Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has slashed 1,000 workers from its research and development team located in Beijing, China. According to the local newspaper, People’s Daily Online, which confirmed the reports with the local Motorola press office, the R&D team is now down to less than 100 people following the latest cutbacks, with the software platform project team hardest hit. Aside from Latin America and North America, China is one of Motorola’s strongest markets, and in the past, company execs have said they intended to focus on it. The China layoffs are part of the struggling handset maker’s company-wide cull of 4,000 workers announced in mid-January, of which 3,000 of the jobs were to come from the beleaguered mobile device unit.