The Economist.
One of my first assignments as a journalist was covering factory worker strikes in Dongguan.
It was 2014, and Chinese manufacturing still seemed unstoppable.
Assembly lines were busy, export orders were strong, and China still looked like the world's factory.
But in fact, it was the closing chapter of that low-cost era.
Wages were rising, trade barriers were growing,
and many Chinese entrepreneurs were already looking for the next place to invest.
For some, that meant Africa.
Low labor costs, a young workforce, and trade access to the EU and the United States.
But the promise of profit has collided with harder realities,
including land disputes, logistical headaches, labor tensions, and political instability.
I'm Jiehao Chen, The Economist's China researcher,
and today I'm joined by Tom Gardner, our Africa correspondent,
for the return of our Drum Tower film club.
We'll be discussing "Made in Ethiopia", a documentary
which follows the arrival of a major Chinese-built industrial park into a dusty farming town.
And we're asking, for China and Chinese entrepreneurs, is Ethiopia still the next factory of the world?
This is Drum Tower from The Economist.
Hi Tom, welcome to Drum Tower.
Hi Jiehao, thank you for inviting me on.