Apple Supplier Foxconn to Suspend Vietnam Operations for Three Days - WSJ.com

China's increasing militarism is having unintended consequences.  Foxconn is headquartered in Tiawan, is listed on the stock exchange and pays a dividiend.
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Apple Supplier to Suspend Vietnam Operations

A motorcyclist rides past the entrance of the Taiwan headquarters of Foxconn in December. Reuters

HONG KONG—The world's biggest assembler of electronic devices, Foxconn, 2354.TW -1.27% will suspend most of its manufacturing operations in Vietnam for three days, after violent protests targeting Chinese factories in the country spilled over to the facilities of other global manufacturers.

Taiwan-based Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. 2317.TW +0.23% , is a major supplier for Apple Inc. AAPL -0.85% and other global consumer electronics companies. It has six units in Vietnam making computers, mobile handsets and components as well as trading and logistics operations.

"Employees at our manufacturing sites in Vietnam will take three days of leave from May 17 for safety reasons," Foxconn said Friday in a statement

A Foxconn official, who declined to be named, said most of its Chinese and Taiwanese executives in Vietnam have temporarily returned to their homelands even though the company's manufacturing sites haven't reported any damage.

Hundreds of businesses in Vietnam with no ties to the dispute have been swept up in the unrest. Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese and Malaysian plants have been damaged and scores of people have been injured.

Taiwanese manufacturers have been particularly hard hit, with at least 200 factories looted or burned down, the island's government said Thursday.

Foxconn's moves came after the violent protests--sparked by an oil rig that a Chinese state-run company placed in a disputed part of the South China Sea waters—turned deadly, with at least two people said to have been killed.

Foxconn operates most of its factories in China, where it has more than one million workers. The company, which expanded production into Vietnam in 2007, located its units in the northern part of the country, according to its annual report. Foxconn declined to disclose the number of employees it has in Vietnam.

Write to Lorraine Luk at lorraine.luk@wsj.com

Stuart Don Levy