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Why China is sending jobs to Africa

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“Many of the things that Americans buy in shopping malls are made by Chinese companies, not in China, but actually in Africa,” Irene Yuan Sun, author of the book “The Next Factory of the World,”  says. She points to Lesotho, a tiny country in southern Africa (only slightly bigger than Massachusetts). It has dozens of factories that produce clothing and apparel for Levi’s, Kohl’s and Walmart. The workers may be from Lesotho, but the owners are Chinese or Taiwanese. And Sun estimates that only around 5 percent of Chinese manufacturing has moved to Africa so far. China’s foray into Africa is entirely rosy. There are downsides. Industrialization is not an easy process. It wasn’t easy when it happened in America, and it wasn’t easy when it happened in China. –PRI/

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