By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Local protests erupted in the Chinese city of Luzhou after a truck driver was allegedly beaten to death by police officers over an unknown dispute.

Luzhou, a major city situated in the southwestern Sichuan province, experienced violent riots that lasted well into Wednesday night.  Bystanders took pictures and video footage of unruly mobs throwing rocks, bottles, and other objects at police forces.  Several police patrol vehicles had also been overturned and set on fire.

Amateur photographs and videos of the scene where the truck driver had died went viral on the Chinese “microblogging” site, “Sina Weibo.”  The photos and videos allegedly show the dead truck driver sprawled out on the ground as police tried to keep the smoldering crowd back and under control.  Local bloggers conveyed that the crowd around the scene swarmed the body of the dead truck driver and attempted to protect the corpse from being removed by the local authorities.

A Sichuan province official issued a statement saying the truck driver had died of a disease when traffic police asked the truck driver to stop blocking traffic and move his vehicle away from the middle of the road.  The official attempted to disperse the crowd by telling the protestors that the truck driver died of an illness and had, in fact, not been beaten to death by the traffic police.

Police reinforcements were brought in to contain the violent outburst by the protesting crowd.  Reports of arrests and police reinforcements using tear gas on protestors exploded on the internet.  Onlookers posted photographs, videos and blog post regarding the police brutality and retaliation against the protestors.

The violent riots over the dead truck driver in Luzhou, Sichuan province, comes during a period of political uncertainty in China.  The Communist Party meets next month in Beijing to install a new generation of central government leaders.

There were roughly 80,000 incidents of riots, protests, and other eruptions of unrest in the general population in 2007.  Experts estimate that in 2009, the number of violent eruptions of unrest had risen to 90,000 incidents.  Others estimate that the number may be even higher.

The Chinese Communist Party is in disarray and worries that the thousands of protests may soon transform into a national movement that may threaten the party’s iron grip over the country and the people.  The number of demonstrations and protests have risen in opposition of the Communist Party’s corruption, land grabs, abuse of power, and economic transgressions.

For further information, please see:

People’s Daily Online – Cops blamed for death as crowds riot – 18 October 2012

China Digital Times – Residents Take to Streets After Man Reported Killed – 17 October 2012

Offbeat China – Violent unrest in Luzhou, Sichuan, after traffic police beat driver to death. Censors already at work. – 17 October 2012

Reuters – Chinese residents take to streets after man reported killed – 17 October 2012

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yesterday, the world’s largest contract electronic maker, Foxconn Technology Group, admitted to using student interns in its Chinese factory.  The Taiwanese company has been employing students as young as fourteen years old.

According to The Guardian, Chinese labor rights activists have accused many big companies, including Foxconn, of using student internship programs as a veil for cheap labor.

On Tuesday, Foxconn shared that it found interns under the legal working age of sixteen at its factory in Yantai, located in the northeastern Shandong province.  Foxconn, however, did not reveal how many of underage interns there were.

“Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks,” stated the company.

In defending its internship program, Foxconn stated that workers make up only 2.7% of its staff in China.  Moreover, internships can be long- or short- term, with the average lasting three and a half months.

Foxconn stated that the company would work with the local government to forbid schools involved in the Yantai factory from the internship program.  However, if these schools demonstrated compliance with company policy and, most importantly, labor law then they would not be barred from the program.

“This is not only a violation of China’s labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions,” Foxconn shared.  “However, we recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action.”

According to The Telegraph, in order to differentiate student interns from others, Foxconn gave them special worker ID numbers. Nonetheless, they worked alongside adults including night shifts and overtime.

“I did transport work, helping them move goods,” said one fourteen years old using the alias Xiao Wang.  “Right now, the night shift is 7:40pm until the morning. Whenever the work is done is when you get off your shift.”

Moreover, when asked how many days these student interns do not work a month, the response was “[n]ot even one.”

In September of this year, a riot took place at Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan over living conditions inside the plant’s on-site dormitories for commuting workers.

Foxconn is Apple’s largest manufacturing partner and creates products for, among other companies, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.  However, the company stated that none of the under age interns were working on Apple products.

After a series of suicides in 2010 and reports of employment abuses, Foxconn and Apple were mandated to improve working conditions in the Chinese factories.

For further information, please see:

The Guardian – Foxconn used 14-year-old interns at its factory in China – 17 Oct. 2012

Los Angeles Times – Underage Foxconn interns working in China plant return to school – 17 Oct. 2012

The Telegraph – 14-year-olds employed on Foxconn factory production line – 17 Oct. 2012