iPhone expansion, Foxconn India drops Chinese experts, mystery

One of several Foxconn manufacturing facilities in India — image credit: Foxconn

Apple’s expansion in India has hit an unexpected issue as hundreds of Chinese workers have been required to leave its iPhone manufacturer Foxconn’s facilities in the country.

In May 2025, it was revealed that Foxconn had made a $1.5 billion investment in India, and separately the Indian government had approved a new semiconductor factory. Yet according to Bloomberg, even as all of this was happening, Foxconn India began sending Chinese workers back to China.

Citing unspecified sources said to be familiar with the matter, the report claims that Foxconn has been telling Chinese workers to return, for about the last two months. So far over 300 Chinese workers have left, and one source claimed that most people remaining are support staff from Taiwan.

Neither Foxconn nor Apple have commented on the move.

It’s not known why Foxconn has done this, nor is it clear whether workers have been laid off or redeployed to the company’s facilities in China. The move, though, does follow Beijing officials reportedly working to prevent firms moving away from China.

Those officials are said to have been verbally encouraging China’s local governments and regulatory bodies to curb exports of equipment or technologies to India and Southeast Asia.

Overall, China has been making it harder for skilled labor to leave the country. It’s not clear how any changes have specifically affected Chinese workers who had already left.

What is clear is that Foxconn has used many experienced Chinese engineers as it attempts to rapidly expand in India. It’s said, too, that Chinese managers have been vital in training Foxconn staff in India.

Since that training has been ongoing for some years, and since at least most of Foxconn’s production lines have been set up, it’s said that there will not be an impact on the quality of manufacturing. But one source said the changes will impact efficiency on the production line.

Depending on the severity of the impact to efficiency, it’s presumably possible that Foxconn’s output of iPhones from India will be reduced. If so, it’s happening just at the time that Foxconn is about enter mass production of the forthcoming iPhone 17 range.

Then with China blocking attempts by firms to continue using Chinese experts, the short-term impact has to be that expansion in India is affected. In the short to medium term, the issue becomes yet another reason why Apple cannot make iPhones in the US.

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