Mutual interests have made the cooperation between China and African nations closer. (Photo: VCG)

It is a factory of factories. Located in Qingdao, Shandong province, it is owned by Du Wenli and produces equipment and machinery needed to set up factories. Du has a set of four buildings, one the size of a football field. In one of the buildings, there are rows and rows of new machinery, but with only two people working.

Used to seeing hundreds of people on factory floors, I ask Du whether it's the day off for most of his employees. He gives me a puzzling look. This is everyone. How come? Because almost every process here is automated.

I count only about 12 people on the factory floor full of machines and equipment ready to be shipped out.

'Factory of factories'

This is a new China, the "world's factory of factories". The shift from basic to advanced manufacturing is a natural economic progression, but it is happening much faster in China than in any other country. The Chinese leadership believes artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the future of global security and commerce, and therefore has decided to lead the AI sector. In fact, since 2017, China has been leading in investment and research output in AI. It was also the world leader in filing AI patents last year, which speaks volumes of its efforts to better protect intellectual property rights.

And Du's factory reflects both the opportunities (optimal industrial productivity) and perils (rethinking the value and reshaping human labor) offered by AI in the new era.

After taking a tour of the factory, Du and I talk about the future of manufacturing and the challenges in selling and servicing machinery around the world. Du's main expertise is rubber-and tire-making machinery. He has sold his machines to Yemen, Egypt, Bangladesh and Cote d'Ivoire.

What about Tanzania? He tells me something I already know－that Tanzanians import all types of tires. And Du's machinery can make almost all the tire brands Tanzania imports.

Fast development of technology

A short drive later, we arrive at a busy, noisy factory. The storage halls are full of tires of different types and sizes. About 10 million tires were shipped to Nigeria last year from this town alone.

We move to the factory floor. I ask a silly question: Are these your machines too? Du gets animated, leaps on to one of the machines and points to his company logo on it. The machines, I get to know, were built about seven years ago. They are no longer made today because technology is improving so fast that a "new generation" of machines emerges every few years.

Such factories have been driving the manufacturing boom in China, which accounts for more than 32 percent of the world's industrial output. Almost all the popular goods－from Christmas decorations to election campaign materials－sold in Africa's markets and streets come from these factories. But with people such as Du making newer, cleaner and AI-driven machinery, and Chinese people's income levels increasing, such factories seem to be disappearing.

In China, almost every business, Du's included, has to survive fierce competition. Therefore, exploring business overseas comes naturally to Chinese businesses. Du wants to take advantage of the government's initiatives, especially the Belt and Road Initiative, to chart the waters beyond the shores of Qingdao. Businesses such as Du's may be small cogs in the giant Belt and Road wheel, but it is these small cogs that are putting the China Inc stamp across the world map.

From Qingdao, I decide to visit rural China－to a place where there are no airports or high-speed train links－to get a sense of real China. I choose to travel to Yuncheng county, about 500 kilometers west of Qingdao, and visit a traditional Chinese martial arts (kung fu) school and understand the philosophy behind it.

I arrive at Yuncheng late in the evening. Yet I am welcomed enthusiastically by a group of people at the martial arts school, led by a young man who speaks impeccable English. I later learn that he has earned his MBA degree from a US university. He is part of about 400,000 Chinese youths who return home every year after completing their education abroad, especially in the United States and Europe.

We are ushered into a traditional Chinese house and guided straight to the dining room. During dinner, as we discuss kung fu, its history and philosophy, and its disciplining effect on the practitioner, an elderly man bursts into the dining room. Everyone at the table stands up out of respect.

He is Fan Qingbin, father of the young MBA. And he is the kung fu master who runs the school with about 4,000 students－all living on the campus and receiving primary and secondary education with focus on martial arts. Fan not only commands respect but is also charismatic. We get along very well, but it is difficult to follow everything Fan says not only because he speaks rapidly without pausing for translation, but also because my translator is too engrossed listening to his "monologue" to bother translating it for me in detail.

Source of strength and progress

The next day, Fan organizes a martial arts show for me. With the discipline of the performers on full display, I realize why kung fu practitioners excel in almost all aspects of life. The same hard work, perseverance, self-control, wisdom, humility and responsibility that are needed to become a kung fu master have gone into making China the second-largest economy in the world. Also, China is the largest source of imports for 65 countries, and has realized basic industrialization in just 40 years while other countries needed a century or more to achieve that.

It is here that Africa comes in. Almost every major economy has its own plan for Africa. Perhaps Africa can do better by having its own plan for China. It could start by focusing on fields such as agriculture and tourism. For instance, in 2017, China imported $110 billion worth of farm products from across the world, of which only $2.7 billion were from Africa with 23 percent of that being just tobacco from Zimbabwe. And of the 150 million Chinese who traveled abroad in 2018, less than 1 million visited Africa. Surely, African countries can take measures to improve these figures.

As my journey in the country comes to an end, I have realized that to better understand China, I need to add to my existing knowledge about the country.

I met many people during my visit to China but chose to tell the stories of Du and Fan probably because of the deep connection I made with them. And, sometimes, human connections are what we need to remain humble, and resolutely increase our understanding of societies so that we can engage in the common pursuit of a shared destiny.

(The author is a politician from Tanzania. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.)