After decades of explosive growth fueled by cheap exports, China’s economic slowdown is taking a toll on factory workers who’ve found themselves left behind.
Ma Xinqing and Wang Dishan each spent 20 years working at a machine factory in Tengzhou, an industrial city in the northern province of Shandong.
The industrial plant closed earlier this year. Today, they are are the only remaining employees on site, working as security guards. The rest were laid off or transferred.
They spend their days walking amongst silent, empty factory buildings. Leftover pieces of machinery are piled up, collecting dust. Weeds are slowly taking over.
“The two of us are looking after the place. We watch the factory,” Ma says.
“The space has been cleared and now they are seeing if other people will rent it. The business was not good.”
Factory hand to farmer
Before economic reforms several decades ago led to robust Chinese industrialization, Ma and Wang were farmers.
They became part of China’s massive army of low wage laborers — who’ve long been the backbone of the Chinese economy.
“It feels like we’ve been left behind by the main troops, like we can’t catch up with the main troops any more,” Ma says.
Now, once again, the men find themselves tending crops. They grow fruits and vegetables on the factory premises.
“We are bored,” Ma says. “We do this when we’ve got nothing else to do.”
These 65-year-old factory workers aren’t sure where they fit in China’s “new normal.”
Manufacturing activity at Chinese factories has fallen to levels last seen during the 2009 financial crisis, according to a key gauge.
The world’s second largest economy is still growing but traditional factories pumping out cheap exports are no longer a booming business model.
The go-go years of double-digit growth are over. As demand for China-made exports drops, there are growing calls for greater innovation and efficiency.
Increasing international competition is pushing many Chinese factories to modernize and specialize.
In June, Beijing announced “Made in China 2025,” a plan to upgrade China’s manufacturing sector to keep pace with global competition.
Empty factories have become a familiar sight in many cities like Tengzhou, considered a “small” industrial city by Chinese standards even though it has a population of 1.5 million.
Shifting gears
The world’s second largest economy is growing at a pace of around 7%, the lowest level in a quarter century according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Some observers question if that number is inflated.
But in China’s lower tier cities, many acutely feel the effects of a downshifting economy.
Many small business owners at a marketplace near some of the closed Tengzhou factories wonder if they’ll be able to stay open.
Wang Changmei, who runs a small noodle stand, says two thirds of her customers are gone.
“Of course I’m worried. I’m barely getting by,” she says.