Police admonish Foxconn snoop

• Source: Global Times
• [02:05 June 01 2010]
• Comments

By Zou Le

A self-proclaimed rights advocate who infiltrated the suicide-plagued Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, and then criticized the management style, was told to stop his advocacy work and to keep his findings to himself.

"I don't think we will continue our work since someone has already given us a lecture," Zhu Guangbing, a Guangzhou-based veteran advocate, told the Global Times Monday.

Zhu, 36, said he was in a hotel room in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province when several police officers stormed in at around 1 am Sunday and took him away for "disturbing the social order" and then released him after 18 hours of interrogation.

Zhu did not offer details about the questioning but said he did not disturb the social order.

Zhu and several other volunteers got jobs at the factory in order to conduct a secret investigation about how workers are treated.

They had originally planned to spend more time in the Foxconn factory and publish more reports, Zhu told the Beijing Evening News earlier. He declined to explain why he spent just a few days in the factory.

Zhu said that the officers confiscated his personal computer and one he used in his office. He was also asked to sign an agreement and guarantee that he would not publish any Foxconn-related information or organize such a group in the future.

The Guangzhou police refused to comment Monday.

Zhu said he resigned from job as a mid-level manager Monday.

Ten Foxconn employees have killed themselves this year while three others tried but survived. The suicides led to widespread speculation that the Taiwan-based electronics maker is running sweatshops.

Foxconn is part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics for companies that include Apple, Nokia and Sony.