Why did China loosen Covid curbs? Foxconn founder pushed Beijing to: Report

Covid In China: The report cited Terry Gou's letter, written over a month back, which played an important role.

A report claimed that Foxconn founder Terry Gou pushed China to move away from its zero-Covid policy and loosen restrictions. Wall Street Journal reported that Terry Gou apparently warned Beijing that the strict stance on Covid threatens its position as the world's second-largest economy in the global supply chain.

Covid In China: Security guards at the entrance of a compound under Covid-19 lockdown in the Jing'an district in Shanghai. (AFP)

The report cited Terry Gou's letter, written over a month back, which played an important role in convincing China's leadership to reopen the economy and make changes to its Covid policy.

Chinese health officials and government advisers took the opportunity and used Terry Gou's letter to push the case that the government needed to speed up its efforts to ease Covid curbs, the report added.

While Terry Gou's office "sternly" denied the report, Foxconn declined to comment on the matter.

Terry Gou no longer plays an active role in the company after retiring in 2019, however, he still wields influence over its matters.

Earlier this week, China loosened restrictions and allowed for home quarantine, lenient testing rules and scrapped the health codes people needed to show on their phones to enter public places.

Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant was marred by a month-long unrest in November, with reports saying that workers were fleeing the factory owing to unsanitary conditions and lack of resources amid a Covid outbreak. The company then asked the workers to stay and promised them four times the current bonus. It also hired new employees but later failed to deliver on the promise, leading to violent protests. The workers were then asked to leave.