Due to severe pollution of Shanghai's Wusong River, the city of Kunshan announced on 12/24 that, in order to improve water quality, it would impose a 17-day work stoppage on 270 factories along the river, and this stoppage would be effective from 12/25 to January 10, 2018. Among the factories subject to this order are over 100 major Taiwanese manufacturers, including Foxconn, Taiwan Glass, ASE, Nan Ya Plastics, and Advantech. Because of the severe impact of this measure, it immediately induced strong opposition. To keep this opposition from expanding, the Kunshan city government made an emergency announcement on the evening of 12/26 that the work stoppage would be postponed, and stated that its next steps would be to strengthen monitoring of companies' emissions and the implementation of responsibility management.

According to the Giant Group, it currently has four plants in Kunshan, of which its old Kunshan plant and Kunshan Giant Light Metal Technology are located near the Wusong River, and would be affected by the work stoppage. Giant noted that its four Kunshan plants have effective pollution control equipment, and their wastewater discharges meet standards. However, in order to comply with the Kunshan city government's orders, Giant will make three pledges, namely to reduce water usage by 50%, reduce wastewater discharges to zero, and adjust or reduce working hours at the two plants in question during the period from December 25 to January 10.