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Chinese Employee Commits Suicide Over Lost iPhone Prototype

by Leila Brillson on July 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM

A young man responsible for a massively popular tech prototype suddenly finds himself under the scrutiny of police and his employer when a top-secret project goes missing. After intense pressure, possible abuse at the hands of officials, and an illegal search of his private space, the employee can't take it any more, and he commits suicide. A thrilling novel? No, this is the ongoing saga unfolding at Apple's Chinese manufacturer right now.

Twenty-five-year-old Sun Danyong was a recent engineering graduate working for Foxconn, a company responsible for creating the prototypes that turn into the iPhone. Living in the Guangdong province near Hong Kong, Sun was responsible for shipping his company's prototypes to Apple. Details are sketchy and yet to be translated to English by the major press, but DigitalBeat reported yesterday that the Chinese Twittersphere was abuzz with what happened next.

Apparently, on July 9th, Sun Danyong received 16 prototypes of the fourth generation iPhone from the assembly line at Foxconn. Over the course of the next few days, he discovered that one was missing and reported it to his employer. Two days later, on July 15th, three Foxconn employees allegedly showed up at his house and searched his apartment -- in violation of Chinese law. He was detained and -- according to some reports -- abused. The next night, according to reported surveillance footage, Sun leaped to his death from his apartment window.

Kristin Huguet, Apple's spokeswoman, told CNET, "We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death."

Apple is known for its secrecy and ability to surprise the industry, so we can only imagine that there's considerable pressure to maintain employee silence. Leaking iPhone secrets would mean disaster for Foxconn's relationship with Apple, so when the phone went missing, Sun's employers may have resorted to unethical measures. Unfortunately, it seems that industry pressure concerning one of the world's most sought-after smart phones pushed Foxconn -- and Sun -- way too far. [From: Digital Beat]

Tags: apple, china, foxconn, iphone, main, news, suicide, top

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