Foxconn chairman Terry Guo (郭台铭) led a media tour of the company’s plant in Shenzhen yesterday. Many of today’s mainland newspapers printed photos of Guo bowing to express his regret over the nine deaths and two attempted suicides of company workers.
The chairman’s condolences were not as effective in newspapers that received a brief Xinhua dispatch about the most recent death before press time. Although the Oriental Morning Post reported Guo’s claim that the suicides were unrelated to factory management, it printed a photo of Guo in which he looks like he’s been caught red-handed, above an even larger headline reporting on the “twelfth jump.”
The paper’s main headline is unrelated: there are reports that some visitors to the Shanghai Expo are skipping the massive lines by faking the need for wheelchair access.
Update (13:46): Hong Kong media are now reporting, based on reports from Taiwan, unconfirmed rumors of a thirteenth jump at Foxconn:
Update 2:
The suicide toll may now be up to 16; see ChinaSMACK: More Foxconn suicides: Reports of 14, 15, & 16th jumpings.
- Oriental Morning Post (Chinese): Foxconn “besieged”
- New York Times: Electronics Maker Promises Review After Suicides