The Foxconn Suicide Jumps …

On January 8, 2010, a 19-year-old worker serving as an operator in the Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group jumped from a dorm at Guanlan (觀瀾)

Plant, Shenzhen. Before the police could find out the causes for the accident, another Foxconn worker was found dead by jumping from a dorm on March 11 at Longhua (龍華) Plant in Shenzhen, within two months after the first. At the end of 2010, there were a total of 18 Foxconn workers who had jumped from the buildings, with 16 dead and 2 injured (Pan et al., 2011). However, the exact count of numbers in the media varied because some cases were alleged to have been blocked by the company and the Chinese government. A reading of the survey report and media reports identifies 18 suicides that resulted in either deaths or injuries during this period, with the last case of the year containing only sketchy information (See Table 1.1).

As the high frequency aroused the public’s attention, the same way the workers chose to commit suicide also triggered media hysteria about the event. It is noted that most suicides in news appear to be isolated individual cases, yet, in

Foxconn’s case, although all the reported jumps happened separately, they were often considered connected. Furthermore, while the exact motivation for some of the jumps has still been suspicious, Chinese media named the series of mysterious suicide events as “Tiaoloumen¹” (跳樓門), or “Jump gate” in English, to describe its puzzling

development.

1 Media are believed to borrow the term “Tiaoloumen” from two possible sources- Japanese film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa or the Watergate Scandal- to describe the incident of being so

Table 1.1 Foxconn Workers Who Committed Suicide in 2010

Name Gender Age Plant Date

Rong Po (榮波) Male 19 Langfang Jan 8, 2010

Ma Xiangquian(馬向前) Male 19 Guanlan Jan 23, 2010 Surnamed Li (李) Male 21-29 Longhua Mar 11, 2010

Tian Yu (田玉) Female 17 Longhua Mar 17, 2010

Li Wei (李偉) Male 23 Langfang Mar 27, 2010

Liu Zhijun (劉志軍) Male 23 Longhua Mar 29, 2010 Rao Shuqin (饒淑琴) Female 18 Guanlan Apr 6, 2010 Surnamed Ning (寧) Female 18 Guanlan Apr 7, 2010

Lu Xin (盧新) Male 24 Longhua May 6, 2010

Zhu Chenming (祝晨明) Female 24 Longhua May 11, 2010 Liang Chao (梁超) Male 21 Longhua May 14, 2010

Nan Gang (南鋼) Male 21 Longhua May 21, 2010

Li Hai (李海) Male 19 Guanlan May 25, 2010

Surnamed He (何) Male 23 Longhua May 26, 2010

Chen (陳) Male 25 Longhua May 27, 2010

Liu (劉) Male 18 Nanhai July 20, 2010

Liu Ming (劉明) Female 23 Kunshan Aug 23, 2010

Unknown unknown Shenzhen Nov 5, 2010

Sources: Pan et al., 2011; wikipedia.

Soon, media’s focus on the snowballing suicide incident shifted to the labor issue.

Similar backgrounds of those who committed suicide have brought the public to associate the consecutive jumps to the company’s management problem, and further incurred public’s accusation of “blood and sweat factory” against Foxconn. To defend the reputation of his company, the chairman Terry Guo not only stepped forward to face the public and media but also adopted different measures for crisis management.

On May 26, for the very first time since the company’s establishment, Guo invited journalists from all over the world to go inside the Longhua Plant to have a further look at the living and working environment. He also apologized to the public at a press conference in the wake of the tour and announced several measures to prevent future tragedies. However, the action did not work out as Guo had expected. The very following day after the news conference, the 12th jump was reported in media,

triggering another wave of condemnations against the company. Under great public pressure, Guo announced the increase of the minimum monthly wages to 2,000 RMB, adding 800 RMB more onto a previous raise in June, and other employee-welfare related policies in the hope of clearing the negative image after the serial jumps.

The incident became more than just a serial suicide case but a labor issue.

Although no workers took to the street to protest, one researcher argued that each suicide jump alone could be seen as a strike, where workers “fight with their lives”

(Liu, 2010b). To understand more about the incident, it is necessary to examine it in the context of contemporary Chinese society. In this perspective, China as the world factory is a point to start with.

Since 1978, when China started opening up from almost isolation, it has integrated into the world economy in a dramatic way. Statistics show that China’s export volume increased over 60-fold in 26 years, from $9.8 billion in 1978 to $593.4 billion in 2004 (Zhang, 2007a). By 2009, its export volume reached $1,201.6,

becoming the world’s largest exporting nation. With these impressive figures, China is now turning itself into an exporting machine and has grown so fast that many people view China as the world factory (Shenkar, 2005; Zakaria, 2005; Zhang, 2007b).

One of the most crucial key factors for China to become the world factory is its labor competitiveness, namely, the huge labor supply and cheap labor cost (Zhang,

2007a; Zhang, 2007b; Wang, 2007; Liu et al., 2007). Wang (2007) quoted China’s market share in major export markets from International Monetary Fund,

demonstrating that it increased steadily from 1970 to 2003 by exporting

labor-intensive goods, including clothing, footwear, and home electronics such as TVs and cameras. Indeed, labor-intensive industries make more profits and generate more new jobs needed each year to maintain social stability. Yet, these labor-intensive works have also meant low salaries, long working hours and bad working environment for the Chinese workers.

In fact, tensions between workers and employers have mounted in China during the past decade. Chen (2010) argued that a series of strikes in Pearl River Delta Economic Zone (珠三角經濟區) during 2004-2007 had urged the government to increase the minimum wage and legislate for better labor laws, including Labor Contract law (勞動合同法), Employment Promotion Law (就業促進法), and Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law (勞動爭議調解仲裁法). Apparently, the improvement was limited and did not solve the problem from the root. The Foxconn incident became the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Soon, another waves of labor strikes occurred after the event. BBC quoted Asahi’s survey, saying that workers from at least 43 foreign-owned enterprises in China organized a series of strikes from June to July in 2010 to strive for better welfares and it eventually forced companies in China to increase the wages (Tong, 2010).

As the Foxconn suicide jumps reflected the long-existing labor problem in Chinese society, it is understandable to see it hit the headlines of Chinese media during the period. However, the same phenomenon also happened in Taiwan, where a great deal of attention from the media and the public were also received although they were focused on rather different reasons.

First of all, the incident itself deserves to be treated as big news as it contains a couple of appealing news interests, such as consecutive suicide jumps and the conflict between workers and employers. In a market-driven media environment like Taiwan, sensational topics always guarantee circulation. Moreover, the person involved, Terry Guo, the chairman of Foxconn, is another major “selling point” in this news event.

Guo being one of the richest men in Taiwan, his every movement and decision, whether it is about business or private life, all attract media attention. The charm of the media darling has thus further increased media’s interest in covering the event.

Taking a political-economic perspective, Foxconn plays an important role in the Cross-Strait trade. As aforementioned, Foxconn is one of the most successful models of Taiwan-based enterprises in China. Its survival and prosperity in China tells the hard-working stories of most other Taiwan-based enterprises. Likewise, the labor issue it faced in the suicide incident, sooner or later, could also be encountered by other Taiwanese businessmen. According to a Radio Taiwan International’s report (中 央廣播電台) on May 28, 2010, Wang, Jin-pyng (王金平), the President of Legislative Yuan, once said in an interview during the incident, “His (Terry Guo) problem is the nation’s (Taiwan) problem.” This statement shows the index significance the Foxconn suicide jumps has played in Taiwan’s economic issue and suggests its significance as a news and research topic.