BEIJING
\nSix million people were on Friday under COVID lockdown in a Chinese city home to the world\u2019s largest iPhone factory, after clashes between police and workers furious over pay.
\nAuthorities have ordered residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan, not to leave the area for the next five days, building barriers around \u201chigh-risk\u201d apartment buildings and setting up checkpoints to restrict travel. There have been only a handful of coronavirus casesin the city.
\nThe orders follow protests by hundreds of employees over conditions and pay at Foxconn\u2019s vast iPhone factory on the outskirts of the city, with fresh images of rallies emerging Friday.
\nVideo footage published on social media and geolocated by AFP showed a large group of people walking down a street in the east of the city, some holding signs.
\n\u201cSo many people,\u201d a man can be heard saying. AFP was unable to verify precisely when the protests took place.
\nAnd after scores of workers left the plant Thursday with payouts of 10,000 yuan ($1,400) from Foxconn, posts on Chinese short-video apps Douyin and Kuaishou said the Taiwanese tech giant was turning away many of the thousands of people that had answered its hiring ads after a raft of departures in October.
\nMany of those who have arrived to take up newly vacant posts at the factory are now stuck in quarantine hotels outside the plant, multiple workers told AFP.
\n\u201cWe are in a quarantine hotel, and have no way of going to the Foxconn campus,\u201d one worker who asked to remain anonymous said.
\nAnother employee said those turned away had been promised 10,000 yuan in compensation for being forced to quarantine, but received only a fraction of that amount. \u201cThey are not letting us start the job and we cannot return home, Zhengzhou is under lockdown,\u201d one worker forced to quarantine in nearby Ruzhou city, after being promised employment at Foxconn, told AFP.
\nHe added that there were multiple small-scale protests in other Henan cities by Foxconn workers made to quarantine and unable to start work.
\nThe unrest in Zhengzhou comes against the backdrop of mounting public frustration over the government\u2019s zero-tolerance approach to COVID, which compels local authorities to impose gruelling lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing.
\nWith China\u2019s daily caseload at 33,000 on Friday \u2014 a record for the country of 1.4 billion \u2014 the unrelenting zero-COVIDpush has sparked sporadic protests and hit productivity in the world\u2019s second-largest economy.
\nIn the southeastern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, millions of people have been ordered not to leave their homes without a negative virus test.
\nSocial media footage published on Friday and geolocated by AFP showed residents of the city\u2019s Haizhu district dismantling barricades and throwing objects at police in hazmat attire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING Six million people were on Friday under COVID lockdown in a Chinese city home to the world\u2019s largest iPhone factory, after clashes between police and workers furious over pay. Authorities have ordered residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan, not to leave the area for the next five days, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n