
IPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide - terpua
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/07/21/iphone-prototype-goes-missing-chinese-worker-investigated-commits-suicide/
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mseebach
The article tries very hard to blame this on Apple, which seems
unsubstantiated.

 _Taiwan-based Foxconn [...] faces cutthroat competition from other
manufacturers around China and the world. A leak of the next generation of
Apple’s crown jewel, the iPhone, could badly hurt Foxconn’s business
relationship with Apple._

It seems this company got a little over-eager in securing its future business
with Apple. There is no indication that Apple policies drove them to take
harder action against this guy than they'd otherwise have.

On the other hand, Apple should put some effort into investigating if someone
had his apartment illegally searched and was illegally detained in their
supply-chain.

~~~
pmorici
"Apple should put some effort into investigating if someone had his apartment
illegally searched and was illegally detained in their supply-chain."

No they shouldn't, that's a job for the police investigating the suicide, just
as Foxconn should have called the police if they suspected wrong doing on the
part of their employee.

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cesare
Even just trying to rationalize things like this shows how disconnected we've
become.

This is sad from whichever angle one looks at it.

~~~
hitthewashboard
Thanks man, exactly what I was feeling. Of course Apple is not DIRECTLY
responsible but in the end it is - they let produce (as everybody else within
electronics) in a dictatorship with underpaid wages, low security and a rule
by law where the (!rich) individual almost amounts to nothing. But in the end
as cesare already pointed out it will be rationalized (everybody does it! free
market! yeah!)

Rule of law/by law: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_law#Rule_of_law>

~~~
pmorici
By that reasoning, every Apple customer is also indirectly responsible. I
don't see the problem as cut and dry as manufacture in China vs. some place
else. Don't you think these condition you describe would persist w/ or w/o the
electronics manufacturing industry.

~~~
hitthewashboard
To some extent, yes (we want good stuff as cheap as possible) and yes of
course this applies to other manufactured "off-shore" goods. By the way: I own
an iphone as well... that is why this makes me even more so sad (as being part
of this subsystem). Things have to change I don't have a proper solution
though but I hope it will work out as time passes (e.g. people of China
building an honest as possible democratic system, us ("the west") becoming
less spoiled, etc.).

------
joel_feather
He did it because everyone in the company knew his name as the guy who would
possibly ruin the contract and jobs of everyone who worked there.

The face loss would be terrible, the number of high ups in the company talking
to him must have put him under massive and immense pressure.

------
RiderOfGiraffes
Similar comments here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=716110>

