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Suicides in China

The company that produces electronics for companies like HP, Apple and Nokia is reporting a high number of suicides and suicide attempts at its plant in China.

This week we learned of another suicide in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, at the Foxconn plant. Foxconn produces a lot of electronics that might be in your home. They make iPhones and iPods for Apple, as well as products from HP, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and they make the Amazon Kindle. This was the seventh suicide at Foxconn since the first of the year. Foxconn says there have been at least 30 suicide attempts there just in the last month. For a glimpse into the culture and environment of these factories, we spoke to Alexandra Harney, author of The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage. She joins us from Hong Kong.

Read Chinese reporter Liu Zhiyu’s account of going undercover as a Foxconn worker.

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