A whistleblower who exposed illegal working conditions in a factory making Amazon’s Alexa devices says he was tortured before being jailed by Chinese authorities.
Tang Mingfang, 43, was jailed after he revealed how the Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Hengyang used schoolchildren working illegally long hours to manufacture Amazon’s popular Echo, Echo Dot and Kindle devices.
Now, after spending two years in prison, he is appealing to the higher courts to clear his name. He has taken the difficult decision to talk publicly, despite being aware of the risks of reprisals, because he believes Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, have a responsibility to support his appeal and that the Observer also has a responsibility to highlight his case.
Tang, who is married with a nine-year-old son, said his father – who died while he was in prison – would have wanted him to speak up when he saw young workers being abused.
“My father always taught me that I should be a good person and, because I followed my heart and believed that justice should be served, I reported the serious violations at Hengyang Foxconn. Yet my imprisonment has caused such great harm to me and my family,” he told the Observer.
He described how he was beaten by his interrogators, handcuffed in stress positions until he could take no more and signed a confession to the crime of infringing trade secrets.
“I refused to sign seven times, and they got angry and handcuffed me to the bottom of the iron frame, unable to stand, squat, sit; only bending, half squatting all night. In the early morning, I could not stand any more,” he said.
“I think Amazon should give me an explanation, tell me if I really deserve to be sent to jail? If not, Amazon should give me an apology, along with its partner, Foxconn, to assist me to appeal for a redress, and provide compensation.”
Amazon did not answer specific questions put by the Observer, but a spokesperson said: “We do not tolerate violations of our supply chain standards. We regularly assess suppliers, using independent auditors as appropriate, to monitor continued compliance and improvement – if we find violations, we take appropriate steps, including requesting immediate corrective action.”
Illegal working practices at the factory were first revealed in an investigation by the Observer and the US-based China Labor Watch in 2018. A year later, a second investigation found that Foxconn had tried to solve its subsequent recruitment problems by drafting in schoolchildren to work illegal overtime.
Internal Foxconn documents passed on by Tang formed the basis of the second investigation. Amazon sent its own staff into the factory to investigate the labour law breaches and Foxconn was forced to pay more than £165,000 in compensation for underpaying workers making Echo and Echo Dot devices in Hengyang.
Meanwhile, Foxconn brought in the Chinese authorities to investigate the leak. Tang was charged, convicted and jailed for two years. He said he believed Amazon acted correctly in addressing the illegal working practices but that it should have intervened on his behalf in line with US law offering protection to whistleblowers and guaranteeing their freedom of speech.
When Tang’s 80-year-old father learned of his son’s imprisonment, he was taken ill and although his family asked for a temporary release on compassionate grounds, the request was refused. “My family wanted to give me a chance to see my father for the last time, so they delayed the funeral by three days. This is my biggest regret and the main reason why I would like to keep appealing,” he said.
Tang worked for Foxconn monitoring supply levels and had access to the factory computer system. He said he came across information showing how Foxconn was using temporary workers and schoolchildren to cut costs.
“I was also clear about how the student workers were physically punished and assaulted by their teachers. I believe these things are wrong and illegal,” he said.
He said workers regularly exceeded the limit of 36 hours of overtime in a month, with some on the assembly lines exceeding 100 hours a month during busy periods.
Tang said Foxconn had promised to improve working conditions after the first investigation but its own internal documents suggested managers were planning to expand the illegal use of workers. “Not just me, many other colleagues believed this is wrong,” he said.
“I read a report written by a security guard at Hengyang Foxconn; basically, it talked about how a teacher verbally and physically assaulted a non-cooperative student in front of everyone, and the student cried.”
After talking to colleagues about what was going on in the factory, Tang contacted China Labor Watch and agreed to share some of the company documents, which he photographed using his mobile phone.
After the story broke, he said, Foxconn’s management launched an investigation, laid off most of the temporary workers and students, and offered rewards to workers who helped to recruit new staff.
People he spoke to in the factory told him managers were furious. Unknown to Tang, they started to review CCTV footage to try to identify the mole.
On 16 August 2019 he was arrested for the first time. “I was very scared, because I had never experienced anything like this; especially after I was handcuffed, I began panicking,” he said. He was questioned for two days before being released and returning to work. A month later, he was arrested again at the factory and taken into custody.
He said that before his arrest he saw a foreigner whom he believed to be one of the Amazon staff going through his desk drawer and checking the pockets of his uniform on his chair.
Tang claims the statements used to convict him were obtained by the use of torture and should not have been admissible in evidence.
In a written account of his treatment, he wrote: “While I was detained in the police station for questioning, I endured tremendous physical and mental stress. The officers at the police station used corporal punishments and violence during the interrogation to force me to change my statement and say that I did commit the so-called criminal activities.
“The police officer battered me multiple times during the interrogation, he repeatedly slapped and hit me in my face and in the back of my head.
“I was also tortured during the interrogation process when I refused to collaborate and admit to their baseless accusations.”
He said his interrogators repeatedly handcuffed him in stress positions. “I could not stand up because my hands were chained on to the little desk that connected the two armrests, I could not do anything but suffer through such grave pain,” he said.
He said he signed a confession after being handcuffed to a bed overnight and because he feared he would be beaten again.
Tang said he initially received a sympathetic hearing from the police when he explained that he had only acted to expose illegal activity in the factory and said he understood they were simply doing their duty.
He said the charge of infringing trade secrets requires the company to have suffered a loss but Foxconn had only been forced to refund what it was required to pay by law. He said for that reason – and that he had acted to expose illegal activity – he refused to accept he was guilty of that charge and he insists the confession used to convict him was obtained illegally, by torture, by a senior officer aided by auxiliary officers and, for that reason, his conviction should be overturned.
Tang said Amazon had members of staff in the factory who he believed were aware of what had happened to him. Although he admitted passing on company documents, he believed he was acting to prevent law-breaking.
“Because I believe the cause of all [this] is that I exposed Hengyang Foxconn’s illegal activities, I believe I am not guilty,” he said.
In a letter to Bezos – who is worth an estimated £137bn – Tang urged him to ensure that workers’ rights were protected. “Although the price was too high for me, I think the price I paid will all be worth it if only this situation can be brought to your attention and benefit the employees of all Amazon suppliers,” he wrote. “Finally, as your faithful admirer, as a former employee of your company’s client, as a victim, as a son, husband, father, I would like to ask the following of you. Please ask Hengyang Foxconn to face up to its own problems, apologise to me, and come forward and communicate with the local court to assist me in the appeal of my case, so that the court can finally revoke my guilty verdict.”
China Labor Watch director Li Qiang also wrote to Bezos urging him to intervene on behalf of Tang. “CLW believes that Amazon has the responsibility to call for China to free this innocent volunteer, who provided the evidence of labour violations in an Amazon supplier factory, and thank him for helping improving workers’ conditions. All he did was report violations of workers’ rights in an Amazon supplier factory. He did not commit any illegal acts.
“It is unacceptable and unfair that Tang Mingfang is serving jail time for trying to help Amazon improve the labour conditions in its supplier factory.”
He said Bezos had not responded to his letter and Amazon had not offered any support for Tang.
