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May 26, 2010
Hon Hai in damage control

LONGHUA (China) - DRESSED in white, the traditional colour of mourning in China, the father of 19-year-old Ma Xiangqian weeps outside the gates of a sprawling electronics complex. His wife and daughter kneel alongside. Ma is one of nine workers who have died in apparent suicides at tightly guarded factory complexes this year, raising questions about the harsher aspects of blue-collar life around southern China's Pearl River Delta - dubbed the workshop to the world.

The parents say Ma, who was found dead at the bottom of a stairway at the campus in January, died under mysterious circumstances. They want to know why. 'All we want to know is the truth. We don't even want compensation,' said the father. The Longhua factory belongs to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the Taiwan giant that is contracted to make electronics for Apple Inc and most major PC brands.

Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou, one of Taiwan's best known businessmen, on Wednesday led reporters on a rare media tour of the Chinese plant, part of an unprecedented publicity blitz to counter a growing backlash over the suicides. 'You can see we've got these facilities for workers who want to relax,' Mr Gou said, standing by an Olympic-size swimming pool in the vast Longhua complex, which has tree-lined avenues, post offices, banks and bakeries catering to many of around 400,000 workers it employs in southern China. This is not a place that treats its workers badly,' added Mr Gou, who is known for guarding his privacy jealously. -- REUTERS