China’s new lockdown ‘leads to fighting at world’s largest iPhone factory as starving workers are forced to stay at plant’

FIGHTS over food have broken out among starving workers at a giant iPhone factory in China as the country’s recent lockdown takes its toll, sources say.

Many of the plant’s 200,000 workers have been forced into isolation at Foxconn Technology Group’s main factory in Zhengzhou after the Communist Party imposed new draconian coronavirus restrictions.

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Some 28 cities – including the virus’ ground zero, Wuhan – are now being hit by a wave of crippling new measures.

The plant was forced into a “closed-loop system” after just a handful of Covid cases surfaced, a source told Bloomberg.

It is understood that employees will not be allowed to leave the production campus and will undergo regular testing.

Cafeterias at the site — dubbed iPhone City — have been closed and those with Covid or too afraid to leave their dormitories have been given only basics like bread and instant noodles, outlet insiders said.

They claim that scuffles broke out between employees over food, with food boxes reportedly only given to workers on the production lines.

Foxconn, Apple’s main maker, described the outbreak as “small” and claimed production between October and December would not be affected.

The Taiwanese company said operations were “relatively stable” and employee needs, including “supply of materials and psychological comfort,” have been met, reports the New York Times.

This is often a pivotal time for the factory – in 2021 about a third of Apple’s £165 billion iPhone sales were made between the last quarter of the year, according to Apple.

It comes as data released to The Sun Online by economic analysis firm Nomura shows that 208 million people are currently living under some degree of lockdown in China.

Two highly contagious subvariants of Omicron – BF.7 and BA.5.1.7 – are believed to be responsible for the recent spike in cases.

China’s officials have described the variants as “highly contagious” because they can also infect people who were previously immune.

Beijing is taking a permissive approach to the virus, enforcing the new rules this week after just 20 to 25 new infections a day.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping – who was named “Emperor for Life” this week – continues to implement what has been dubbed the “world’s strictest lockdown”.

Police officers in protective suits and with machine guns brutally enforce the rules.

Quarantine camp, food shortage. Police officers confiscating people’s homes, tagging Covid patients and drones patrolling the streets have been seen across China.

China’s draconian response to the virus has raised the specter of a return to the potential for rising cases around the world heading into the winter months.

But the West has implemented much more effective vaccination programmes, leaving countries like the UK better equipped to deal with spikes in infection.

China appears to be embracing a national policy of self-isolation as the Communist Party has made Covid Zero its flagship plan.

Xi doubled down on the policy in a recent speech – and vowed to keep all measures in place for the foreseeable future.