New Delhi: Foxconn Technology Group the Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer has stopped new work rotations for its Chinese employees at its Apple iPhone factories in India. It is now deploying Taiwanese workers reports Rest of World adding that Chinese workers currently stationed at Indian plants are being recalled. This move by the electronics contract manufacturer giant indicates new economic tensions between China and India. The Rest of World report has cited sources privy to Foxconn’s India operations that shipments of specialised manufacturing equipment intended for India have also been delayed in China. This move may disturb the iPhone assembly lines in the Foxconn factories in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which together employ around 50000 workers. However the Foxconn run factories in India still rely on Chinese workers and a smaller number of Taiwanese expatriate employees as well as specialised machinery from China. The report claimed that the Chinese government is responsible for the suspensions of worker deployments and equipment exports. “Currently the equipment and manpower are not allowed to go over to India and India doesn’t have the technology to produce the equipment” a source was quoted as saying as reported by the Rest of World. If the situation doesn’t improve it may hamper Apples broader ambition to develop next-generation iPhones in India with Foxconn. Experts suggest that the latest development highlighted the difficulties Apple faces in its attempt to diversify production away from China. Foxconn began manufacturing iPhones at its Tamil Nadu plant in 2019 and started boosting its Indian facilities and workforce in 2022. Since then Foxconn has increased its manufacturing capabilities in the state expanding to Karnataka and Telangana. “Foxconn has invested over $1.4 billion in India till 2024 with its business from the country exceeding $10 billion” said company’s chairman Young Liu recently. The Tamil Nadu plant alone employs about 40000 workers. The plant currently produces the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15. According to an expert China may take steps to prevent India from challenging its position as a global manufacturing powerhouse. “The underlying tensions will continue to ensure that this kind of economic rivalry between the two will only escalate” Rest of World quoted Harsh V Pant a professor and vice president of studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi as saying.