Four employees of the Taiwanese contract manufacturer that makes the Apple iPhone are in detention in China, Taiwanese authorities said Friday.

China's government said on Friday that employees of Taiwan's Foxconn , the world's largest iPhone assembler, are being investigated for suspected taking of bribes and embezzlement, after Taiwan reported their detention.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, in a statement to Reuters on Thursday, said the four employees had been detained in China's Zhengzhou, home to a major Foxconn plant assembling Apple's iPhones, on suspicion of the equivalent of "breach of trust".