Coronavirus: iPhone factory exodus shows how China’s Covid narrative still strikes fear in public
- Foxconn employees said they would rather trek long distances than face the risk of what would likely be a minor infection
- Analysts say the Chinese government has portrayed the virus as a monster, while ignoring misinformation put out on social media
In some cases they were willing to walk over 100km (60 miles) to get back home rather than stay at a factory in central China with a Covid-19 outbreak.
They climbed fences and carried luggage but little food to walk along a highway or country roads. They said they were escaping unhygienic living conditions that exposed them to infection.
The exodus of workers from the Foxconn Technology Group plant, the world’s largest iPhone assembly line, in Zhengzhou in the past few days reflects the fear that ordinary Chinese still hold for the disease almost three years into the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Chinese workers flee world’s largest iPhone factory after Covid outbreak
“[The authorities] created fear and portrayed [the virus] as a monster, something which is very scary to the general public. For three years they have not corrected the wrong image of these worries, that’s the root cause of these problems,” said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. “If one day China heads toward reopening, this has to be changed.”