More than 100 workers at the Foxconn plant were seen leaving their dormitories and pushing past outnumbered guards in videos sent by eyewitnesses to Bloomberg.
One clip showed several individuals wearing what appeared to be white hazmat suits striking a man on the ground with sticks, while another showed people charging through barriers as onlookers chanted, “fight, fight!”
Foxconn employs about 200,000 people and is Apple’s biggest iPhone maker, producing about 70% of iPhone shipments globally.
A witness said that the protest flared overnight over unpaid wages and fear of an infectious outburst at the plant. Several workers were injured in the melee before riot police restored order. The videos, which were broadcast live on the Kuaishou short video platform, couldn’t immediately be verified by CNET.
❗️Protests and riots are happening at Foxconn's largest IPhone factory in the Mainland 🇨🇳 China's City of Zhengzhou.
Over 100,000 people have been locked in their "factory dorms" for weeks, many without pay due to China's authoritarian lock downs. pic.twitter.com/PX8XRUEdN1
— Libertariananitionalist (@RiceEat17712218) November 23, 2022
The violence underscores the growing tension at the Zhengzhou plant since the latest lockdown began in October. Many workers have fled the plant recently over frustrations about handling the outbreak and insufficient food rations.