A harsh light on Apple's supply chain

Quoting:In the presence of scowling guards carrying machine guns, Daisey talked to Foxconn workers who told him they were 14, 13 and 12 years old. "Do you really think that Apple doesn't know?" he asks rhetorically.

He met a woman who was blackballed because she dared demand her overtime pay. He showed his iPad to a worker who lost an arm hand assembling them, but who had never seen the finished product. ("It is like magic!" the man exclaimed when the screen lit up and the icons appeared.)

Daisey is not an Apple hater. On the contrary. He's a self-confessed geek who has been in love with technology -- and Apple's technology in particular -- since childhood. "I am worshipper in the Cult of Mac," he says. (Although he confesses to have indulged in the Linux heresy.)

His point -- the message he hopes will spread like a virus -- is now that he's been to Shenzhen, he can never look at his beloved MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad without thinking about the people who built them. People as young as 12, he says, who work 14-hour days performing tasks so mind-numbingly repetitive that when the day is over they want to go back to their high-rise dormitories and jump off the roof.

Quoting:Two people were killed immediately, and over a dozen others hurt. As the injured were rushed into ambulances, one in particular stood out. His features had been smeared by the blast, scrubbed by heat and violence until a mat of red and black had replaced his mouth and nose.

Quoting:This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors — many of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs — as well as economists, manufacturing experts, international trade specialists, technology analysts, academic researchers, employees at Apple’s suppliers, competitors and corporate partners, and government officials.

Quoting:Why Are You Buying Apple (And Other Chinese) Products?