China detains Taiwanese iPhone factory workers for ‘breach of trust’
Taiwan claims ‘circumstances of the case are quite strange’
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Chinese authorities have detained four employees of Taiwanese Apple supplier Foxconn under "quite strange" circumstances.
Police in Zhengzhou city of Henan province held the factory workers on an offence equivalent to Taiwan’s “crime of breach of trust”, the island’s mainland affairs council said.
The council confirmed all four employees were Taiwanese and claimed that the “circumstances of the case are quite strange”.
The workers have been detained since January, Taiwanese media reported.
The council quoted Foxconn as saying that “the four employees did not harm the company’s interests”.
“This has seriously damaged the confidence of companies. We call on relevant departments on the other side of the Taiwan Strait to investigate and deal with it as soon as possible,” it said.
Taiwanese conglomerate Foxconn, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of consumer electronics, is known for being Apple’s main contractor.
The workers were detained amid rising tensions between Beijing and Taiwan, with the Chinese military routinely flying aircraft into the island’s airspace. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. The two split in 1949 after a civil war and have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars in trade and investment.
Taiwanese businesses have invested billions of dollars in China since the country began landmark economic reforms four decades ago, drawn by a common culture and language and much lower costs.
Taiwan’s government earlier this year raised its travel warning for China, telling its citizens not to go unless absolutely necessary, following a threat from Beijing to execute those deemed “diehard” Taiwan independence supporters.
A court in Wenzhou sentenced Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison in September for secession.
Chinese authorities also detained an executive of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics while trying to leave the country, according to media reports.
Last year, Foxconn offices in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces were searched by Chinese tax officials when founder Terry Gou announced his bid to become the president of Taiwan.
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