Taiwan says four employees of Apple supplier Foxconn have been arrested in China | Business and Economics

The workers were reportedly arrested in Zhengzhou for a crime similar to breach of trust.

Taipei, Taiwan – Four Taiwanese employees of Apple supplier Foxconn have been detained in China since January, Taiwanese state media said.

The workers were arrested in Zhengzhou, home to Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory, by the local public security office for what amounted to “breach of trust”, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Thursday, citing the Taiwanese government.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) cited Foxconn as saying that its employees are not doing anything to harm the company’s interests and will not be able to stop corruption and abuse of power by a few police officers, CNA said.

MAC told Reuters and AFP news agencies that the case was “very disturbing” and “severely damaged business confidence”.

Foxconn and MAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is the latest incident to draw attention to the dangers facing Taiwanese people living and working in China.

Last month, a court in Wenzhou sentenced Taiwanese independence activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison for breaking away from the first such prosecution.

And last month, an executive from Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics was arrested while trying to leave China, CNA reported.

In June, the MAC raised the travel warning for China, Hong Kong, and Macau from “yellow” to “orange” and advised citizens against “unnecessary travel”, citing China’s strict national security and counter-espionage laws.

Taiwan’s National Security Bureau told the island’s legislature in July that, in the past 12 months, 15 citizens had been arrested or tried in mainland China, and 51 were questioned at the border.

Beijing’s Communist Party claims self-governing Taiwan, whose official name is the Republic of China, as one of its provinces, while Taipei insists it is an independent democracy.

Beijing also does not recognize dual citizenship and considers Taiwanese to be Chinese citizens.

Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese lived and worked in China in the 1990s and 2000s, but their numbers have fallen sharply since Beijing’s skeptical Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016, marking the deterioration of China-Taiwan relations.