It's nothing surprising nor new revealed in the programme. As stated; the issue is not just with Apple. Foxconn are the third biggest electronics company in the world and they make a lot and produce parts for other companies for electronics goods, and it's a world economy issue; not a China issue.
As a Chinese persons myself (whom lived in the UK all my life), I've looked into the Chinese working economy, people need to understand as much as I pains me, and I certainly don't agree with many of the aspects but it's just the way it is.
Families that live in the country areas of the China and Vietnam will send a child to one of the bigger cites to work with all of what little money they have saved and they will want to work, they will work for a year or two then come back with enough money to support the family for a long while. This is why large companies like Foxconn that will supply living needs such as food and board for the workers.
They would be more upset if they didn't get the job, some won't return back to their family as they would feel that they have failed the family, hence the 'helping' on the questions for the entry exams. Suicides rates may be higher for them who don't get a job, but that stat is not recorded.
The security gates are there to protect the intellectual property of what is being created in the factory, how much would a rival company pay to get a video of the 'next' thing being made.
Companies also shut down for 2/3 months over Chinese New Year (end of jan/start of feb), check any Chinese website for closing time over Chinese new year. as its the typical time of the year when Chinese people return home, a good number of them will not return as they have made their fortune and they can support their family, in a few years they or another member of the family will go and work in the city. So some companies will hold on to workers ID cards to stop this from happening.
Yeah it's slave labor, but if they didn't do it another person will. If China never did it; another 3rd world country will. If no country did it, 1st world countries like the US and UK will be in chaos who rely heavily on the cheap cost of production to supply the needs of their people. Why do you think the US owes so much money, and at least 1.2 trillion of that is to China.
Its easy for us to get on a moral high horse and say this and that, in fact I posted on my FB status before the programme begun, what the programme will show and before anyone (of my friends) got on their morale high horse, that it was not an issue of Apple but a production issue and to understand world and china's economy.
Things are looking up for China, they are basically where Japan was in the early 80's, they are copying good and making them better and cheaper in some cases now. Companies like LG and Kangertech are being innovative and becoming the market leaders in their fields, but the country is moving slower than Japan did, not sure if that's on purpose as they seen what's happen to Japan economy and don't want boom and bust.
The way to support them is to buy the high end Chinese products and brands, give money to the companies like Apple, Sony PS4 and Microsoft xbone, as they are trying to make a difference. Also companies like LG, who are showing the rest of the Chinese companies that they don't need to re-brand to make money, that they are doing it right and to keep coming up with ideas, the number of times I've had to say to someone that it may say Sony on the outside of your TV but it be a LG LCD panel on the inside.
The sad thing is, that companies are always looking for next country to base their production operations in, for when China is too expensive 'to do business in'.
The BBC basically used 'Apple' as a headliner, they could have quite easily used Microsoft, for the xboxes or samsung. In fact they could quite easily used 'Nike' and Vietnam or India!
