The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 11 | Issue 31 | Number 1 | Article ID 3977 | Aug 06, 2013

1

A Suicide Survivor: the life of a Chinese migrant worker atFoxconn 自殺未遂　ある富士康移民労働者の暮らし

Jenny Chan

Abstract

In 2010, 18 employees working for Foxconn inChina attempted suicide. These shockingevents focused world attention on themanufacturing supply chains of China's exportindustry and the experience of working withinthem. What had driven these young migrantassembly line workers to commit such adesperate act? This article provides a first-handaccount of the experiences of one of those whosurvived a suicide attempt, 17-year-old Tian Yu.Her personal narrative is embedded within thebroader context of labour process, workorganisation and managerial practice atFoxconn, the Taiwanese-owned multinationalwhose 1.4 million Chinese workers provideproducts and components for Apple and others.Factory conditions are further shaped by thecompany trade union and Chinese governmentpolicies. The paper concludes with additionalcontextualisation indicating the emergence ofan alliance of workers, students, scholars andtransnational labour movement activists whoare campaigning for Chinese workers' rights.

Keywords:

Foxconn; suicides; Apple; global supply chains;wages; working hours; Chinese workers;ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trade Unions)

Introduction

Among the most prominent firms in the globalsupply chain that operates in China is Foxconn,the Taiwanese-owned multinational electronics

contract supplier. Foxconn is the trading namefor Hon Hai Precision Industry Company and,with a workforce of 1.4 million, it is the largestprivate sector company in China and one of theworld's largest employers (iSuppli, 30 May2006; 27 July 2010; BBC, 20 March 2012).Through its manufacture of products for firms,markets and consumers in the United States,Europe and elsewhere, it epitomises thecommanding heights of China's export-orientedindustry. Foxconn's remarkable expansionthroughout China gave rise to a mythology ofcorporate success until a much-publicised spateof employee suicides at its factories anddormitories in 2010 that focused the world'sattention on the dark side of its employmentregime. One of those who attempted suicidewas 17-year-old Tian Yu.

At about 8 a.m. on March 17, 2010, after only37 days of employment, Yu threw herself fromthe fourth floor of Foxconn's Longhuadormitory in Shenzhen (South China MorningPost, 19 July 2012; 25 April 2013). Miraculouslyshe survived, but suffered three spinalfractures, four hip fractures, and was leftparalysed from the waist down. Her job at theLonghua factory had been her first, andprobably will be her last. This paper isstructured around her account of thecircumstances behind, and consequences of,the desperate attempt to take her own life.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/full#ntwe12007-bib-0041http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/full#ntwe12007-bib-0042

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

2

Tian Yu

Her personal narrative, examined within thebroader context of the spate of suicides atFoxconn, provides an insight into the humanconsequences of the labour regimes of theglobalised manufacturing supply chains ofChina's export industries (Lee, 1998; Pun,2005; Lichtenstein, 2009; Bonacich andHami l ton , 2011; Chan, 2011a) . Thecounterpoint to the contemporary fascinationwith i-products is a regime of managerialautocracy and assembly line drudgery at thepoint of production, a contradiction thatreminds us of the enduring relevance of Marx'sconcept of commodity fetishism. Thousands ofmiles from the shelves of the Apple store, andordinarily concealed from consumer concern,lies the reality of alienating toil that, in extremeconditions, contributes to individual tragediessuch as Yu's.

During 2010, 18 young workers, ranging in agefrom 17 to 25, attempted suicide at Foxconnfacilities in China. Fourteen died, whereas foursurvived with crippling injuries (Chan, 2011b).International media dubbed these events the‘suicide express’ (Daily Mail, 29 May 2010).Facing public criticism, Foxconn strove tominimise reputational damage by claiming thatthe suicide rate at its plants was below thenational rate of 23 per 100,000 people (Phillipset al., 2002). Liu Kun, the corporate publiccommunications director, emphasised thatFoxconn had more than 1,000,000 employees inChina alone, and that the reasons for suicideswere multiple. ‘Given its size, the rate of self-killing at Foxconn is not necessarily far fromChina's relatively high average’, reported TheGuardian (28 May 2010). But no scientific studywould draw a comparison which ignores thefact that the suicides were by young peopleemployed by a single company, the greatmajority working in a small industrial district ofShenzhen. Scientific comparisons wouldrequire that data be randomly drawn from adistrict with similar population size and agegroups. It would make little sense, for example,to compare the workers’ suicides to patternsamong the disadvantaged rural women and theelderly who made up a large proportion of thecountry's suicide cases (Ji et al., 2001, Lee andKleinman, 2003; China Economic Review, 28May 2010). The Foxconn suicide clusterrepresents a phenomenon that has noprecedent in China's industrial history.

It is hoped that the following testimony of Yuwill contribute to an understanding of this waveof suicides and, more broadly, will assist in thenecessary scrutiny of the Chinese and globalcontexts of international capital, which linkFoxconn, electronic consumer product brands,and the Chinese government (Chan, 2010;2012; Chan and Pun, 2010; Pun and Chan,2012). This paper interweaves Yu's testimonywith Foxconn's shop floor practices andconcludes with a discussion of the roles of thelocal government and the All-China Federation

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

3

of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the organisation thatostensibly represents workers, and theirresponses to the suicides.

Fieldwork in China

Since summer 2010, and in the wake of thesuicides and reports of corporate abuses,faculty members and students from 20universities in mainland China, Taiwan andHong Kong have formed the UniversityResearch Group on Foxconn. Together withStudents and Scholars Against CorporateMisbehavior (SACOM),1 a Hong Kong–basedtransnational campaign group, internationalresearchers have conducted independentinvestigations into Foxconn's labour practicesand production systems (see January 2013special issue of the South Atlantic Quarterly,Litzinger, 2013; Pun and Chan, 2013; Pringle,2013; Hung, 2013). The author is one of theprincipal Hong Kong Chinese field researcherswho have interviewed Foxconn workers,managers, government officials and labourrights activists in Hong Kong, Shenzhen(Longhua and Guanlan towns in Guangdongprovince), Chengdu (provincial city of Sichuan)and Chongqing municipality, and a labourrights advocate affiliated to SACOM.

In addition to extended interviews with Yu, 42additional interviews have been conducted bythe author with current or former workersoffsite, where they were not subject tomanagerial surveillance and thus retaliation.When undertaking such fieldwork the researchteam members identified themselves as a groupin order to protect the anonymity of individualuniversity researchers (particularly those full-time undergraduate and postgraduate studentsbased in mainland China) and frontline labouractivists from company harassment or localgovernment censorship. Such anonymity wasessential given the close alliance betweenFoxconn managers and government officialsacross all four municipalities (Beijing,Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) and 15

provinces, in which Foxconn has hugeinvestments in production and research anddevelopment facilities (Chan et al., 2013).

Tian Yu's story

The first meeting with Yu was in July 2010 atthe Shenzhen Longhua People's Hospital inGuangdong province, where she wasrecovering from the injuries sustained in hersuicide attempt. Aware of Yu's fragile physicaland psychological state, the researchers werefearful that their presence might cause Yu andher family further pain. However, both Yu'smother, at her bedside, and Yu herself whenshe awoke, welcomed their presence.

The researchers sought to understand thenature of the ‘private troubles’ that had drivenher attempted suicide and to channel thisinsight as a contribution to making theseconditions a ‘public issue’ (Mills, [1959] 2000;Webster et al., 2008). Over the following weeks,as Yu regained her faculties and establishedbonds of trust with the researchers, sherecalled her family background and thecircumstances that had led to her beingemployed at Foxconn, her experiences workingon the assembly line and living in the companydormitory. During interviews it became clearthat Yu's problems were not individual or‘psychological’ but were faced by manyFoxconn employees.

From farm to factory

The personal journey undertaken by Yu,migrating from the countryside to employmentas a young worker in the expanding workforceof China's export-oriented manufacturingindustry is not atypical: ‘I was born into afarming family in February 1993 in a villagenear Laohekou City, Hubei Province, centralChina. My grandmother brought me up whilemy parents were earning money as factoryworkers far away from home’.

Yu belonged to the generation of ‘left-behind

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

4

children’, as the first rural-to-urban migrationwave enveloped China's countryside. Since themid-1980s, the deterioration of the ruraleconomy under the urban-based statedevelopment policy, and the increased marketpressures following China's accession to theWorld Trade Organization in 2001, broughtabout unprecedented challenges to China's vastpeasantry.

At best my family could earn about15,000 yuan on the land in a year[approximately US$2,380], hardlye n o u g h t o s u s t a i n s i xpeople … Some years later myparents returned home with justenough money to renovate thehouse.

Rural reconstruction as a multidimensionalproject that integrates social and economicgoa l s has been f l awed and remainsundeveloped (Selden, 1993; Day and Hale,2007). Despite the elimination of agriculturaltaxes in the mid-2000s, the countryside hasremained stagnant as youth have left en massefor the cities. Personal decisions to leave homeare shaped by both sociocultural and economicconcerns. Young rural residents increasinglyexpress a desire to broaden their horizons andexperience a modern life and cosmopolitanconsumption in megacities such as Shenzhen,on the northern border of Hong Kong (Harney,2008).

Internet technology and mobilecommunications has opened awindow on the wealthy, wonderfulcity lifestyle for us. Almost all theyoung people of my age, includingmy school friends, had gone off towork, and I was excited to see thew o r l d o u t s i d e t o o . U p o ncompleting a course at the localvocational school, I decided to

leave the province to seek newopportunities, with my parents'support.

Soon after the Spring Festival in earlyFebruary 2010, Yu's father gave her about 500yuan (approximately US$80) to support hersearch for work in the coastal Guangdongprovince, and provided her with a second-handcell phone so that she could call home. Heasked her to be safe.

My cousin brought me to the long-distance coach station. I wasjoining many rural youth leavingthe land to find jobs in the city. Itwas the first time in my life that Iwas far away from home, myfamiliar place, food and people …Getting off the coach, my firstimpression of the industrial townwas that Shenzhen was nothinglike what I had seen on TV.

Arriving at Shenzhen—entering Foxconn

In 1980, Shenzhen was the first specialeconomic zone opened to overseas Chinese andforeign investments. Since 1988, Foxconn hasbuilt many factories in southern China, theheart of the nation's export-orienteddevelopment and an area where labour andenvironmental regulations were weak andenforcement even weaker (Andors, 1988; Chan,2001). Foxconn has expanded and diversified,taking advantage of favourable tax policies andlow-cost land and water for these electronicsstart-ups. The result has been the creation ofhuge new workforces and a dependence on thecontinuous supply of labour from thecountryside. New employees have experienceda depersonalised induction process, as depictedby Yu.

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

5

At the Foxconn RecruitmentCenter, I queued up for the wholemorning, f i l led out the jobapplication form, pressed myfingertips onto the electronicreader, scanned my identity card,and took the blood test to completethe health check procedures. On 8February 2010, I was employed asa general assembly-line worker.Foxconn assigned me staff numberF9347140. That same afternoon Ir ece i ved a b r i e f companyintroduction about the workinghours and rules and regulations atFoxconn's Guanlan factory. I alsoobtained a pocket-sized, color-pr inted Foxconn EmployeeHandbook.

The preface of this Handbook is replete withmorale-boosting language: ‘Hurry toward yourfinest dreams, pursue a magnificent life. AtFoxconn, you can expand your knowledge andaccumulate experience. Your dreams extendfrom here until tomorrow’. The instructor atemployee orientat ion told stor ies ofentrepreneurs like CEOs Steve Jobs and BillGates to inspire new workers. Foxconnpropagates this dream of riches throughlabour, the belief that success is possiblethrough diligent work.

Then, I and the hundreds of othernew workers were taken to theLonghua factory, about an hourride by the company bus. In a lateafternoon, the setting sun bathedthe Foxconn facilities in goldenlight. At 5 p.m. thousands andthousands of Foxconn workerspoured out of the factory gate.

Longhua is the flagship manufacturing base ofFoxconn, where workers are assigned to day

and night shifts on assembly lines. It is a keynode in the global production network, wherethe assembly and shipment of finished productsto world consumers continues around the clock365 days a year. Container trucks and forkliftsrumble non-stop, serving a grid of factories thatchurn out iPhones, iPads and other electronicproducts. Yu became one of the 400,000-strongFoxconn Longhua workforce, most of whom,similarly, were young rural migrants in theirlate-teens to early twenties.

My introduction to factory work

There are 12 business groups in the Foxconncompany, which compete on ‘speed, quality,engineering service, efficiency and addedvalue’ to maximise profits (Foxconn TechnologyGroup, 2009: 8). Among them, iDPBG(integrated Digital Product Business Group)and iDSBG (innovation Digital System BusinessGroup) exclusively serve Apple in componentsmanufacture and final assembly. The otherbusiness groups tailor production for Microsoft,IBM, Samsung, Amazon, HP, Dell, Sony andother premium brands.

My assembly-line position was atthe iDPBG. I arrived late for myfirst day of work. The factory wastoo big, and I got lost. So I spent along time looking for the iDPBGworkshop. The factory directoryshows that there are ten zoneslisted from A to H, J, and L, andthey are further subdivided intoA1, A2, A3, L6, L7, J20, and so on.It takes almost an hour to walkfrom the south main gate to thenorth main gate, and another hourto walk from the west to the eastgate. I did not know what eachbuilding was, nor did I know themeaning of the English acronymsthat could be seen wr i t teneverywhere, such as FIH [FoxconnInternational Holdings] and the JIT

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

6

[just-in-time] Hub.

Foxconn's working hours are notoriously long,as Yu soon discovered.

Each product ion l ine in myworkshop had from a few dozen tomore than 100 workers. I wasresponsible for spot inspections ofglass screens to see whether theywere scratched. I woke up at6:30 a.m., attended an unpaidmorning meeting at 7:20 a.m.,started work at 7:40 a.m., went tolunch at 11, and then usuallyskipped the evening meal to workovertime until 7:40 p.m.

I attended compulsory unpaid workmeetings every day. I reported tothe line leaders 15 to 20 minutesearlier for roll call. Leaderslectured us on maintaining highproductivity, reaching daily outputtargets and keeping discipline.

There seemed to be no way for meto say ‘no’ to overtime … Toiletbreaks during the working hoursare also restricted. I had to swipemy staff ID card at electronicreaders at the beginning and endof my work shift. I had to askpermission from the assistant lineleaders to leave my seat.

The assembly lines run on a 24-hour non-stopbasis, the well-lit shop floor visible from afar.

I was switched to the night shift inMarch. Checking the screens ofthe products made my eyes feelintense pain. Working twelve-hourdays with a single day off everysecond week, there's no spare time

to use the facilities like swimmingpools, or to window shop forsmartphones in the commercialdistricts within the enormouscomplex.

A harsh production regime

Foxconn has adopted a production modelapparently based on classic Taylorism. Theproduction process is simplified to an extremedegree so that workers need no specialisedknowledge or training to perform most tasks.Technicians from the industrial engineeringdepartment regularly use stop watches andcomputerised engineering devices to testworkers. If they are able to meet the quota,targets are increased to the maximum possible.On the iPhone assembly line, another workerdescribed how her tasks were measured toprecise seconds: ‘I take a motherboard fromthe line, scan the logo, put it in an anti-staticbag, stick on a label and place it on the line.Each of these tasks takes two seconds. Everyten seconds I finish five tasks’ (Interview, 15October 2011).

As production ramps up, workers face seriousproblems if they are unable to complete orderswithin specified time frames. In somedepartments where workers normally take a10-minute break, those who fail to meet thehourly production target are not allowed torest. New workers, like Yu, are repeatedlyreprimanded for working ‘too slowly’ on theline, however hard they strive to keep up withthe ‘standard’ work pace. She recalled posterson the Foxconn workshop walls and betweenstaircases that read:

Value efficiency every minute,every second.

Achieve goals or the sun will nolonger rise.

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

7

The devil is in the details.

Foxconn's ‘8S’ policy is built upon the ‘5S’Japanese management method to improveefficiency and organisational performance,which refers to Seiri (sort), Seiton (set inorder), Seiso (clean), Seiketsu (standardise thefirst ‘3S’ procedures), Shitsuke (sustain theefforts of seiri, seiton, seiso and seiketsu), towhich are added Safety, Saving and Security tothe Taiwanese/Chinese system. Such principlesare enforced rigorously, as Yu experienced.

Foxconn assembly line

Frontline workers' sitting or standing posture ismonitored as much as the work itself: ‘I had tosit in a standardized way. Stools have to be inorder, and cannot move past a yellow and black‘zebra line’ on the floor’. Foxconn's industrialengineering aims to make all workers'operations, up to the minutest movements, evermore rationalised, planned and measured. Eachassembly-line worker specialises in one specifictask and performs repetitive motions at highspeed, hourly, daily and for months on end.This ‘advanced’ production system removesfeelings of freshness, accomplishment orinitiative toward work: ‘I found it hard to seethe end of the screen-inspection work’, Yureflected.

Discipline and punishment

A collection of quotations on the workphilosophy of Foxconn's CEO, Terry Gou, adornthe factory walls and are regarded as holy writ,expressing the entrepreneurial spirit andrelentless work ethos:

Growth, thy name is suffering.

A harsh environment is a goodthing.

Execution is the integration ofspeed, accuracy and precision.

Terry Gou

Gou bases his management model on hismilitary experience and insists on absoluteobedience from top to bottom in a chain ofcommand: ‘An army of a thousand is easy toget, one general is tough to find’. The 13-levelFoxconn management hierarchy is organised ina pyramid with clear lines of command. Seniorleaders formulate the corporate developmentstrategy and set annual profit goals. Middlemanagement devise implementation plans anddelegate responsibility while, in the workshop,production operators face intense supervisionfrom multiple layers of management, including

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

8

assistant line leaders, line leaders, teamleaders and supervisors. Yu confirmed thatwhile preparing to start work on the productionline, frontline managers demand workersrespond to the question, ‘How are you?’, byshouting in unison, ‘Good! Very good! Very,very good!’

A long work day of enforced silence, apart fromthe noise of the machines, is the norm. Yurecalled that,

Friendly chit-chat among co-workers is not very common evenduring the break; everyone rushesto queue up for lunch and eatquickly. The company prohibitsconversation in the workshop. Inthe factory area, CCTV camerasare set up virtually everywhere forsurveillance. Thousands of securityofficers are on duty, patrollingevery Foxconn factory building anddormitory. Special Security Zonesare commonplace. In order toenter the iDPBG shop floor, I hadto pass through layers of electronicgates and inspection systems. Theentry access system is very strict.We were not allowed to bringcellphones or any metallic objectsinto the workshop. If there was ametal button on my clothes, it hadto be removed, otherwise Iwouldn't be allowed in, or they[security officers] would simply cutthe metal button off.

In order to maintain strict confidentiality forbuyers like Apple, HP and Microsoft, Foxconnretains a veritable army of private securityofficers. Foxconn justifies this surveillancesystem by its contractual responsibility tosecure its customers' rights to intellectualproperty, in which any leak of ‘businessinformation’ will result in big financial losses.

In this way, global technology multinationalstransmit extreme pressure to the Chinese shopfloor. Equipment like notebook computers,diskettes, flash drives and multimediarecording devices are strictly barred atFoxconn.

Foxconn's management practices andcorporate culture are punishment-oriented,despite the company human resources rhetoricof ‘mutual care and love’ (Lucas et al., 2013).Chan and Wang (2004) and Hsing (1998) haveexamined the Taiwanese managerial style onexport-oriented Chinese factories. Yureiterated:

I didn't make any mistakes on theproducts, but the line leaderblamed me anyway … I saw a girlwho was forced to s tand atattention for hours for supposedlym a k i n g a n e r r o r . P u b l i chumiliations occurred severaltimes during the working month.

Line leaders, themselves under pressure tofulfill their own production norms, treatworkers harshly to reach targets. A young lineleader reported, ‘If we listen too much to oursuperiors, we have to mistreat workers belowus. If we take care of the workers' feelings toomuch, maybe we won't complete our tasks.When work is busy, it's easy to get angry’(Interview, 17 October 2011).

In a group interview, several young womenemployees discussed the ritualistic punishmentthat they had to endure (Interview, 30 March2011). Their collective experience wasarticulated most clearly by one of this group.

After work, all of us—more than100 people—are [sometimes] madeto stay behind. This happenswhenever a worker is punished. A

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

9

girl is forced to stand at attentionto read aloud a statement of self-criticism. She must be loud enoughto be heard. Our line leader wouldask if the worker at the far end ofthe workshop could hear clearlythe mis take she has made.Oftentimes girls feel they arelosing face. It's very embarrassing.Her tears drop. Her voice becomesvery small … Then the line leadershouts: ‘If one worker loses onlyone minute [failing to keep up withthe work pace], then, how muchmore time will be wasted by 100people?

‘A massive place of strangers’

Yu worked on the production line for more thana month and never made friends. ‘Heart toheart, Foxconn and I grow together’ reads abright red Foxconn banner above theproduction line. It suggests that the workersand the company identify with each other but,behind the image of ‘a warm family with aloving heart’, the life of a Foxconn worker isatomised. The profound loneliness anddisplaced lives of many young migrant workershas been reported in other studies (Jacka,2006; Yan, 2008). Yu's experience illustratesthe difficulty of forming meaningful socialrelationships in a mega-factory where workersare individualised and pitted against each otherto achieve incessant and excessive productiondemands.

Foxconn's practice of rotating day and nightshifts not only disrupts workers' rest but alsohinders their ability to set up networks of socialsupport. With roommates often workingdifferent shifts, it is difficult to rest or fulfilltheir need to socialise. When speaking of herdormitory roommates, Yu recalled, ‘We werenot close. Random dormitory reassignmentsbreak up friendships, increasing our isolation.Although eight girls were housed in the same

room, we were strangers to each other. Someof us had just moved in as others moved out.None of the roommates was from Hubei’. Yu'sfather explained the significance of thisexperience. ‘When she first came to Shenzhen,sometimes when others spoke, she couldn'tunderstand much’. While Mandarin is thenational language in China, local dialects arecommonly used among people from their nativeplace, and these sublanguages often cannot becomprehended by outsiders.

In schoo l , by contras t , myclassmates and I often had time forrelaxation and fun, we celebratedbirthdays and sang songs. AtFoxconn, when I felt lonely, Iwould sometimes chat on QQonline.

But those logging on to the QQ groups in theInternet space2 are bound to remain distant. ‘InFoxconn's Longhua factory, with none of mygood friends or family members around, it's amassive place of strangers’.

The accumulation of despair

After I had worked a month, whenit was time to distribute wages,everyone else got their wage debitcards, but I did not. I asked theline leader what had happened.The line leader said that although Iworked at Longhua, my wage cardwas at another Foxconn factory inGuanlan town.

Yu had been interviewed at the RecruitmentCenter in Foxconn Guanlan before being sentto the Longhua facility. The Human ResourcesDepartment at Guanlan had kept her personalf i le and the documents had not beentransferred, so that her debit bank account at

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

10

Foxconn Longhua had not been set up.Consequently, she did not receive her pay. ‘Ihad no choice but to take a bus to FoxconnGuanlan on my own’. The Guanlan factory,which began production in summer 2007, nowemployed 130,000 workers. In an unfamiliarfactory compound, ‘I went to Block C10, B1,B2, and from floor to floor of building afterbuilding to inquire about my wage card’.

After a fruitless day of searching for the rightoffice, with managers and administratorsdeflecting responsibility, she was unable to findinformation about her wage card. She recalled:‘I went from office to office by myself but noone would point me in the right direction. Theyall brushed me off, telling me to ask someoneelse’. She never received pay for a month ofwork, approximately 1,400 yuan (US$220)consisting of basic pay of 900 yuan plusovertime premiums.

By then it was the middle of March2010, and after more than onemonth in Shenzhen I had spent allof the money my parents had givenme. Where could I borrow money?At this moment of cr is is mycellphone broke. I was unable toget in touch with my cousin inShenzhen, my sole link to homeand family. I could find no one tohelp me.

The accumulated effects of endless assemblyline toil, punishing work schedules, harshfactory discipline, a friendless dormitory and,rejection from managers and administrators,compounded by the company's failure toprovide her with income, and then her inabilityto make contact with friends and family, werethe immediate circumstances of her attemptedsuicide. Her testimony reveals how she wasoverwhelmed, ‘I was so desperate that my mindwent blank’.

At 8 a.m. on March 17, Yu jumped from thefourth floor of her dormitory building indespair. After 12 days in a coma, she awoke tofind that her body had become half-paralysed.She is now confined to a bed or a wheelchair.

Rebuilding life

‘There's no choosing your birth, but here, youwill reach your destiny. Here you need onlydream, and you will soar!’ reads a Foxconnrecruitment slogan. The world's largestindustrial company turned out to be theantithesis of Yu's dream workplace. In October2010, eight months after her hopitalisation,under mounting public pressure Foxconnfinally disbursed a one-off ‘humanitarianpayment’ of 180,000 yuan (US$27,000) to ‘helpthe Tian family to go home’. In effect, thecompany stopped providing medical supportand sent Yu and her parents back home in

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

11

exchange for their silence about management'snegligence. In the words of Yu's father, ‘It wasas if they were buying and selling a thing.There was no compassion, no fairness’.

However, Yu has not lost her will to ‘stand up’.On returning to her birth village on November30, 2010, she wrote to the University ResearchGroup (my translation):

For various reasons, I had atragedy that caused my familygreat suffer ing. During myrecovery in Shenzhen, many kind-hearted university students andteachers and uncles and auntsoffered encouragement andconcern for my situation, and greatconsolation to my injured spirit. Itenabled me to see life's hope andpromise.

A supportive local teacher drove her from herhome to a hospital in Wuhan, the provincial cityof Hubei, where the treatment for her paralysiseventually enabled her to brush her teeth, washand dress herself without too much difficulty(Ai, 2011). A combination of further treatmentand personal determination has enabled her tosit up by herself and gain limited movement inher right foot.

Over three years, Yu has received acupunctureand massage therapy at a local hospital. At thesame time, she started weaving cotton slippersto earn a l ittle income to help pay herrehabilitation fees. Chinese netizens spreadword about the colourful handwoven slippersand ‘the reborn phoenix Tian Yu’ (ShenzhenDaily, 22 April 2011). The harsh reality,however, is that the village is more than a five-hour drive from Wuhan, severely limiting thedevelopment of a family-based arts andhandicrafts enterprise. Despite this, Yu keepsher optimistic outlook.

I can no longer be a migrantworker, nor can I do farm work.Throughout my treatment, It h o u g h t t h a t a f t e r b e i n gdischarged from the hospital,regardless of whether I could standor not, I must have my own incomeand be able to take care of myselfindependent of my parents andfriends … I will be a useful personto society, not a useless burden onsociety. Thank you for yourconcern. I wish you successfulstudies and work.

Yu's desperation is emblematic of myriadlabour problems at ‘the electronics workshop ofthe world’. During Yu's intensive medicaltreatment in the Shenzhen hospital, the dreamsof more than a dozen young Foxconn workerswere similarly shattered. How did Foxconnrespond to the workplace-based suicide clusterand critical media scrutiny?

The company response

In a media interview on employee suicides,Foxconn CEO Terry Gou highlighted the‘emotional problems’ of Chinese workers, whilealso feeling compelled to take corporateresponsibility: ‘If a worker in Taiwan commitssuicide because of emotional problems, hisemployer won't be held responsible, but we aretaken to task in China because they are livingand sleeping in our dormitories’ (quoted in TheStraits Times, 11 June 2010). The companymoved swiftly to control the damage to itsimage, announcing plans to improve conditionsin the wake of the suicides. It started to requireall job applicants to complete a psychologicaltest with 36 questions. It was a victim-blamingapproach. Those with ‘weak capability tohandle personal problems’ and ‘fragile spirits’were the source of the past troubles.

Foxconn left intact the underlying structures oflabour-management relations, the pressures of

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

12

speedup and illegal levels of compulsoryovertime work, and the humiliation of workerson the shop floor, all aspects of the factoryregime that are central to understanding of theyoung workers' deep frustrations and thecontinuing crisis of labour at the company.

No-suicide pledge, anti-suicide nets

In May 2010, the Foxconn human resourcesdirector attempted to make workers sign a no-suicide pledge containing a disclaimer clause:

Should any injury or death arisefor which Foxconn cannot be heldaccountable (including suicidesand self-mutilation), I hereby agreeto hand over the case to thecompany's legal and regulatoryprocedures. I myself and my familymembers will not seek extracompensation above that requiredby the law so that the company'sreputation would not be ruined andits operation remains stable (ChinaCentral TV, 28 May 2010).

The no-suicide ‘consent letter’ sought not onlyto limit Foxconn's liability but to ensure thatthe responsibility for future suicides was placedon the individual worker. Following intensecriticism by workers and from wider society,Foxconn dropped this administrativerequirement.

In the same month that Foxconn was makingthese attempts to deny responsibility for thesuicides at its facilities, the suicide wavereached its appalling peak, when seven youngmigrant workers attempted suicide, resulting insix deaths. As an emergency measure, Foxconnplaced safety nets around the roofs, on bothsides of corridors, and all the windows werecovered with wire and locked tight. These‘remedial measures’ were taken to preventworkers from leaping to their deaths. In the

two major Foxconn factory complexes inLonghua and Guanlan, where more than500,000 workers were housed in an all-encompassing, densely-populated environment(Foxconn Technology Group, 11 October 2010),and in all its manufacturing bases across China,anti-suicide nets have now been installed. Afemale employee aged 16, reflected, ‘I feelreally constrained at Foxconn since thesuicides. Now everywhere there are safetynets, they've set up these nets everywhere. Itgives you a really constricted feeling. I'mdepressed’ (Interview, 3 December 2011).

The factory dormitory system contains amassive internal migrant labour force withoutthe support of family networks and communallife (Pun and Smith, 2007; Pun and Chan,2013). What is striking is that all the ‘Foxconndormitory safety management measures’ wereput in place only after the negative publicitythat followed the suicides. Some netizensposted pictures of giraffes in a zoo cage, ametaphor for the experience of Foxconnworkers being confined in wire-covered dormrooms and the dehumanised nature of theirworking lives (Financial Times, 20 January2012).

The enterprise union: in defense of workers'rights?

To understand why no official trade union staffmembers visited Yu in hospital or offered toassist with her problems, it is necessary toanalyse the nature of the All-China Federationof Trade Unions (ACFTU). From 2003, the newChinese government of Hu Jintao and WenJiabao was promoting a unionisation campaignfocused on private and foreign-invested firms(Liu, 2011). As of January 2012, the federationhad a total membership of 258 million, of whom36 per cent (94 million) were rural migrantworkers (Xinhua, 7 January 2012). Thenumbers surpass the International Trade UnionConfederation (ITUC) global membership of175 million workers in 156 countries and

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

13

territories excluding China (ITUC, 2012). ByJune 2012, 82.7 per cent of non-statecompanies were unionised, including varioustypes of business entit ies and labourcontracting companies (ACFTU, 2012). Thisstands in sharp contrast to the United States,where in recent decades private-sector labourunions have shrunk to a small percentage ofthe industrial and service workforce (Chun,2009). In spite of impressive Chinese unionmembership, operational and financialdependence on management severelyundermines the capacity of enterprise unions torepresent the workers (Traub-Merz and Ngok,2012). The Foxconn factory union is noexception to this pattern.

‘Open and direct communication betweenemployees and managers is the most efficientmeans to identify and resolve work problemsand build a harmonious enterprise’, stated a2008 Foxconn company report, issued shortlyafter the passage of China's Labour ContractLaw (Foxconn Technology Group, 2009: 16; forthe requirements of the new law, see Gallagherand Dong, 2011; Wang et al., 2009; Ho, 2009;Chan, 2009). Yet, little known to the public,from 1988 through 2006, Foxconn, like manyother foreign-invested enterprises, evaded itsbasic responsibilities and failed to set up atrade un ion to s t rengthen workers 'communication with management. When theChinese governments across different levelsdirectly intervened in the mobilisation, theFoxconn Shenzhen Longhua factory was‘unionised’ only on the last day of 2006 (IHLO,2 January 2007). Taking immediate control overthe newly formed union, Foxconn CEO TerryGou appointed his special personal assistant,Chen Peng, as union chairwoman (FoxconnTechnology Group, 2009: 17).

Unsurprisingly therefore, the Foxconn TradeUnion failed to investigate the workplacefactors responsible for the high levels of workerstress and depression. Instead, Ms Chen madeinsensitive public comments that ‘suicide is

foolish, irresponsible and meaningless andshould be avoided’ (quoted in China Daily, 19August 2010). The union at Foxconn looks like,and acts like, a company union. It has failed toprotect workers' health, basic rights anddignity. Thus, in one of the world's largest‘unionised’ companies—over 90 per cent of the1.4 million employees had registered asmembers of the union (Foxconn TechnologyGroup, 7 June 2012), workers—like the morethan 260 million rural migrant workers toilingin large and small workplaces throughoutChina (Xinhua, 22 February 2013)—have notrustworthy workplace-based communicationchannels through which to raise their voices,protect their rights or engage in collectivebargaining.

The government response

Amid growing international concern over thesuicides, Chinese government at all levelseventually communicated their concerns. OnMay 26, 2010, after the ‘12th jump’, aShenzhen municipal government spokespersonannounced that the government would improve‘labourers' living conditions and enterprisemanagement’, and, soon after anotherattempted suicide on May 27, Guangdongprovincial communist party secretary WangYang stated that ‘the Party, governmentorganizations and Foxconn must work togetherand take effective measures to prevent similartragedies from happening again’ (quoted inBeijing Review, 12 June 2010). However, thespecifics of the joint measures were neverdisclosed.

At central government, Premier Wen Jiabaourged officials and employers to treat ruralmigrant workers as ‘our workers, our children’(Xinhua, 15 June 2010). Yet, rather thanresearching and overcoming the root causes ofsuicides, local-level Chinese officials moved toban ‘negative’ reporting about Foxconn:

May 28, 2010: About the Foxconn

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

14

incident, on the Internet, otherthan Xinhua's domestic generaldraft, there should be no otherreporting … All related contentbefore the 12th jump should belocked up … All websites mustcomplete the clean-up task tonight.Do not have any dead corners(China Digital Times, 30 May2010).

May 29, 2010: For the front pagesof news websites and news centerpages, blogs, micro-blogs, thereshould be no news related to‘Foxconn’ except from officialsources (China Digital Times, 30May 2010).

Beginning on May 30, 2010, the UniversityResearch Group's student blog dedicated to theFoxconn worker victims and their families, withthe theme song ‘Grief’ was blocked. Stateconcern about worker well being would againbe sacrificed on the altar of expediency, andthe priorities were revealed to be controllingworkers and the media in order to protectFoxconn.

Local states, with the trade unions as anintegral part, are facilitating business activitiesin ways that intensify labour grievances(Friedman and Lee, 2010). An institutionalconflict between legal legitimacy and localaccumulation continues under China's fiscaland administrative decentralisation policies, asprovincial and lower-level governmentscompete to woo corporate employers to investin their territories so as to boost economicgrowth (Lee, 2007: 16–21). Despite legalreforms, state laws and regulations designed toprotect workers are often weakly implementedor flexibly bent to company interests.

Foxconn's new wage policies, work intensityand pressure

Until the wave of worker suicides, Foxconn hadnever raised basic wages above the localstatutory minimum levels for entry-levelworkers. The giant electronics company, notunlike many other private employers, hasturned most of its profits into enterprisesavings, dividends and reinvestment, ratherthan sharing with general workers. Foxconnwas, however, eventually forced to offerworkers a higher wage to remain competitive inthe labour market. The newly hired ruralmigrant workers were still between 16 and 25years of age, and they continue to come fromthe ‘five lakes and four seas’, of far-flungChinese villages and towns. ‘Pool the wholecountry's talent, paint splendid prospects’reads a Foxconn recruitment poster.

However, after the basic wage increase to1,200 yuan/month (US$192), or 9 per centabove the local minimum wage in Shenzhencity (Shenzhen Daily, 10 June 2010), Foxconnalso hiked production quotas, demanding bothgreater labour intensity and in some caseslonger hours. A worker responsible forprocessing cell phone casings reported: ‘Theproduction output was previously set at 5,120pieces per day. In July 2010, it was raised by 25per cent to 6,400 pieces per day. I 'mcompletely exhausted’ (Interview, 30 March2011).

During busy seasons, the working day lasted 12hours, which includes four hours of illegallyimposed overtime. A 17-year-old working girlsaid, ‘Every day I'm hurried along faster andfaster, rushing towards each and every risingquota. There's nowhere for my mind to rest’.The effects on employee health have worsened:‘Every month we've to shift our work from dayto night, and vice versa. This is a toughworking life. When my body just gets used today hours, I have to change to night hours. Ireally feel bad when I have my period ofmenstruation’ (Interview, 11 November 2011).

At the peak of the suicides, Foxconn set up a

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

15

‘care hotline’, first at the Shenzhen plants andthen at all company factories across China.During the pilot phase in May 2010, thecompany reported handling 710 calls,‘including 16 who claimed they planned tocommit suicide’ (Xinhua, 25 May 2010).Workers can call 78585—the hotline's phoneticequivalent in Mandarin is ‘please help me, helpme’. However, it is highly questionable whetherworkers , under duress , can repor tconfidentially without reservation through acompany-run hotline and counselling service atthe Employee Care Center. When some workerscomplained about excessive overtime, theircaller identities were reported directly tomanagement. Once aware of this breach ofconfidence, workers have hesitated to seekhelp. In another case, a worker who reportedconflicts with his line leaders was advised toresign, rather than receiving supportive advice.Most worker interviewees mock the company‘care centre’, dubbing it the ‘supervisioncentre’. They have no trust in the internal‘management hotline’.

Life and labour of a new generation

From 2008 to 2012, China's minimum wagelevels have registered an average 12.6 per centannual growth rate (China Briefing, 4 January2013), in part a response to rising workerprotests in a period of labor shortage, and inpart an attempt to stimulate domesticconsumption. The current young cohort ofChinese workers, compared with the oldergeneration of working migrants, has greateraccess to news and information through mobiletechnologies, and has a higher expectationsthat their rights and interests will be protected.They demand decent working conditions andshare high aspirations of living ‘the Chinesedream’ in the city. Viewed from the village, thecity is where everything appears to behappening (Chan, 2013). It is against thesehigh hopes of the second generation of ruralmigrant workers, whose education levels arehigher than those of their predecessors, that

the reality of work on the assembly line atFoxconn and other factories comes as such ashock.

Not only do these young labourers, many withtechnical education and basic vocational skills,find themselves in low wage jobs, they alsoquickly discover that there is no promisingroute to advancement via higher educationwithin the company. Inside Foxconn city, youngworkers feel deep anxiety about their future.Conscious of high burnout rates, some attemptto save enough from their meagre salaries tostart small businesses in the city or elsewhere.Most quickly fail. Unfulfilled expectations ofgaining skills and rising through the factorysystem, coupled with the inability to start smallbusinesses, the absence of fundamental labourand citizenship rights in the city, and thefrustrations of moving back and forth betweencity and countryside, have fuelled anger and insome a sense of helplessness (Pun and Lu,2010; Wu, 2010; Selden and Wu, 2011).

Meanwhile, the position of Chinese labour is influx as a result of demographic shifts. Underthe national one child policy implemented sincethe late 1970s, coupled with the hypermobilityof workers, Foxconn and other enterprises areexperiencing incipient signs of labour shortagein coastal and inland cities (Gu and Cai, 2011;Knight et al., 2011). In the face of growingpressure on wages, Foxconn is subject torelentless demands from Apple and otherelectronic giants for just-in-time production,and to competition from other manufacturersbidding for contracts. The critical question isthe extent and development of labour's powerunder Chinese and global conditions.

Conclusion: moment of change?

Foxconn's rise to become the leading globalelectronics manufacturer has been hailed as asuccess of China's export-oriented industry.However, Yu's lived experience illustrates howthe company's obsession with production goals,business growth and profits frequently results

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

16

in the sacrifice of the basic human needs of itsworkers.

Chinese sociologists have warned that theFoxconn tragedies should be seen as ‘loud criesfor help from the new generation of migrantworkers’ (Chinese Sociologists, 18 May 2010),while Taiwanese scholars have called for anend to ‘military discipline’ in the factory andthe dormitory (Taiwanese Scholars, 13 June2010). At the international level, concernedacademics called on the Chinese governmentand industry leaders to ‘establish labourstandards, occupational and environmentalhealth, and workers' dignity’ in supplierfactories (Concerned International Scholars, 8June 2010).

Foxconn's management and trade union haveresponded by greater pressure to increaseproductivity (by installing robotic arms in someassembly lines) and tighten labour control.Workers nevertheless are increasinglyemboldened to take actions to fight back,despite the risks of dismissal. In response, thestate has frequently permitted small-scaleprotests and strikes3 even as it has movedvigorously to prevent organised worker actionsfrom broadening to industry-wide or citywidescope, or the formation of independent unions(Perry, 2002; Lee, 2010; Selden and Perry,2010).

There are signs that momentum of change isemerging as Chinese workers, concernedstudents and scholars, and transnational labourmovement activists join hands to strengthenworkers' power. To achieve lasting changes, itcan never be sufficient to limit the discourse tocorporate employers and the Chinese state whohave worked hand in hand to support thepresent system. Ultimately, it is essential thatworkers find their voices and participatedirectly in monitoring and negotiating theirworking and living conditions. With new factoryoperations in booming inland cities, asubstantial proportion of rural workers are

being recruited from within their homeprovince and even their home town orprefecture. The form of labour resistance forrural migrants will change as they work closerto their native place and can draw on localsocial networks. With a greater sense ofentitlement associated with belonging to aplace, and perhaps more social resources tobring to the fight for their interests, new formsof working-class power could emerge in globalfactories and in worker communities.

This is a revised version of an article thatappeared at New Technology, Worker andEmployment 28(2): 84-99

Article first published online: 18 JUL 2013.

U R L :http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/full

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Jenny Chan (contact) is a Ph.D. candidate,Great Britain-China Educational Trust Awardeeand Reid Research Scholar in the Faculty ofHistory and Social Sciences at the University ofLondon, Royal Holloway. She serves as anadvisor to Hong Kong–based labour rightsgroup SACOM (Students and Scholars AgainstCorporate Misbehavior).

Ngai Pun, Jenny Chan and Mark Seldenhave jointly written a book provisionallyentitled Separate Dreams: Apple, Foxconn anda New Generation of Chinese Workers.

Recommended citation: Jenny Chan, "A SuicideSurvivor: the life of a Chinese migrant workerat Foxconn," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11,Issue 31, No. 1. August 12, 2013.

Related articles

• Jenny Chan, Ngai Pun and Mark Selden, Thepolitics of global production: Apple, Foxconnand China's new working class

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/fullhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/fullhttps://apjjf.org/mailto:wlchan_cuhk@yahoo.comhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12008/abstracthttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12008/abstracthttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12008/abstracthttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12008/abstracthttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12008/abstract

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

17

• Jenny Chan and Ngai Pun, Suicide as Protestfor the New Generation of Chinese MigrantWorkers: Foxconn, Global Capital, and theState

• Mark Selden and Wu Jieh-min, The ChineseState, Incomplete Proletarianization andStructures of Inequality in Two Epochs

• Ching Kwan Lee and Mark Selden, China'sDurable Inequality: Legacies of Revolution andPitfalls of Reform

Acknowledgements

My gratitude to Debra Howcroft and PhilTaylor for their encouragement and insightfulcomments. I thank every Foxconn researchteam member and SACOM (Students andScholars Against Corporate Misbehavior)organiser, especially Pun Ngai, Mark Selden,Debby Chan, Yiyi Cheng and Jack Qiu. I ammost grateful to Jeffery Hermanson, GregoryFay, Ralf Ruckus, Pauline Overeem, RalphLitzinger, Michael Burawoy, Peter Evans,Amanda Bell, Dimitri Kessler, Ellen DavidFriedman, Paul Garver, Ian Cook, Chris Smith,Jos Gamble and Sukhdev Johal for theirsupport. An earlier version of this paper waspresented at the CRESC (Centre for Researchon Socio-Cultural Change) Workshop in SenateHouse, the University of London on 25 April2012, and Jenny Chan had in-depth discussionswith the workshop's participants.

References

ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trade Unions)(2012), ‘Completion of 2012 Targets on UnionConstruction in the Non-State Enterprises.’ 19July. Printed Version. (in Chinese).

Ai, X. (2011), ‘The Citizen Camera.’ Interviewby Tieh-Chih Chang and Ying Qian, New LeftReview 72, Nov/Dec, 63–79.

Andors, P. (1988), ‘Women and Work inShenzhen’, Bulletin of Concerned Asian

Scholars 20, 3, 22–41.

BBC (20 March 2012), ‘Which is the World'sBiggest Employer?’ (accessed 21 March 2012).

Beijing Review (12 June 2010), ‘AlleviatingWorkplace Stress.’ (accessed 20 June 2010).

Bonacich, E. and G.G. Hamilton (2011), ‘GlobalLogistics, Global Labor’, in G.G. Hamilton , M.Petrovic and B. Senauer (eds), The MarketMakers: How Retailers Are Reshaping theGlobal Economy (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress), pp. 211–230.

Chan, A. (2001), China's Workers underAssault: The Exploitation of Labor in AGlobalizing Economy (Armonk, NY: M. E.Sharpe).

Chan, A. (ed.) (2011a), Walmart in China(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press).

Chan, A. and H. Wang (2004), ‘The Impact ofthe State on Workers' Conditions: ComparingTaiwanese Factories in China and Vietnam’,Pacific Affairs 77, 4, 629–646.

Chan, J. (2009), ‘Meaningful Progress orIllusory Reform? Analyzing China's LaborContract Law’, New Labor Forum 18, 2, 43–51.

Chan, J. (2010), ‘Foxconn: The GlobalPredator’, Global Dialogue (InternationalSociological Association), 1, 2, 1–3. (accessed 1December 2010).

Chan, J. (2011b), ‘iSlave’, New Internationalist441, 1–3. (accessed 1 April 2011).

Chan, J. (2012), ‘Biting the Rotten Apple:Taking on Foxconn’, Red Pepper. August.(accessed 31 August 2012).

Chan, J. (2013) ‘Who Speaks for China'sWorkers?’ Labor Notes. 29 May. (accessed 30May 2013).

Chan, J. and N. Pun (2010), ‘Suicide As Protest

https://apjjf.org/-Ngai-Pun/3408https://apjjf.org/-Ngai-Pun/3408https://apjjf.org/-Ngai-Pun/3408https://apjjf.org/-Ngai-Pun/3408https://apjjf.org/-Wu-Jieh_min/3480https://apjjf.org/-Wu-Jieh_min/3480https://apjjf.org/-Wu-Jieh_min/3480https://apjjf.org/-C_K_-Lee/2329https://apjjf.org/-C_K_-Lee/2329https://apjjf.org/-C_K_-Lee/2329http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786http://www.bjreview.com.cn/print/txt/2010-06/12/content_279444.htmhttp://www.bjreview.com.cn/print/txt/2010-06/12/content_279444.htmhttp://www.isa-sociology.org/global-dialogue/2010/11/foxconn-the-global-predator/http://www.isa-sociology.org/global-dialogue/2010/11/foxconn-the-global-predator/http://newint.org/features/2011/04/01/islave-foxconn-suicides-workers/http://www.redpepper.org.uk/biting-the-rotten-apple/http://www.redpepper.org.uk/biting-the-rotten-apple/http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2013/05/who-speaks-china%E2%80%99s-workershttp://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2013/05/who-speaks-china%E2%80%99s-workershttps://apjjf.org/-Jenny-Chan/3408

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

18

for the New Generation of Chinese MigrantWorkers: Foxconn, Global Capital, and theState’, The Asia-Pacific Journal 18, 37, 1–50.(accessed 13 September 2010).

Chan, J., N. Pun and M. Selden (2013), ‘ThePolitics of Global Production: Apple, Foxconnand China's New Working Class’, NewTechnology, Work and Employment 28, 2,100–115.

China Briefing (4 January 2013), ‘ChinaInitiates New Round of Minimum WageIncreases.’ (accessed 5 January 2013).

China Central TV (28 May 2010), ‘Letter ofConsent Exposed at Foxconn.’ (accessed 29May 2010).

China Daily (19 August 2010), ‘Foxconn Ralliesto End Suicides by Workers.’ (accessed 20August 2010).

China Digital Times (30 May 2010), ‘Censorsand Netizens Respond to Foxconn Suicides.’(accessed 30 May 2010).

China Economic Review (28 May 2010),‘Crunching the Suicide Statistics at Foxconn.’(accessed 29 May 2010).

Chinese Sociologists (18 May 2010), ‘Addressto the Problems of New Generations of ChineseMigrant Workers, End to Foxconn TragedyNow.’ (accessed 18 May 2010).

Chun, J.J. (2009), Organizing at the Margins:The Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Koreaand the United States (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press).

Concerned International Scholars (8 June2010), ‘Create Humane Labor Standards atFoxconn and End “Stealth Manufacturing” inInformation Technology!’ (accessed 8 June2010).

Daily Mail (29 May 2010), ‘Something Rotten atApple's Core? Shocking Toll of Suicides at iPad

Factory in China Revealed.’ (accessed 30 May2010).

Day, A. and M.A. Hale (2007), ‘Guest Editors'Introduction’, Chinese Sociology andAnthropology 39, 4, 3–9.

Financial Times (20 January 2012), ‘Terry Gou:Managing “1 Million Animals.” ’ (accessed 21January 2012).

Foxconn Technology Group (2009), ‘2008Corporate Social and EnvironmentalResponsibility Annual Report.’ (accessed 1February 2013).

Foxconn Technology Group (11 October 2010),‘Foxconn is Committed to a Safe and PositiveWorking Environment.’ (accessed 11 October2010).

Foxconn Technology Group (7 June 2012),‘Foxconn Response to SACOM Report“Sweatshops are Good for Apple and Foxconn,But Not for Workers.” ’(accessed 7 June 2012).

Friedman, E. and C.K. Lee (2010), ‘Remakingthe World of Chinese Labour: A 30-YearRetrospective’, British Journal of IndustrialRelations 48, 3, 507–533.

Gal lagher, M.E. and B. Dong (2011),‘Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform inContemporary China’, in S. Kuruvilla , C.K. Leeand M.E. Gallagher (eds), From Iron Rice Bowlto Informalization: Markets, Workers, and theState in A Changing China (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press), pp. 36–60.

Gu, B. and Y. Cai (2011), ‘Fertility Prospects inChina.’ United Nations Population Division,Expert Paper No. 2011/14.' (accessed 20 April2012).

Harney, A. (2008), The China Price: The TrueCost of Chinese Competitive Advantage (NewYork: The Penguin Press).

Ho, V.E.H. (2009), ‘From Contracts to

https://apjjf.org/-Jenny-Chan/3408https://apjjf.org/-Jenny-Chan/3408https://apjjf.org/-Jenny-Chan/3408http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2013/01/04/china-initiates-new-round-of-minimum-wage-increases.htmlhttp://www.china-briefing.com/news/2013/01/04/china-initiates-new-round-of-minimum-wage-increases.htmlhttp://www.china-briefing.com/news/2013/01/04/china-initiates-new-round-of-minimum-wage-increases.htmlhttp://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20100528/100754.shtmlhttp://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20100528/100754.shtmlhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-08/19/content_11175517.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-08/19/content_11175517.htmhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/05/netizens-and-censors-respond-to-foxconn-suicides/http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/05/netizens-and-censors-respond-to-foxconn-suicides/http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/node/26618http://sacom.hk/archives/644http://sacom.hk/archives/644http://sacom.hk/archives/644http://sacom.hk/archives/644http://sacom.hk/archives/649http://sacom.hk/archives/649http://sacom.hk/archives/649http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282481/iPad-factory-suicides-China.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282481/iPad-factory-suicides-China.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282481/iPad-factory-suicides-China.htmlhttp://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/01/20/terry-gou-managing-1-million-animals/#axzz24Gpqlfhohttp://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/01/20/terry-gou-managing-1-million-animals/#axzz24Gpqlfhohttp://ser.foxconn.com/ViewAnuReport.do?action=showAnnualhttp://ser.foxconn.com/ViewAnuReport.do?action=showAnnualhttp://ser.foxconn.com/ViewAnuReport.do?action=showAnnualhttp://sacom.hk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/foxconn_media_statement_oct_11.pdfhttp://sacom.hk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/foxconn_media_statement_oct_11.pdfhttp://www.business-humanrights.org/Search/SearchResults?SearchableText=Sweatshops+are+good+for+Apple+and+Foxconn%2C+but+not+for+workers&x=12&y=5http://www.business-humanrights.org/Search/SearchResults?SearchableText=Sweatshops+are+good+for+Apple+and+Foxconn%2C+but+not+for+workers&x=12&y=5http://www.business-humanrights.org/Search/SearchResults?SearchableText=Sweatshops+are+good+for+Apple+and+Foxconn%2C+but+not+for+workers&x=12&y=5http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/expertpapers/2011-14_Gu&Cai_Expert-paper.pdfhttp://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/expertpapers/2011-14_Gu&Cai_Expert-paper.pdfhttp://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/expertpapers/2011-14_Gu&Cai_Expert-paper.pdfhttp://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1432708

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

19

Compliance? An Early Look at Implementationunder China's New Labor Legislation’,Columbia Journal of Asian Law 23, 1, 33–107.(accessed 30 December 2010).

Hsing, Y. (1998), Making Capitalism in China:The Taiwan Connection (New York: OxfordUniversity Press).

Hung, H. (2013), ‘Labor Politics under ThreeStages of Chinese Capitalism’, The SouthAtlantic Quarterly 112, 1, 203–212.

I H L O ( I n t e r n a t i o n a l T r a d e U n i o nConfederation/Global Union Federation HongKong Liaison Office) (2007), ‘ACFTU (All-ChinaFederation of Trade Unions) Established aUnion at Foxconn on the Very Last Day of2006.’ (accessed 10 January 2007).

iSuppli (30 May 2006), ‘Foxconn Takes NumberOne Rank in EMS [Electronics ManufacturingServices]. (accessed 31 May 2006).

iSuppli (27 July 2010), ‘Foxconn RidesPartnership with Apple to Take 50 Per cent ofEMS [Electronic Manufacturing Services]Market in 2011.’ (accessed 28 July 2010).

I T U C ( I n t e r n a t i o n a l T r a d e U n i o nConfederation) (2012), ‘List of AffiliatedOrganizations.' (accessed 5 January 2013).

Jacka, T. (2006), Rural Women in Urban China:Gender, Migration and Social Change (Armonk,NY: M. E. Sharpe).

Ji, J., A. Kleinman and A.E. Becker (2001),‘Suicide in Contemporary China: A Review ofChina's Distinctive Suicide Demographics inTheir Sociocultural Context’, Harvard Reviewof Psychiatry 9, 1, 1–12.

Knight, J., Q. Deng and S. Li (2011), ‘ThePuzzle of Migrant Labour Shortage and RuralLabour Surplus in China’, China EconomicReview 22, 585–600.

Lee, C.K. (1998), Gender and the South China

Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).

Lee, C.K. (2007), Against the Law: LaborProtests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).

Lee, C.K. (2010), ‘Pathways of Labor Activism’,in E.J. Perry and M. Selden (eds), ChineseSociety: Change, Conflict and Resistance, 3rdedn (London: Routledge), pp. 57–79.

Lee, S. and A. Kleinman (2003), ‘Suicide AsResistance in Chinese Society’, in E.J. Perryand M. Selden (eds), Chinese Society: Change,Conflict and Resistance, 2nd edn (London:RoutledgeCurzon), pp. 294–317.

Lichtenstein, N. (2009), The Retail Revolution:How Wal-Mart Created A Brave New World ofBusiness (New York: Metropolitan Books).

Litzinger, R.A. (2013), ‘The Labor Question inChina: Apple and Beyond’, The South AtlanticQuarterly 112, 1, 172–178.

Liu, M. (2011), ‘ “Where There Are Workers,There Should Be Trade Unions”: UnionOrganizing in the Era of Growing InformalEmployment’, in S. Kuruvilla , C.K. Lee andM.E. Gallagher (eds), From Iron Rice Bowl toInformalization: Markets, Workers, and theState in A Changing China (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press), pp. 157–172.

Lucas, K., D. Kang and Z. Li (2013), ‘WorkplaceDignity in A Total Institution: Examining theExperiences of Foxconn's Migrant Workforce’,Journal of Business Ethics 114, 1, 91–106.

Mills, C.W. ([1959] 2000), The SociologicalImagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Perry, E.J. (2002), Challenging the Mandate ofHeaven: Social Protest and State Power inChina (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe).

Phillips, M.R., X. Li and Y. Zhang (2002),‘Suicide Rates in China, 1995–99’, The Lancet

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1432708http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1432708http://www.ihlo.org/LRC/ACFTU/030107.htmlhttp://www.ihlo.org/LRC/ACFTU/030107.htmlhttp://www.ihlo.org/LRC/ACFTU/030107.htmlhttp://www.ihlo.org/LRC/ACFTU/030107.htmlhttp://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=19523http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=19523http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=19523http://www.isuppli.com/Manufacturing-and-Pricing/News/Pages/Foxconn-Rides-Partnership-with-Apple-to-Take-50-Percent-of-EMS-Market-in-2011.aspxhttp://www.isuppli.com/Manufacturing-and-Pricing/News/Pages/Foxconn-Rides-Partnership-with-Apple-to-Take-50-Percent-of-EMS-Market-in-2011.aspxhttp://www.isuppli.com/Manufacturing-and-Pricing/News/Pages/Foxconn-Rides-Partnership-with-Apple-to-Take-50-Percent-of-EMS-Market-in-2011.aspxhttp://www.isuppli.com/Manufacturing-and-Pricing/News/Pages/Foxconn-Rides-Partnership-with-Apple-to-Take-50-Percent-of-EMS-Market-in-2011.aspxhttp://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/no_03_-_list_affiliates_–_010213.pdfhttp://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/no_03_-_list_affiliates_–_010213.pdf

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

20

359, 835–840.

Pringle, T. (2013), ‘Reflections on Labor inChina: From A Moment to A Movement’, TheSouth Atlantic Quarterly 112, 1, 191–202.

Pun, N. (2005), Made in China: Women FactoryWorkers in A Global Workplace (Durham: DukeUniversity Press).

Pun, N. and J. Chan (2012), ‘Global Capital, theState, and Chinese Workers: The FoxconnExperience’, Modern China 38, 4, 383–410.

Pun, N. and J. Chan (2013), ‘The Spatial Politicsof Labor in China: Life, Labor, and A NewGeneration of Migrant Workers’, The SouthAtlantic Quarterly 112, 1, 179–190.

Pun, N. and H. Lu (2010), ‘UnfinishedProletarianization: Self, Anger, and ClassAction among the Second Generation ofPeasant-Workers in Present-Day China’,Modern China 36, 5, 493–519.

Pun, N. and C. Smith (2007), ‘PuttingTransnational Labour Process in Its Place: TheDormitory Labour Regime in Post-SocialistChina’, Work, Employment & Society 21, 1,27–45.

Selden, M. (1993), The Political Economy ofChinese Development (Armonk, NY: M. E.Sharpe).

Selden, M. and E.J. Perry (2010), ‘Introduction:Reform, Conf l i c t and Res is tance inContemporary China’, in E.J. Perry and M.Selden (eds), Chinese Society: Change, Conflictand Resistance, 3rd edn (London: Routledge),pp. 1–30.

Selden, M. and J. Wu (2011), ‘The ChineseState, Incomplete Proletarianization andStructures of Inequality in Two Epochs’, TheAsia-Pacific Journal 9, 5, 1–35. (accessed 31January 2011).

Shenzhen Daily (10 June 2010), ‘Minimum

Wage to Rise to RMB1,100.’ (accessed 11 June2010).

Shenzhen Daily (22 April 2011). ‘“Suicide Girl”Regains Optimism.’ (accessed 23 April 2011).

South China Morning Post (19 July 2012),‘Struggle for Foxconn Girl who Wanted to Die.’(accessed 20 July 2012).

South China Morning Post (25 April 2013),‘Foxconn Suicide Survivor Says No Job is WorthEnding Your Life Over.’ (accessed 26 April2013).

Taiwanese Scholars (13 June 2010), ‘TheFoxconn Employees and to Call to theAttention.’ (accessed 13 June 2010).

The Guardian (28 May 2010), ‘Foxconn OffersPay Rises and Suicide Nets as Fears Grow OverWave of Deaths.’ (accessed 30 May 2010).

The Straits Times (11 June 2010), ‘It's Time toDismantle Factory Towns.’ (accessed 20 June2010).

Traub-Merz, R. and K. Ngok (eds) (2012),Industrial Democracy in China: With AdditionalStudies on Germany, South-Korea and Vietnam(Beijing: China Social Sciences Press).(accessed 2 January 2013).

Wang, H., R.P. Appelbaum, F. Degiuli and N.Lichtenstein (2009), ‘China's New LaborContract Law: Is China Moving TowardsIncreased Power for Workers?’, Third WorldQuarterly 30, 3, 485–501.

Webster, E., R. Lambert and A. Bezuidenhout(2008), Grounding Globalization: Labour in theAge of Insecurity (Malden, MA: BlackwellPublishing).

Wu, J. (2010), ‘Rural Migrant Workers andChina's Differential Citizenship: A ComparativeInstitutional Analysis’, in M.K. Whyte (ed.), OneCountry, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequalityin Contemporary China (Cambridge: Harvard

https://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/3480https://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/3480https://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/3480http://english.sz.gov.cn/ln/201006/t20100610_1546188.htmhttp://english.sz.gov.cn/ln/201006/t20100610_1546188.htmhttp://www.szdaily.com/content/2011-04/22/content_5559657.htmhttp://www.szdaily.com/content/2011-04/22/content_5559657.htmhttp://www.scmp.com/article/733389/struggle-foxconn-girl-who-wanted-diehttps://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010eng/https://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010eng/https://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010eng/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/28/foxconn-plant-china-deaths-suicideshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/28/foxconn-plant-china-deaths-suicideshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/28/foxconn-plant-china-deaths-suicideshttp://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2010/06/11/260248/p1/It%27s-time.htmhttp://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2010/06/11/260248/p1/It%27s-time.htmhttp://chinastudygroup.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Industrial-Democracy-2012.pdfhttp://chinastudygroup.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Industrial-Democracy-2012.pdf

APJ | JF 11 | 31 | 1

21

University Press), pp. 55–81.

Xinhua (25 May 2010), ‘Another FoxconnEmployee Falls to Death at Shenzhen Factory.’(accessed 26 May 2010).

Xinhua (15 June 2010), ‘Wen Calls forImproving Migrant Workers' Living Conditions.’(accessed 20 June 2010).

Xinhua (7 January 2012), ‘20% of Chinese JoinTrade Unions.’ (accessed 10 January 2012).

Xinhua (22 February 2013), ‘Rural MigrantWorkers Top 262 Million.’ (accessed 25February 2013).

Yan, H. (2008), New Masters, New Servants:Migration, Development, and Women Workersin China (Durham: Duke University Press).

Notes

1 SACOM was founded in 2005 to bringconcerned students, scholars, labour activistsand consumers together to monitor corporatebehaviour and advocate workers' rights. Since2006, SACOM has become a core member ofGoodElectronics, a global network on humanrights and sustainable production in theelectronics industry.

2 QQ is a popular free instant messagingprogram operated by Tencent Holdings. TheInternet domain QQ.com hosts an onlinecommunity of hundreds of millions of users.

3 The right to strike was guaranteed by theChinese Constitution of 1978, only to beremoved from the Constitution of 1982. Workerstrikes remain in a grey zone, neither permittednor barred in China.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_13313857.htmhttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_13313857.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-06/15/content_9978294.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-06/15/content_9978294.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-01/07/content_14400312.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-01/07/content_14400312.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-02/22/content_16249365.htmhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-02/22/content_16249365.htmhttp://www.sacom.hk