China Investigates Foxconn For Bribery Allegations

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And there's more trouble for Foxconn, the electronics giant which makes Apple products in China. The company is acknowledging that Chinese police are looking into allegations that Foxconn employees took bribes from parts suppliers.

NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Shanghai.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Foxconn says it's cooperating with police and has brought in its own audit team to investigate alleged kickbacks. Foxconn's statement follows a report in the Taiwanese magazine Next, saying a Foxconn executive had been arrested last year as part of a bribery investigation. Foxconn, headquartered in Taiwan, has admitted no wrongdoing.

Bribery's common in Chinese industrial relations. Many foreign businessmen say they hate it, but argue they can't compete in China's intensely competitive marketplace without paying people off.

In recent years, Foxconn has become a lightening rod for labor rights activists because of workers' complaints and the company's assembly of high-profile Apple products.

In 2010, the Foxconn was hit with a series of worker suicides. And last September, thousands of employees trashed a Foxconn plant in northern China over what they saw as mistreatment by security guards.

Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.