In the latest twist on the London Mail On Sunday article accusing Apple of making IPods in sweatshops in China, Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that owns the "sweatshops" has pointed out that (1) they only have 160,000 employees world wide, while the Mail asserted that they had 200,000 people working in the "sweatshop" plant; (2) they do not even own a plant in Suzhou, where the Mail alleges their "sweatshop" is the worst; (3) the minimum wage in the Shenzhen Economic Enterprise Zone is $101 per month and that they are in full compliance despite the Mail's allegations that employees in the zone make about half of that; (4) that the company "has been named by the local Shenzhen government as a role model among Taiwan-based investors in the southern Chinese city"; and (5) they are contemplating legal action against the Mail.
In the comments to my original post, I mentioned that an HP sweatshop inspector had recently looked at the same plant and found no cause for concern.
I return to my original point concerning the story, and wonder at the real agenda behind the story in the Mail.