I frequently go to the factories in Guangzhou and deal with the workers there. The housing is not substandard. There are employee dorms and employee cafeteria

I frequently go to the factories in Guangzhou and deal with the workers there. The housing is not substandard. There are employee dorms and employee cafeterias at every factory I've been to. These things are completely self contained. I've toured them, and they're like college dorms. The workers stay there, in the dorms and eat there. They're not prisoners. Everybody goes back home, (often over a thousand miles) every year for Chinese New Year, for example. They also leave the factory grounds in the evening, just like you'd leave a college campus you lived on to hang out downtown. Now, all that said, the competition for those jobs, I think, is quite intense. I've been repeatedly impressed by the level of dedication in the engineering staffs I've worked with. You say you need a fixture modified to allow a certain PCB component to be tested in a different way, and they're back in 30 minutes with the changed fixture, for example. Those engineers make things happen in minutes, not days. It's quite motivational to be among them. However, I'm sure there's a certain fear component that's driving them. It's a very good job, and they don't want to lose it. I'm not certain how such a thing can be addressed. It's just a function of the supply and demand of factory jobs. I also sense a bit of colonialism mentality in many of my fellow engineers when we travel over there. We're smart, and they're idiots, is an attitude that is almost constant among western engineers dealing with Chinese factories. It's your typical client/vendor bullying, but multiplied by 5 due to this attitude. When you bully the factory manager, he'll pass that down the line, I'm sure. Now, I've never worked with Apple, but I'm told it's a bit scary there. Lot's of pressure, even for the American engineers to perform to perfection. I imagine being an Apple vendor is a bit of a nightmare, and a Chinese vendor, of course is bullied by normal companies, so an Apple Chinese vendor, I have to assume, is in hell. Couple all that together, and I can imagine this kid being pretty stressed out.