Foxconn, the iPhone maker, has stopped production at factories in China. Shenzhen, in lockdown

IPhone production could suffer again after Foxconn, China’s leading iPhone maker, shut down in response to quarantine measures

Beijing’s draconian measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic seem to have reached their limits, with the same Omicron strain that wreaked havoc in Europe spreading among the Chinese population.

Paradoxically, the aggressive quarantine of the large metropolitan population has deprived the Chinese population of immunity to COVID, which is also obtained naturally (through the disease) by populations in countries where the authorities have been less insistent on implementing pandemic measures. This is how the spread of the Omicron strain, a variant of the Sars-cov-2 virus so easily transmitted that it makes the usual measures of social distancing almost useless, puts China in a dead end.

While the rest of the world is already declaring the end of the pandemic, relying on the effect of herd immunity as a natural defense mechanism against future pandemic waves, the Chinese authorities see themselves in a position to stop economic activities again and declare general quarantine in regions like Shenzhen, the most important industrial region of the country.

Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, an OEM manufacturer for global companies such as Apple and Samsung. Other Chinese technology giants, such as Huawei, Tencent and Oppo, are also based in Shenzhen. In other words, we can expect widespread delays on almost any product “made in China”, or assembled using components delivered from the region. Adding to the crisis situation, Foxconn also announces the cessation of production at the Longhua and Guanlan factories, without a precise deadline for the resumption of activity. The Foxconn factory in Shenzhen is the second largest in the country.

Officially, China reported a total of 4,636 deaths and 115,466 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic, probably unrealistic figures, if we refer to the population of over 1.4 billion people.