The long and hard road to economic self-reliance

Although China is known as the world's factory, it has found it difficult to maintain that status for several reasons. The biggest challenge has been to find a new growth model that does not rely too much on domestic manufacturing and instead focuses more on overseas expansion.

Africa, with its rich pool of natural resources and with the great strides it is making industrially, appears to be the best destination for Chinese companies to achieve such a transformation. What makes this so fascinating is that China's disadvantages - a lack of natural resources and rising labor costs - are Africa's advantages.

Africa, the raw materials warehouse of the world, has virtually every material crucial to industrialization. It has a rich pool of young people, who form the basis of an abundant labor resource, and it has a strong desire to escape the clutches of poverty and backwardness through industrialization.