Foxconn’s supply chain of lost souls

As hundreds of workers spill out of the canteen after lunch, the girls’ bright pink uniform jumpers stand out against the grey sky, the hulking grey factory buildings and the thick grey coal dust under their feet. They are back at work at Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Taiyuan, and some of them wonder how nothing has changed after it was rocked by one of China’s worst incidents of labor unrest in years.

People’s Armed Police continued patrolling the Foxconn campus in groups of 12, and the parking lot of mdo – an upmarket shopping mall across the street from the south-west corner of the factory campus – was blocked off and filled with more than 30 lorries, 15 vans and several buses carrying PAP in a show of force. Forty were hospitalized and several arrested after a riot of more than 2,000 on Sunday night, according to Foxconn. The company, also known under the name of Hon Hai Precision, its Taiwan-listed flagship, makes many of the world’s electronics gadgets, including most of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, in what may well be the world’s biggest manufacturing empire.