Foxconn Recalls Chinese Engineers From Indian iPhone Plants

Amid Apple’s aggressive manufacturing push in India, its largest contractor Foxconn has recalled over 300 Chinese engineers and technicians from its India production facilities. As per a Bloomberg report, the withdrawal began about two months ago, leaving mostly support staff from Taiwan in India.

Citing sources, the report said that while the recall of Chinese employees is unlikely to hamper the company’s India production, it can affect the efficiency of assembly lines. 

Inc42 has reached out to the Taiwanese company and Apple for confirmation of the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response. 

This comes at a time when US president Donalad Trump has ignited a global trade war. China is one of the primary targets as Trump seeks to bring manufacturing back to the country and reduce reliance on imports.

US’ steep tariffs on China were met with Beijing imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on Washington earlier this year. However, the two countries have reached some sort of an agreement, but the details have not been disclosed. 

As per US trade representative data, the US’ total goods trade with China was an estimated $582.4 Bn in 2024. In this, US’ exports to China stood at $143.5 Bn, while it imported goods worth $438.9 Bn.

Amid the tensions between the two countries over the last few years and disruptions in supply chain due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple has been setting up manufacturing facilities outside China. India has emerged as one of the key beneficiaries of the China+1 strategy.

Earlier in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company planned to source most of its flagship iPhones sold in the US in the June quarter from India. While it planned to manufacture a majority of its other products sold in the US in Vietnam, Apple said China would continue to be the country of origin for Apple’s sales outside the US. 

Notably, Trump also objected to Apple setting up manufacturing facilities in India.

In a bid to stop manufacturers from moving away from the country, Chinese authorities have been encouraging regulatory agencies and local governments to curb technology transfers and equipment exports to other nations. In line with this, the authorities, in April this year, refused to allow one of Apple’s equipment suppliers to export machinery needed for trial production of the upcoming iPhone 17 to India. 

Meanwhile, the exodus of the Chinese tech talent for Foxconn comes shortly after it was said to be firming up plans to increase its India iPhone production to 25-30 Mn units in 2025. As per reports in March, the manufacturer had been experimenting with restricted testing operations at its new Bengaluru facility over the past 3-4 months.