My expectations of what Icould do at work and for my family far

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

18

outweighed what could be achieved.

Li was born in 1991 in a poverty-strickenvillage in Hunan province. His rural family offour had contracted a tiny farm of only three-mu, just half an acre. His cousin told him thathe could make money by working at Foxconn.Selling a motorbike for 300 yuan to buy a traint i cke t , he t rave led to the southernmetropolis.137 At the Shenzhen Guanlan plant,during the 42 work days, he was allegedlyscolded by his line supervisor almost every day.His suicide note continues:

I like drawing, like the girl Xiao Ye,but really dislike … [fushikang].

L i , a f resh school graduate , becamedisillusioned with the Foxconn way of life.Coming from the countryside, he found fittinginto the robotic assembling process, at highspeed and to a precision measured down to thesecond, most difficult. Feeling unable to goback home, he ended his life in the earlymorning. Shenzhen city did not turn out to behis dreamland of opportunities.

Lu Xin, another Hunan native, jumped from the6th floor at Foxconn’s Shenzhen Longhuaapartment on 6 May 2010 (dubbed the “7th

jumper”).138 Like Li Hai, Lu needed money toimprove his rural family’s living conditions. Asa university graduate, Lu, got a starting basepay rate of 2,000 yuan, more than double thatof line workers. During his eight months ofwork, he managed to remit home more than13,000 yuan, all by doing excessive overtimework. His blog post dated 26 October 2009,cited by China Central Television (CCTV),reads:139

I came to this company for money.[But then I realized], this is awaste of my life and my future. Inthe first step of my adult life, I took

the wrong path. I’m lost.

Lu was assigned to the production department,not his preferred research and developmentunit. In April 2010, he was working everydayuntil 9 p.m. According to Chinese law, normalworking hours should not exceed 8 hours a dayand 40 hours a week (Article 3 of State CouncilRules on Working Hours) and overtime shouldnot exceed 3 hours a day (Article 41 of LaborLaw). Lu saw no hope for himself or prospectsfor the future. Another online post dated 14March 2010 reads:140

If I really could, I’d write musicevery day. I don’t have money [tobuy] music hardware equipment. Idon’t even want to spend money ona computer. I can’t find a recordcompany either. Youth flies away.The 24 years of me, can I still doit?

Lu loved music and wanted to be a professionalsinger. He even took part in the companysinging contest and won second prize. But inreality he was responsible for monotonoustasks in the assembly workshop. By early Mayhe was on the verge of a breakdown. Hereportedly showed symptoms of delusions like“being followed and threatened by someonewho wants to kill him.” On that sleepless night,his university classmate and co-worker recalledLu’s final words:141

He said he was going to look at thescenery and right after he finishedhis sentence, he quickly openedthe window and jumped onto thebalcony, then jumped off from thebalcony. He never hesitated. I triedto grab him, but only pulled theclothes on his left arm, he threwmy hand off.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

19

Lu’s job was quality control. If he failed tomonitor the high quality of finished products,every worker in the same productiondepartment and he himsel f would bepunished.142 As a result, he was very nervousabout the passing rates of products, fearingpunishment or that the bonus would be cut.

The younger generation of better-educatedmigrant workers wants a new life but they seeno prospect in toiling day and night on thestandardized assembly lines. They face a hugediscrepancy between soaring expectations andthe harsh reality of factory lives.143 Only a fewdays after the suicide of Lu Xin, 24-year-oldHenan worker Zhu Chenming jumped off theroof of an apartment to her death (dubbed the“8th jumper”). A friend told of her big dreams ofsuccess as a super model:144

She’s 1.74-meter tall. [Beforeentering Foxconn] she learnedabout modeling. Her aspirationwas to travel abroad to study.

In the evening on 11 May 2010, Zhu’s deadbody was found lying on the ground. All theglamour had dissipated from her young life.

Workers-of-rural-origins are marginalized andexcluded materially and culturally. Youngerworkers in particular feel insecure, neitherbelonging to the city nor able to return to alivelihood in the countryside. Every day,hundreds of young workers quit their jobs andleave the “walled city” of Foxconn. But thosewho hop to other factories quickly findthemselves being exploited in more or less thesame way as at Foxconn. Some have theiremployment histories brought to an end byindustrial accidents.145 Still others, underdesperate conditions, have taken their ownlives.146

Thirteen young organizers picketed anApple store in San Francisco on 17 June2010. They carried placards showing thenames and ages of 12 of the 13 Foxconnsuicide victims whose names are known,

and an unnamed placard for the 13th. Theyhad a moment of silence for each of them.On the “DeathPad,” reads “Workers wantjustice.” Photo credit: Chinese Progressive

Association San Francisco.

Nine mainland Chinese and Hong Kongacademics issued an open statement calling onFoxconn and the government to do justice tothe younger genera t ion o f migrantworkers.147 The statement reads painfully:

From the moment they [the newgeneration of migrant workers]step beyond the doors of theirhouses, they never think of goingback to farming like their parents.In this sense, they see no otheroption when they enter the city towork. The moment they see thereis little possibility of building ahome in the city through hardwork, the very meaning of theirwork collapses. The path ahead isblocked, and the road to retreat isclosed. Trapped in this situation,the new generation of migrantworkers faces a serious identity

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

20

crisis and, in effect, this magnifiespsychological and emotionalproblems. Digging into this deeperlevel of our societal and structuralconditions, we come closer tounderstanding the “no way back”mental i ty of these Foxconnemployees.

The pressure of being away from home, andwith little care and fairness from society, wasamong the major factors behind the employeesuicides.148 Millions of migrant workers likeFoxconn employees are thrown into a state ofdeep contradiction. They reject the regimentedhardships their predecessors endured as cheaplabor and second-class citizens. They rebelagainst their marginalized status andmeaningless life. “So their only option was avery human one,” a labor scholar commented,“to throw away or destroy their own bodies as agesture of frustration—and of defiance.”149 Intheir defiant deaths they call on the Chinesenation—and international society—to wake upbefore more lives are sacrificed.

Conclusion

China’s emergence as a global economic powercould not have occurred without thepainstaking efforts of the older and youngergenerations of migrant workers. The Foxconnsuicides have received much media attentionand yet many other workers toil under equallyterrible conditions. We believe that the laborand human rights issues raised by this humantragedy go far beyond the specific conditions atFoxconn, and demand wide-ranging changes atboth the industry and governmental levels.

The suppression of wages to jump-start export-processing industries in the 1980s broughtabout a large influx of foreign investments toChina. Accelerated in the 1990s, transnationalcompanies and Taiwanese contractors haveoutsourced low-value-added production toChinese manufacturers. Millions of export-

oriented factories are subject to orderspeci f icat ions of Western and Asianmultinationals. Profit margins in laborprocessing remain small. At the internationallevel, producers from Vietnam, India,Cambodia, Bangladesh and other developingcountries are pitted against China in a battle tobecome sub-tier suppliers further down theglobal commodity supply chain. On factoryfloors, workers bear the brunt of cost cuttingpressures.

Young rural migrant workers have become thebackbone of China’s urban export industry.They are underpaid and heavily squeezed.Image-sensitive global buyers and theirsuppliers sometimes express concern for theworkers’ treatment. But often this seemssimply business-as-usual rhetoric of corporatesocial responsibility (CSR). Critics point out thereality behind the rhetoric:150

T h e p r o m i s e s o f C S Rprograms—now a US$40 billion-a-year business globally—have beenfatally undermined by the “irontriangle” of lowest possible per-unit price, highest possible quality,and fastest possible delivery times.Contractor factories are providedwith no financial support for CSRpolicies required by the brands;instead they face slashed profitmargins and additional costs thatcan be made up only by furthersqueezing their own labor force.

Workers’ youthful years are worn away to therhythm of the machines as parts andcomponents flow by. Occupational health, andeven precious life, is sacrificed.

Foxconn’s strategy of low-cost, suppressed-labor-rights competitiveness is neithereconomically sustainable nor morallysupportable. As the biggest electronics contract

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

21

manufacturer in the world, Foxconn churns outmassive volumes of goods designed by globalcompanies. Although its profit margins areslim, its total profits and market share arelarge. Still, the company does not provide itsemployees a living wage, appropriate workingconditions, or adequate benefits. Excessiveovertime, high level of work-related stress, anddisrespect for workers’ right to unionrepresentation is built-in to the Foxconnmanagement system. Under these extremeconditions, at least 13 Foxconn employeeschose to end their lives within five months ofthis year.151 To prevent similar tragedies fromhappening at Foxconn and other factories it iscritical, first and foremost, to assure workers’rights to democratic union organization andcollective bargaining. Strengthening theparticipation of workers in enterprisemanagement will help improve workingconditions. We encourage independentnongovernmental organizations (NGOs) andcredible union leaders to offer participatorytraining in workers’ rights at the workplacelevel. Furthermore, we advocate jointmonitoring of company grievance mechanismsby local governments and external parties,excluding those who are linked to corporateinterests.

We are concerned about the role of the localand national states in the protection of the newworking class. The use of a large pool of youngmigrant labor to fuel China’s export-driveneconomy comes at too high a human cost.Migrant workers’ basic needs for housing,social security, and education for their childrenare not protected by the local government. Aslong as these real problems are not solved, themental or psychological problems that havebeen magnified will never disappear. Thegovernment should redistribute income andguarantee benefits to rural residents andmigrant workers to improve living standards.Institutional discrimination against migrantworkers, based on rural household registrationand other policies, must be eliminated to

facilitate labor mobility and reduce labormarket segmentation and discrimination at theexpense of rura l workers . Workers ’participation in social and labor reform willbuild the community resources to reducesuicides. Overall, a more balanced urban-ruraldevelopment model is key to social andeconomic stability.

On 8 June 2010 the Global Day ofRemembrance for Foxconn Victims and

Foxconn’s Annual General Meeting,student protestors from SACOM, HongKong labor unions, and rights groups

demonstrated outside a local Apple storeto hold Apple and Foxconn accountable to

workers’ rights. Photo credit: Students &Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior

(SACOM).

Suicide is the most desperate form of protest. Itshould not be used as a means to resist socialinjustice. Concrete improvements should startat Foxconn but certainly should not end there.Since May 2010, condolence events forFoxconn victims and their families wereorganized in Shenzhen, Beijing, Hong Kong,Taipei, New York, Washington D.C., SanFrancisco, Boston, Canada, Mexico, the CzechRepublic, Berlin, Amsterdam, Switzerland,France, Australia, South Korea, India, andother places around the world.152 On 22 July,two days immediately after the apparent

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

22

suicide of an 18-year-old male student-workerat the Foxconn Foshan plant in Guangdongprovince,153 a coalition of 45 institutionalinvestors worldwide issued a public statementcalling for ethical, socially-consciousinvestment and improved conditions inelectronics manufacturing facilities in theentire global supply chain.154 On 4 August,despite installing safety nets around thebuilding premises, 22-year-old Liu fell to herdeath from a dormitory in the FoxconnKunshan facility in eastern Jiangsu province.155

Amid new cases of young worker suicides thissummer, Foxconn organized a morale-boostingrally for its young employees at a stadium inthe Shenzhen Longhua plant on 18 August2010. Some workers dressed in company-provided, pink-color t-shirts with big red words“I love Foxconn.” Others, in cheerleadercostumes, held up huge posters of CEO TerryGou that say “Love me, love you, love Terry.”156

Love me, love you, love Terry

At the time, all 20,000 Foxconn participantsstood up and chanted slogans, orchestrated bycompany organizers. A high-level managerloudly exhorted the young people: “Treasureyour life, love your family!”157 Most importantly,he shouted: “Let us care for each other to builda wonderful future.”158

Without stronger protection of workers’fundamental rights to strive for decent work,however, whatever the corporate hype, itseems almost certain that we will witness agrowing roll-call of deaths.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our heartfeltgratitude to Mark Selden, Chris Smith, DimitriKessler, Boy Luthje, Ellen David Friedman,Diana Beaumont, John Sexton, Amanda Bell,Garrett Brown, Chantal Peyer, PaulineOvereem, Jeffrey Ballinger, and activists fromSACOM. We thank deeply the many scholarsand union organizers around the world whocontribute to improve labor conditions atFoxconn and other workplaces.

ActNOW!

Add your name to the signature campaign titled“Appeal by Concerned International Scholars:Create Humane Labor Standards at Foxconnand End ‘Stealth Manufacturing’ in InformationTechnology!” Open statement and up-to-date114 signatories are posted at SACOM website:English (http://sacom.hk/archives/649) andChinese (http://sacom.hk/hk/archives/649).Please email your name and affiliation tosacom@sacom.hk. Your support is most neededfor improving labor conditions (campaignlaunched on 8 June 2010, active for six monthsthrough 7 December 2010).

Jenny Chan is a doctoral candidate atUniversity of London Royal Holloway and avolunteer at Students and Scholars AgainstCorporate Misbehavior (SACOM). Hermanuscript in preparation is "WorkerParticipation in China: Labor Rights Training inTwo Global Electronics Factories."

Ngai Pun is deputy director of PekingUniversity and Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity Social Service Research Center andassociate professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

23

University. Her book, Made in China: WomenFactory Workers in a Global Workplace(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932643001/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)(Duke University Press andHong Kong University Press, 2005) receivedthe C. Wright Mills Award of 2006. Their recentjoint article appears in the first volume of anew journal, Global Labor Journal (2010), "TheRole of the State, Labor Policy and MigrantWorkers' Struggles in Globalized China" (withChris Chan).

They wrote this article for The Asia-PacificJournal.

Recommended citation: Jenny Chan and NgaiPun, "Suicide as Protest for the NewGeneration of Chinese Migrant Workers:Foxconn, Global Capital, and the State," TheAsia-Pacific Journal, 37-2-10, September 13,2010.

References(Books, journal articles, reports, and Chinesegovernment reports only. Blog posts, newsarticles, press statements, videos, andwebpages are cited in notes.)

All China Federation of Trade Unions. 2010.Research Report on Problems of the NewGeneration of Chinese Migrant Workers [inChinese].

Andreas, Joel. 2008. "Changing Colors inChina." New Left Review 54 (Nov/Dec): 123-42.

Becker, Jeffrey and Manfred Elfstrom. 2010.The Impact of China's Labor Contract Law onWorkers. International Labor Rights Forum(ILRF).

Brown, Garrett. 2010. "Global ElectronicsFactories in Spotlight." Occupational Health &Safety (4 August).

Chan, Jenny. 2009. "Meaningful Progress orIllusory Reform? Analyzing China's Labor

Contract Law." New Labor Forum 18(2): 43-51.

Chan, Kam Wing. 2010. "The Global FinancialCrisis and Migrant Workers in China: ‘There isNo Future as a Laborer; Returning to theVillage has no Meaning.'" International Journalof Urban and Regional Research (July): 1-19.

China Youth and Children Research Center.2007. Research report on developmentconditions and generational differences of thenew-generation Chinese migrant workers [inChinese].

China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security.2004. A Survey Report on Migrant LaborShortage [in Chinese].

China's National Bureau of Statistics. 2010.Monitoring Survey of Migrant Workers in 2009[in Chinese].

China's No.1 Central Document [2010]. 31December 2009. Opinions of the CPC CentralCommittee and the State Council on exertinggreater efforts in the overall planning of urbanand rural development and further solidifyingthe foundation for agricultural and ruraldevelopment [in Chinese].

Day, Alexander and Matthew A. Hale. 2007."Guest Editors' Introduction." ChineseSociology and Anthropology 39(4): 3-9.

Gallagher, Mary E. 2005. ContagiousCapitalism: Globalization and the Politics ofLabor in China . New Jersey: PrincetonUniversity Press.

Hung, Ho-Fung. 2009. "America's HeadServant? The PRC's Dilemma in the GlobalCrisis." New Left Review 60 (Nov/Dec): 5-25.

Knight, John, Deng Quheng, and Li Shi. 2010."The Puzzle of Migrant Labor Shortage andRural Labor Surplus in China." DiscussionPaper Series, No. 494 (July). Department ofEconomics, Oxford University.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

24

Lee, Ching Kwan. 1998. Gender and the SouthChina Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women.Berkeley: University of California Press.

________. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protestsin China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley:University of California Press.

Lett, Erin and Judith Banister. 2009. "China'sManufacturing Employment and CompensationCosts: 2002-06." Monthly Labor Review (April):30-38.

Pun, Ngai. 2005. Made in China: WomenFactory Workers in a Global Workplace.Durham: Duke University Press and HongKong: Hong Kong University Press.

________ and Lu Huilin. 2010. "UnfinishedProletarianization: Self, Anger, and ClassAction among the Second Generation ofPeasant-workers in Present-day China. ModernChina 36(5): 493-519.

Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions and theInstitute of Labor Law and Social Security Lawof Shenzhen University. 2010. A survey on thelives of the new generation of migrant workersin Shenzhen [in Chinese].

Silver, Beverly J. 2003. Forces of Labor:Workers' Movements and Globalization since1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

So, Alvin Y. 2009. "Rethinking the ChineseDevelopmental Miracle." Pp. 50-64 in Chinaand the Transformation of Global Capitalism,edited by Ho-Fung Hung. Baltimore: The JohnsHopkins University Press.

Solinger, Dorothy J. 1999. ContestingCitizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants,the State, and the Logic of the Market.Berkeley: University of California Press.

Wang, Haiyan, Richard P. Appelbaum,Francesca Degiuli, and Nelson Lichtenstein.2009. "China's New Labor Contract Law: Is

China Moving Towards Increased Power forWorkers?" Third World Quarterly 30(3):485-501.

Yan, Hairong. 2008. New Masters, NewServants: Migration, Development, and WomenWorkers in China. Durham: Duke UniversityPress.

Notes

1 We translated the extracts in Chinese from ab l o g d a t e d 2 7 M a y 2 0 1 0 .http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_47480eca0100ikm2.html. All translations throughout this paperare by the authors.

2 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. websiteat www.foxconn.com (http://www.foxconn.com).

3 iSuppli. 27 July 2010. Foxconn ridespartnership with Apple to take 50 percent of in2011.

4 Company description in Hon Hai PrecisionIndustry statement dated 26 April 2010.http://www.honhai.com.tw/Revenue/Pr2009_Q4.pdf.

5 Sun Yaping. 20 May 2010. Foxconnspokesperson responds to "9 consecutivejumps," acknowledging management problems.Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (China Youth Daily) [inChinese].

6 Austin Ramzy. 16 December 2009. Runnersup: the Chinese worker. Time.

7 Wang Yi (Net Ease). 9 April 2010. Who canbring the Foxconn "suicide express" to a halt?[in Chinese].

8 Appeal by concerned international scholars:create humane labor standards at Foxconn andend "stealth manufacturing" in informationtechnology! 8 June 2010. Signatories are

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

25

posted online at sacom.hk/archives/649(http://sacom.hk/archives/649).

9 According to a timeline of milestones on theFoxconn website, in 2006, the company wasnamed one of the "best employers in China" bya C h i n a H R . c o m p o l l .www.foxconn.com/PullulateCourse.html(http://www.foxconn.com/PullulateCourse.html).

10 Dagongmei / dagongzai (female / malemigrant workers) is a new gender and classidentity that has been emerging in post-MaoChina. Dagong is defined in contrast togongren. Dagong refers to rural residents whomigrate to and from cities where they workwith or without temporary contracts, usuallyfor private enterprises, as opposed to gongrenwho enjoy (nominally) lifelong contracts withstate enterprises and urban householdregistrations. See Ching Kwan Lee. 1998.Gender and the South China miracle: twoworlds of factory women. Berkeley: Universityof California Press; Pun Ngai. 2005. Made inChina: women factory workers in a globalworkplace. Durham: Duke University Press andHong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; YanHairong. 2008. New masters, new servants:migration, development, and women workers inChina. Durham: Duke University Press.

11 Joel Andreas. 2008. Changing colors in China.New Left Review 54 (Nov/Dec): 123-42.

1 2 Mary E. Gallagher. 2005. Contagiouscapitalism: globalization and the politics oflabor in China . New Jersey: PrincetonUniversity Press.

13 Alvin Y. So. 2009. Rethinking the Chinesedevelopmental miracle. Pp. 50-64 in China andthe transformation of global capitalism, editedby Ho-Fung Hung. Baltimore: The JohnsHopkins University Press.

14 Alexander Day and Matthew A. Hale. 2007.Guest editors' introduction. Chinese Sociology

and Anthropology 39(4): 3-9.

15 Dorothy J. Solinger. 1999. Contestingcitizenship in urban China: peasant migrants,the state, and the logic of the market. Berkeley:University of California Press.

16 Chinese migrant workers' real wage growth,calculated by means of the national consumerprice index, was reportedly positive from 2005through 2009. See Table 2 in John Knight, DengQuheng, and Li Shi. 2010. The puzzle ofmigrant labor shortage and rural labor surplusin China. Discussion paper series, No. 494(July). Department of Economics, OxfordUniversity.

17 Ho-Fung Hung. 2009. America's headservant? The PRC's dilemma in the globalcrisis. New Left Review 60 (Nov/Dec): 5-25.Data on manufacturing wages during catch up,1950-2005, is shown in figure 5.

18 Erin Lett and Judith Banister. 2009. China'smanufacturing employment and compensationcosts: 2002-06. Monthly Labor Review (April):30-38.

19 The Economist. 29 July 2010. The next China.

20 Zeng Xiangqun. 4 August 2010. Labor's shareof Chinese GDP fell for 10 consecutive years [inChinese]. Renmin Wang (People Net).

21 Zhang Jianguo, All China Federation of TradeUnions (ACFTU)'s Director of the CollectiveContracts Department, quoted in China Daily.12 May 2010. Data shows that labor's share ofChinese GDP fell for 22 consecutive years [inChinese].

22 China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security.2004. A survey report on migrant laborshortage [in Chinese].

23 Ching Kwan Lee. 2007. Against the law: laborprotests in China's rustbelt and sunbelt.Berkeley: University of California Press.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

26

24 Article 3 of China's Provisions on MinimumWage (2004) stipulated that employees shouldalso be entitled to paid annual vacation, homeleave, marriage or funeral leave, and maternityleave.

25 See for example, Haiyan Wang, Richard P.Appelbaum, Francesca Degiuli, and NelsonLichtenstein. 2009. China's new labor contractlaw: Is China moving towards increased powerfor workers? Third World Quarterly 30(3):485-501; and Jenny Chan. 2009. Meaningfulprogress or illusory reform? Analyzing China'slabor contract law. New Labor Forum 18(2):43-51; Jeffrey Becker and Manfred Elfstrom.2010. The impact of China's labor contract lawon workers. International Labor Rights Forum(ILRF).

26 No.1 Central Document [2010]-Opinions ofthe CPC Central Committee and the StateCouncil on exerting greater efforts in theovera l l p lanning o f urban and rura ldevelopment and further solidifying thefoundation for agricultural and ruraldevelopment. 31 December 2009. Paragraph 23calls for faster development of small-to-medium-sized cities and small towns, andreform of the household registration system [inC h i n e s e ] .www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2010/content_152 8 9 0 0 . h t m(http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2010/content_1528900.htm).

27 Mary E. Gallagher. 23 August 2010. "We arenot machines:" teen spirit on China's shopfloor.The China Beat.28 Kam Wing Chan. 2010. The global financialcrisis and migrant workers in China: ‘There isno future as a laborer; returning to the villagehas no meaning.' International Journal of Urbanand Regional Research (July): 1-19.

29 Chinese trade surpluses, in turn, were used tobuy US bonds, sustaining the debt-financedspending spree of Americans on low-cost

imported merchandizes. See Ho-Fung Hung.America's head servant? The PRC's dilemma inthe global crisis.

30 China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).2010. Monitoring survey of migrant workers in2 0 0 9 [ i n C h i n e s e ] .www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t20100319_40262828 1 . h t m .(http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t20100319_402628281.htm.)

31 Nationally, 84.45 million Chinese migrantworkers are engaged in rural non-farmemployment (bendi nongmingong or jiudizhuanyi nongmingong). They had been workingin enterprises within their home villages ortowns (xiang zhen) for more than 6 months atthe time of survey. In 2009, the number of thissubgroup of rural migrants decreased by 0.7percent year-on-year.

32 All China Federation of Trade Unions(ACFTU). 2010. Research report on problems ofthe new generation of Chinese migrant workers[ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.acftu.org/template/10004/file.jsp?cid=222&aid=83614. The Research Office ofACFTU estimated in 2009 that only 20 percentof the young migrant workers were married. Ofall age groups, 56 percent of the 145.33 millionChinese migrant workers had married,according to the NBS survey.

33 Pun Ngai and Lu Huilin. 2010. Unfinishedproletarianization: self, anger, and class actionamong the second generation of peasant-workers in present-day China. Modern China36(5): 493-519.

34 Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions and theInstitute of Labor Law and Social Security Lawof Shenzhen University. 2010. A survey on thelives of the new generation of migrant workersin Shenzhen [in Chinese]. The 5,000 surveyedmigrant workers were born after 1980.http://acftu.people.com.cn/GB/67582/12154737.html.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

27

35 A designated town (jianzhi zhen) in Chinahouses more than 2,500 permanent localresidents, of whom more than 70 percent havenon-farm jobs. All China Federation of TradeUnions (ACFTU). 2010. Research report onproblems of the new generation of Chinesem i g r a n t w o r k e r s [ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.acftu.org/template/10004/file.jsp?cid=222&aid=83614. Note that the number ofrespondents/interviewees in the ACFTU studyis not specified.

36 All China Federation of Trade Unions(ACFTU). 2010. Research report on problems ofthe new generation of Chinese migrant workers[ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.acftu.org/template/10004/file.jsp?cid=222&aid=83614.

37 The NBS survey reported that less than 30million migrant workers nationwide werejoined by their families. In recent years thesocial problem of liushou ertong or children leftbehind in the countryside (by parents workingoutside) has gained wide attention. Effectivesolutions are yet to emerge.

38 Of the 145 million migrant workers who lefttheir home villages and towns for urbanemployment in 2009, there is no NBS statisticalbreakdown by age and gender.

39 China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).2010. Monitoring survey of migrant workers in2 0 0 9 [ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t20100319_402628281.htm.

40 China Youth and Children Research Center.2007. Research report on developmentconditions and generational differences of thenew-generation Chinese migrant workers [inChinese]. See the section on young migrantworkers' needs for (self) development.http://www.cycs.org/Article.asp?Category=1&Column=389&ID=7879.

41 All China Federation of Trade Unions

(ACFTU). 2010. Research report on problems ofthe new generation of Chinese migrant workers[ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.acftu.org/template/10004/file.jsp?cid=222&aid=83614.

42 Beverly J. Silver. 2003. Forces of labor:workers' movements and globalization since1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.In Silver's words (2003: 169), "[I]f past patternsare any guide to the future, then we shouldexpect major waves of industrial labor unrest(of the Marx-type) to occur in those regionstha t have been exper ienc ing rap idindustrialization and proletarianization. (Ofgreatest world-historical significance, in thisregard, is the case of China.)"

43 Hon Hai subsidiaries in Taiwan and China,see Hong Kong-listed Foxconn InternationalH o l d i n g s ( F I H ) a thttp://www.fih-foxconn.com/about/affiliates.aspx.

4 4 F o x c o n n T e c h n o l o g y G r o u p a thttp://www.foxconn.com.cn [in Chinese].

45 Foxconn Technology Group. 2010. Globald i s t r i b u t i o n .http://www.foxconn.com.cn/GlobalDistribution.html [in Chinese].

46 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. P. 8.

47 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. Pp. 10-11.

48 Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 8 July 2002. TerryT.M. Gou, Chairman, Hon Hai PrecisionIndustry.

49 Julie M. LaNasa. 2002. Solectron: buildingcustomer teams to deliver on your company'svalue proposition. Collaborative Consulting.

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

28

50 Flextronics. 2008. Presentations (webcast).http://www.flextronics.com/webdocuments/presentations/FlexAnalystDayNov2008.pdf. In June2007, Flextronics acquired Solectron. SeeFlextronics. 4 June 2007. Flextronics to acquireSolectron.

51 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. P. 10.

52 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. P. 11.

53 Foxconn Technology Group. 2010. Groupp r o f i l e .http://www.foxconn.com.cn/GroupProfile.html[in Chinese].

54 Fortune Global 500. 2010. Hon Hai PrecisionIndustry-rank 112 (previous rank: 109).

55 Tim Culpan. 30 August 2010. Hon Hai netincome misses estimates after raising Chinawages. Bloomberg Businessweek.

56 Students and Scholars Against CorporateMisbehavior (SACOM). 27 May 2010. June 8th:Global Day of Remembrance for Victims ofFoxconn, imploring workers to cherish theirlives, demanding Foxconn stop production andreform. Press release.

57 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. P. 8.

58 Foxconn Technology Group. 2010. Channelb u s i n e s s .http://www.foxconnchannel.com/about/cisg.aspx.

59 Amazon is a customer of Foxconn (see Kindleat Wikipedia). See also Radio TaiwanInternational. 20 July 2010. Amazon: Kindlesales surpass printed books.

60 Foxconn Technology Group. 18 August 2006.Foxconn soc ia l and env i ronmenta lr e s p o n s i b i l i t y u p d a t e .http://www.foxconn.com/SER_PubilcRelease_01.html.

61 Foxconn Technology Group. 2010. Companyi n t r o d u c t i o n .http://www.foxconn.com/CompanyIntro.html.

62 Hon Hai spokesman Arthur Huang, quoted inDavid Barboza. 6 July 2010. iPhone supplychain highlights rising costs in China. NewYork Times.

63 Foxconn Technology Group. 2009. Corporatesocial and environmental responsibility report2008. P. 10.

64 Fortune Global 500. 2010. Annual ranking ofthe world's largest corporations (by revenues).

65 New York Times. 27 May 2010. Apple andMicrosoft's tug of war.

66 iSuppli. 28 June 2010. Apple rides high-margin hardware to competitive supremacy.

67 Ian Sherr. 22 July 2010. Apple building teamsto push sales to small business. The Wall StreetJournal.

68 Yen-Shyang Hwang, Ninelu Tu, and JosephTsai. 5 August 2010. Foxconn ships over 6million notebooks in 1H10. Digitimes.

69 Reuters. 22 July 2010. Hon Hai's 2011 laptopshipments seen up over 70 pct.

70 Yen-Shyang Hwang and Joseph Tsai. 22 July2010. Wistron, Compal still top-2 notebooksuppliers for Dell in 2011; Foxconn advances tothird. Digitimes.

71 Gillian Wong. 19 August 2010. Foxconn getsthe pompoms out to raise morale at "suicidefactory." The Independent. See also (video 1)suicide stricken Foxconn hold morale boasting

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

29

rally www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C6vSzKtkn0(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C6vSzKtkn0&NR=1) [narrated in English], and (video 2)Foxconn holds "treasure your life" rallies inC h i n awww.youtube.com/watch?v=AwoKGAO4jd8(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwoKGAO4jd8) [narrated in English].

72 Foxconn Technology Group. 2010. Companyi n t r o d u c t i o n ( v i d e o ) .http://www.foxconn.com.cn/CompanyIntro.html[narrated in Mandarin].

73 Xinjing Bao (New Beijing News). 18 August2010. Already twenty-seven provinces haveraised minimum wages this year, most by up to30 percent [in Chinese].

74 David Barboza. 2 June 2010. After spate ofsuicides, technology firm in China raisesworkers' salaries. New York Times.

75 Effective 1 July 2010, Shenzhen's minimumwage was raised to 1,100 yuan a month. AFP. 9June 2010. China export hub Shenzhen to raiseminimum wage.

76 Sean Hollister. 6 June 2010. Foxconn offersadditional 66 percent raise, pending mysteriousperformance review. Engadget.

77 China Labor Bulletin. 7 June 2010. Foxconn'slatest pay offer comes with strings attached.

78 Kathrin Hile. 28 June 2010. Foxconn to shiftsome of Apple assembly. Financial Times.

79 Louis Woo, special assistant to CEO ofFoxconn, quoted in Eilot Van Buskirk. 18August 2010. Foxconn rallies workers, leavesuicide nets in place. Wired.com.

8 0 Zhongguo Xinwen Zhoukan (ChinaNewsweek). 2010. Fight to grab Foxconn. No.27 (July) [in Chinese].

81 The China Post. 1 July 2010. HP, Foxconn,

Quanta, Inventec to choose Chongqing forbase.

8 2 Robert Dreyfuss. 18 November 2009.Chongqing: socialism in one city. The Nation.

83 Song Jingli. 5 August 2009. HP, Foxconn tobuild laptop manufacturing hub in Chongqing.China Daily.

84 Tong Hao. 6 August 2009. HP, Foxconn to setup laptop unit. China Daily.

85 Hu Yinan and Wang Yu. 29 June 2010.Foxconn mulls move northward. China Daily.

86 China International Investment PromotionPlatform. 28 July 2010. Foxconn to investUS$64 million in Zhengzhou and Chengdu.

87 Zhengzhou government official, quoted inXinhua. 2 August 2010. New Foxconn factory incentral China begins production with hope ofpeace, prosperity.

88 Xinhua. 30 June 2010. Xinhua insight:Foxconn's inland moving a win-win solution.

89 Hu Yinan. 26 June 2010. Students "forced" towork at Foxconn. China Daily.

90 CNTV (China Central TV). 4 August 2010.Foxconn moves factories further inland inHenan.

91 China Daily. 27 July 2010. Foxconn to open ITchainstores in central China.

92 Xinhua. 26 May 2010. Foxconn's presidentinitiates media tour at Shenzhen plant.

9 3 H o n H a i h u m a n r e s o u r c e s a thttp://www.honhai-hr.com.tw/article3.htm [inChinese].

94 In 2007, China's Ministry of Health estimatedthat there were 25 suicides per every 100,000people in the country. Data quoted in ChinaDaily. 8 April 2010. Foxconn rocked by latest

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

30

suicide attempt.

95 China Economic Review. 28 May 2010.Crunching the suicide statistics at Foxconn.See also People's Daily. 25 June 2010. Suiciderates up among Chinese urban men; GlobalTimes. 16 September 2009. Seniors seeksuicide solution. Suicide rates are rising amongChina's urban citizens, especially elderly men,according to the Ministry of Health.

96 Evertiq. 14 July 2010. Apple to go foradditional manufacturing partner.

97 Bloomberg Businessweek. 5 June 2007.Flextronics' merger muscle.

98 Yen-Shyang Hwang, Ninelu Tu, and JosephTsai. 5 August 2010. Foxconn ships over 6million notebooks in 1H10. Digitimes.

99 Stephanie Wong, John Liu, and Tim Culpan. 3June 2010. Why Apple and others are nervousabout Foxconn. Bloomberg Businessweek.

100 Apple. 21 January 2009. Apple reports firstquarter results. Apple's quarterly revenue,which ended 27 December 2008, was US$10.17billion (and net quarterly profit US$1.61billion).

101 A 16Gbyte Apple iPhone, breaking downphysically (by iSuppli in cost analysis), carriesthese main electronics parts and components:application processors, memory flash module,radio frequency transceiver , powermanagement device, connectors, touchscreencontroller, camera, battery, and othermechanical and e lectro-mechanicalcomponents. The total component cost isestimated US$187.51. See iSuppli. 28 June2010. iPhone 4 carries bill of materials ofUS$187.51.

102 iSuppli. 28 June 2010. Apple rides high-margin hardware to competitive supremacy.

103 Apple. 22 June 2010. Apple sells three

million iPads in 80 days.

104 iSuppli. 7 April 2010. User-interface-focusediPad changes the game in electronic design.

105 Apple. 20 July 2010. Apple reports thirdquarter results (ended 26 June 2010): all-timerecord revenue, earnings increase 78 percent.

106 Rik Myslewski. 18 May 2010. Apple said toorder 24 million iPhone 4Gs. The Register.

107 Arik Hesseldahl. 23 July 2010. Apple: whiteiPhone 4 de layed aga in . BloombergBusinessweek .

108 Beijing Qingnian Bao (Beijing Youth Daily). 7June 2010. Dissect Foxconn: respect "Made-in-China" human dignity [in Chinese].

109 Government survey result quoted in LuXiaohong. 17 June 2010. Foxconn raised wagesfor 5 times in 6 years but with no substantialchange: only the ratio of overtime premiumsincreases. Diyi Caijing Ribao (China BusinessNews) [in Chinese].

110 Students and Scholars Against CorporateMisbehavior (SACOM). 25 May 2010. HongKong groups mourned the dead, Foxconnrefused to respond. SACOM proposes a livingwage rate in Shenzhen by considering theseelements: food consumption of 613 yuan in amonth, an Engel's coefficient of 0.5, and adependency ratio of 1.87 (an earner supports1.87 family members on average) [in Chinese].

111 Geoffrey Crothall, media director of theChina Labor Bulletin, quoted in Reuters. 2 June2010. Workers at China plant where 10committed suicide to get 30 percent raise.

112 Coolloud (Bitter Labor). 28 May 2010.Ta iwan protes tors outs ide Hon Haih e a d q u a r t e r s [ i n C h i n e s e ] .http://www.coolloud.org.tw/node/52345.

113 Appeal by 180 Taiwan scholars. 13 June

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

31

2010. End to sweatshops, safeguard labor andh u m a n r i g h t s ! I n E n g l i s h :http://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010eng/;I n C h i n e s ehttp://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010/.

114 Xinhua. 13 May 2010. Foxconn ‘regrets'suicide cluster.

115 Tania Branigan. 17 May 2010. LatestFoxconn suicide raises concern over factory lifein China. Guardian.

116 China Labor Watch. 18 May 2010. "We areextremely tired, with tremendous pressure,"said Foxconn workers.

117 China Labor Bulletin. 9 April 2010. Foxconnsuicides highlight the pressures on youngfactory workers in China.

118 Evertiq. 24 may 2010. Terry Gou: "No bloodand sweat shop."

119 Cindy Sui. 18 May 2010. Foxconn calls onmonks and counselors to stem suicides. BBC.

120 Wang Qian. 13 May 2010. Foxconn invitesmonks in wake of six suicides. China Daily.

121 Barbara Demick and David Sarno. 27 May2010. Suicides roil factory in China. LosAngeles Times.

122 Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend). 12May 2010. Break the suicide "spell" of Foxconnemployees [in Chinese].

123 Sina. 13 May 2010. Foxconn responds tohiring monks: blessings for workers [inChinese].

124 Mingpao Daily. 17 August 2010. Foxconnremoves protective nets from all its facilities inthe country [in Chinese].

125 Wang Xiang. 5 August 2010. Foxconn seeks"mature" workers for its Wuhan plant.

Shanghai Daily.

126 Renmin Wang (People Net). 12 September2010. Brief profile of Terry Gou [in Chinese].

127 Li Kecheng. Foxconn: life in the 10 billion-tax"lonely island." Dongfang Zaobao (OrientalDaily) [in Chinese].

128 Jason Dean. 11 August 2007. The forbiddencity of Terry Gou. The Wall Street Journal.

129 Yanzhao Dushi Bao (Yanzhao MetropolisDaily). 9 June 2010. Upstream companiesexploitations, supplier Foxconn the king fallsfrom the heavenly grace [in Chinese].

130 Li Jinming, Foxconn's general manager,quoted in Zhongguo Xinwen Wang (China NewsNet). 22 July 2009. Foxconn deeply entrappedin ‘suicides,' general manager reviewedinternal management deficiencies [in Chinese].

131 Sun Danyong, Foxconn's employee, quoted inCheng Wen. 21 July 2009. Foxconn employeejumped to his death, suspected of under toomuch pressure. Nanfang Dushi Bao (SouthernMetropolis Daily) [in Chinese].

132 Foxconn Technology Group. 20 May 2010.Announcement on behalf of companys u b s i d i a r y .http://www.foxconn.com/PubEngShowData.asp?pubdh=0000293&publb=EN02.

133 China Review News. 20 May 2010. FoxconnBeijing tens of security guards accused ofbeating employees [in Chinese].

134 China.org.cn. 21 May 2010. Foxconnconfirms guards beat up workers.

135 James Pomfret and Kelvin So. 17 February2010. For Apple suppliers, loose lips can sinkcontracts. Reuters.

136 Xinhua. 25 May 2010. Another Foxconnemployee falls to death at Shenzhen factory;

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

32

note found.

137 Deng Fei. 13 June 2010. Inside story ofFoxconn: cruelty of the 13 young people.Fenghuang Zhoukan (Phoenix Weekly) [inChinese].

138 Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern MetropolisDaily). 7 May 2010. One more Foxconnemployee jumped from building, allegedlyfollowed by a killer [in Chinese].

139 Lu Xin, Foxconn employee, quoted in CCTV.11 May 2010. Foxconn "seven consecutivej u m p s " i n c i d e n t .http://news.cntv.cn/society/20100511/104838.shtml [narrated in Mandarin, with Chinesesubtitles].

140 Zhongguo Pinglun Xinwen Wang (ChinaReview News). 13 May 2010. Eight consecutivejumps, why? Foxconn eventually reflected on it[in Chinese].

141 Zeng Hongling, Foxconn employee andformer university classmate of Lu Xin, quotedin CCTV Xinwen 1+ 1 (News 1 + 1). 11 May2010. Foxconn: "seven consecutive jumps"m y s t e r y .http://news.cntv.cn/china/20100511/104923.shtml [narrated in Mandarin, with Chinesesubtitles].

142 Zhou Hongquan, Yang Yan, and Xia Xiong. 17May 2010. Lu Xin a graduate from XiangtanUniversity lost his soul at Foxconn, isdomination by machines the root cause for hisdeath? Renmin Wang (People Net) [in Chinese].

143 Jonathan Adams. 14 June 2010. Chinaworkers suicides: a lost generation? GlobalPost.

144 Xiao Li, friend of Foxconn worker ZhuChenming, quoted in CCTV Jingji ban xiaoshi(Economy for half-an-hour). 23 May 2010.Foxconn "ten consecutive jumps" mystery.http://jingji.cntv.cn/20100523/102112.shtml[narrated in Mandarin].

1 4 5 Jonathan Adams and Kath leen E .McLaughlin. 2009-2010. Silicon sweatshops (aseries of feature stories about workers inTaiwan and mainland China). GlobalPost; seealso Students and Scholars Against CorporateMisbehavior (SACOM). 18 August 2010. Wal-Mart supplier produces severed fingers andhands.

146 Mark Lee. 26 May 2010. Suicides amongChina factory workers surge, labor group says.Bloomberg Businessweek.

147 The nine signatories of the open statementdated 18 May 2010 are: Shen Yuan (TsinghuaUniversity), Guo Yuhua (Tsinghua University),Lu Huilin (Peking University), Pun Ngai (HongKong Polytechnic University), Dai Jianzhong(Beijing Academy of Social Sciences), Tan Shen(China Academy of Social Sciences), ShenHong (China Academy of Social Sciences), RenYan (Sun Yat-sen University), and Zhang Dunfu(Shanghai University). See the full webtext atS i n a T e c h [ i n C h i n e s e ] :http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2010-05-19/13214206671.shtml.

148 Li Ping, Shenzhen government secretarygeneral, quoted in The Mail. 28 May 2010.Thirteenth employee at China's iPhone factoryattempts suicide amid row over workingconditions.

149 Russell C. Leong. 27 May 2010. Blood inexchange for gold? UCLA U.S.-China MediaBrief.

150 Garrett Brown. 4 August 2010. Globalelectronics factories in spotlight. OccupationalHealth & Safety.

151 Amid intense journalist investigation onFoxconn suicides in May 2010, the death of 19-year-old Rong Bo was exposed to the public. OnJanuary 2010, Rong leapt off a dormitorybuilding to his death in the Foxconn Langfangcampus in Hebei province. See official sourcefrom Xinhua. 21 May 2010. 11th jump pushes

APJ | JF 8 | 37 | 2

33

Foxconn into the teeth of storm.

152 See, for example, relevant sections aboutFoxconn suicides by Students and ScholarsAgainst Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) athttp://sacom.hk, United Students AgainstSweatshops (USAS) at http://usas.org, ChinaS t u d y G r o u p ( C S G ) a thttp://chinastudygroup.net, GoodElectronics athttp://goodelectronics.org, makeITfair athttp://makeitfair.org, procureITfair athttp://procureitfair.org, InternationalMeta lworkers ' Federat ion ( IMF) a twww.imfmetal.org (http://www.imfmetal.org),Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) athttp://en.maquilasolidarity.org/, MaquiladoraHealth & Safety Support Network (MHSSN) ath t tp : / /mhssn . i gc . o rg / , Green IT a thttp://www.greenit.fr/, and Talking Unionhttp://talkingunion.wordpress.com.

153 A male student-worker died from falling inFoxconn Foshan plant on 20 July 2010. Xinhua.20 July 2010. Another Foxconn worker falls to

death.

154 Boston Common Asset Management, TrilliumAsset Management Corporation, As You Sow,Domini Social Investments, and InterfaithCenter on Corporate Responsibility. 22 July2010. International investor coalition urgentlycalls for improved working conditions inelectronics manufacturing facilities.

155 BBC. 6 August 2010. China Foxconn factoryconfirms another worker death.

156 Sophie Beach. 18 August 2010. Foxconnrallies China workers amid suicide concerns(with photos and a video). China Digital Times.

157 Gillian Wong. 19 August 2010. Foxconn getsthe pompoms out to raise morale at "suicidefactory." The Independent.

158 Gillian Wong. 18 August 2010. iPhone makerFoxconn holds rallies after suicides. The Globeand Mail.

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932643001/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)

Click on the cover to order.