Chinese Company That Makes iPhones Tortures Worker Until He Kills Himself

A worker at a factory in China that makes iPhones was tortured under suspicion that he stole an iPhone prototype, leading to his suicide. Apple has been very successful with the iPhone and there is an understandable need for security against industrial espionage, but is it really worth torturing and killing for it?

Foxxconn, which manufactures the insanely popular iPhone, was gearing up a couple of months ago for the release of the iPhone G3 S. One of their workers, Sun Dayong was entrusted with transporting 16 of these prototypes and one of the phones went missing. Dayong immediately fell under suspicion for having stolen the phone, possibly to sell it to a rival company. The company subjected Dayong to “unbearable interrogation techniques” to find out if he had stolen the phone. When the company was done torturing him they broke into his house, harassed him, stuck him in solitary confinement,and basically made his life a living hell. Dayong could not take it anymore and jumped out a window on the 12th floor of his building.

Apple has acknowledged that these techniques were used (without their knowledge or approval, of course) and that they are investigating the company’s practices. In China there is little protection for workers (funny that this is the case in a communist country.) Workers in factories can be beaten,tortured, locked in solitary confinement, and subjected to all manner of abuse. Why do this over a phone?

It is complicated and no one party is to blame entirely for what happened. Certainly Foxxconn carries the bulk of the guilt, but Apple isn’t exactly an innocent party. Apple picked this company to create their phones, and surely investigated their working conditions…right? Perhaps not, as many American companies move their manufacturing to foreign countries due to cheap labor they lose oversight over the working conditions. They don’t really care how the stuff gets made as long as it is done cheap. Sweat shops are common, child labor is rampant, and working conditions are usually sub-par. Is this much suffering worth the toll of human suffering it unleashes. Apple would say no, but mean yes.

The iPhone has increased sales at Apple by over 300% in the last quarter, making the company billions of dollars. The profits are massive in part because their overseas overhead is negligible. So what if a few workers get tortured or killed? That Twitter iPhone app is totally awesome!

Death By iPhone: Apple and China’s Cultural Time Bomb [Gizmodo]