Chinese police have arrested four workers of Taiwanese iPhone maker Foxconn in circumstances that Taipei described as “bizarre.”
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said the employees were arrested in Zhengzhou, Henan province on charges of “breach of trust”.
The BBC has contacted Foxconn for comment.
The company is the largest iPhone manufacturer for US tech giant Apple and one of the world’s largest employers, with major manufacturing facilities in China.
Taiwanese authorities say the arrests may be a case of “abuse of power” by Chinese police.
And said the incident eroded the confidence of businesses operating in China.
In October last year, China’s land and tax authorities launched an investigation into the company.
At the time, Foxconn founder Terry Gou was running as an independent candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election.
Taiwan has urged its citizens to “avoid non-essential travel” to the mainland as well as Hong Kong and Macau after China published detailed guidance on criminal penalties for what Beijing described as hard-line “Taiwan independence” separatists.
Foxconn’s facility in Zhengzhou is the world’s largest iPhone factory and is widely known as “iPhone City”.
Although it has been around for a long time geopolitical rift Between Beijing and Taipei, Foxconn is among many Taiwanese businesses that have built factories in China.
Beijing sees the island as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country and has not ruled out using force to achieve this.
But many Taiwanese see themselves as part of a separate nation – although most support maintaining a status quo where Taiwan declares neither independence from China nor unification with China.
