Some American media outlets are reporting the apparent suicide of a young worker at Foxconn Technology Group, which makes iPhones in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

According to publications that include Shanghai Daily, Sun Danyong, a recent engineering graduate, jumped out of the window of his apartment last Thursday. The reports said Sun, who had been tasked with sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, had been under suspicion for stealing after one of the handsets went missing. Some publications reported that, in the days prior to his suicide, Sun had been detained and beaten by a senior official in the security department of the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing giant.

Apple immediately responded with a "concerned" press-release...

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told CNET on Tuesday. "We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

This sounds like a few "bad apples" in Apple's otherwise humane and benevolent supply chain ran amok in faraway China, but...