Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Sunday 24th May

- Latest employee suicide at Foxconn Technology

- Student attacks caused by social dissent

- Hu Jia’s condition worsens

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Latest employee suicide at Foxconn Technology

An employee of Foxconn Technology Group has leaped off a building to his death. What’s alarming is this is the ninth suicide at the giant electronics manufacturer this year. The suicides all occurred at Foxconn’s Shenzhen branch in China, the latest on May 14th. When interviewed, employees at Foxconn said repetitive work regimes, stress, and poor management all contributed to the suicide.

Foxconn is a multinational business group which specialises in creating electronic and computer components for a range of products, including the iPad, iPhone and Playstation. The factory complex in Shenzhen has over 400,000 employees.

According to an employee of Foxconn, the complex in Hongguanyuan District has a very high employee turnover rate. Each factory has tens of thousands of employees. Each day sees thousands of new recruits and resignations. Recruitment criteria are lax and there are many gaps in management.

The anonymous employee told SOH (recording):
“Those who jump off the buildings are lower level staff, killing themselves because of work stress. Their work is simple and repetitive. In this kind of environment, everything becomes numb, including their thoughts, aspirations, and emotions. Under such work conditions, where they repeat the same tasks each day, they tend to think of the worst if they don’t know how to adjust their emotions after work. A few university graduates committed suicide because of mental problems or romantic troubles.”

It isn’t just the repetitive work routine which is harming employees; workers apparently suffer beatings and strict security as well. In the early hours of January 23rd, 19-year-old Ma Xiangqian was found dead underneath the employee dormitories of the Guanlan Factory in Shenzhen. His body was covered in wounds. Relatives suspect he may have died from a beating, but police refused to investigate. There have apparently been many incidents where employees were beaten by security staff.

Regarding security the Foxconn employee had this to say (recording):
“Some of the security personnel are not friendly or they are bad. I’ve heard of security beating people up because their job requirement is to ‘supervise people’, in other words their role is to look for trouble.”

Five of Foxconn’s nine suicides this year occurred at Longhua Factory in Shenzhen. An employee of that factory, Mr Wu spoke to us about below-par working conditions. He said (recording):
“Comparatively speaking, working conditions are not as good. Turnover is very high. There are many employees. Not everything is well managed. If one works overtime, one earns more.”

Foxconn employees earn the minimum wage of 900 Yuan a month, that’s 131 US dollars. 72 Yuan is deducted for social security and income tax. As it stands many employees would struggle to make ends meet if they don’t work overtime.

Tian Yu and Lu Fang of the SOH Radio Network.

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Student attacks caused by social dissent

In the past two months, six cases of knife attacks have taken place in mainland China. A recent seventh case occurred at a college in Hainan Province. So far 20 children have been killed and more than 80 injured. Many parents are rightly concerned over the safety of their children, and fear has gripped Chinese society. Teachers and parents interviewed by SOH believe the root cause of the attacks is social injustice. Many attackers vent their despair and anger at students.

Mr Chen a teacher at a kindergarten in Linzhang of Hebei Province told reporters school staff is very nervous now. Schools have strengthened security in wake of the attacks. Only adults with children are allowed to enter schools. As for the attackers, Mr Chen believes they must have suffered wrongs in the past. He said (recording):
“They are probably sick and need help, and they must have been wronged in a certain way, but there is no place for them to vent their anger and suffering. They then pass the suffering to others, so as to feel they aren’t the only ones suffering, and maybe this will get the attention of society.”

The Chinese authorities have issued a media ban on covering these attacks. Mr Chen disagrees saying (recording):
“It should be truthfully reported, at least to serve as a way to protect and prepare ourselves.”

Mr Li from Wuhan, whose son is in middle school, says social conflicts aren’t being eased, instead they continue to be aggravated. He said (recording):
“On the surface, this is a bunch of insane people murdering weak children. But if you look deeper this is a society where some people are eaten alive. Under Communist tyranny, poor people have no way out. When there is a social problem, people can’t get justice from courts, and they have to find a way to vent the pressure.”

Mr Li thinks the media ban on the killings is useless, saying (recording):
“Nowadays the Internet is so effective and fast; it’s obvious you can’t block information. As soon as something happens, it will travel fast and far. There will be an immediate response on the Internet.”

Mr Li is deeply concerned about how to protect children. He states (recording):
“There is not really much we can do. The system is broken, and we simply can’t protect and prevent it from happening. I am concerned, very much concerned. There is a universal fear among people, and a sense of despair in all walks of society. This is the general feeling and perception of the masses, and living in daylight hell under the Communist Party.”

Mr Bai, whose daughter attends college, spoke of the dangers if people had no place to vent their frustrations (recording):
“These people live on the lowest rung of society, they have no other way to make ends meet, and have no place to vent their anger. There is anger and resentment among the masses, and if there is no avenue to vent, I think there will be even more severe problems waiting to happen.”

According to Mr Bai, Chinese families are gripped in terror. All elementary schools, middle schools, and kindergartens in Beijing have police officers, security personnel and police vehicles on standby. In addition, schools have adopted a policy of escorting students. Parents have to walk and hand their children over to teachers in person, and teachers must escort students to their parents.

Since March there have been school attacks in six Chinese provinces: Fujian, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and the latest on the island province of Hainan. The Ministry of Education has formed an emergency response team to deal with the threat and enhance security measures in schools and campuses nationwide.

Wen Hong of the SOH Radio Network.

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Hu Jia’s condition worsens

The health of world renowned human rights lawyer Hu Jia, deteriorates in a Chinese jail. The two time Nobel Peace Prize nominee was arrested in 2007, for allegedly “subverting state power”. This charge is used against any Chinese national who dares speak out against the wrong doings of the Chinese Communist Party.

Now, Hu’s wife and his mother have come forward to say that the man who championed the rights of Chinese AIDs victims is suffering, as his cirrhosis of the liver deteriorates.
Hu’s wife, Zeng Jinyan told SOH, (recording):
“He is skinny, and he can’t eat much. His mental state is fine. He said his mental state is fine.”

Hu was already afflicted with liver disease when he was arrested in 2007. Since then the condition has deteriorated daily. His most recent exam results revealed a glomus tumor in his liver. The family’s requests for medical parole and a physical exam have so far been ignored. So has their request to read Hu’s medical record.

Hu’s family said (recording):
“We have never seen an exam report. They mentioned the results to us verbally; for example, the liver transaminase levels. His medical file is currently in the prison hospital.”
Hu’s family said that they are only permitted to see him once at the end of every month, but in May were permitted to visit him on May 13. His family said it was “unusual”.

Living conditions in the prison are very poor. Hu is not allowed to go outdoors, and as a result he does not get exposure to the sun or any exercise at all.

The world’s media has been paying attention to the condition of Hu Jia’s health. The Beijing Prison Hospital issued a notice to Hu’s family on March 30th, indicating Hu needed further examination to confirm whether his illness was liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. Later, the prison authority denied that Hu might have contracted liver cancer, but as of today, Hu Jia and his family have been denied access to the examination reports.

Hu’s family is appealing to the international society to continue to show their concern for his situation, and to press the Beijing authorities for improvement.

Hu has been a human rights activist in many areas. He is mostly known for his efforts in defending the rights of AIDs patients. He was arrested at the end of 2007, and was sentenced to three and half years in prison by Beijing authorities on April 3, 2008.

Tian Xi of SOH International Radio Network

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