"They refer
to us as the foreigners," says a downbeat employee at the Ohio car glass
factory where hundreds of Chinese laborers have come to work, far from their
wives, children and homeland.  But the
worker in question is American, not Chinese, and is finding life very different
under new management after billionaire "Chairman Cao" swept into town
to reopen the shuttered, iconic former General Motors factory in 2014. This is
"reverse globalization," say Oscar-nominated directors Steven Bognar
and Julia Reichert, who filmed the GM plant's closure in 2008 and returned to
chronicle its reopening by Fuyao corporation for the documentary "American
Factory."

The film charts a
Midwestern rust belt community's journey from optimism at the giant plant's
reopening-bringing back vital jobs-toward creeping anger and disillusionment as
the Chinese management imposes its strict, exhausting demands on workers and
sacks those who don't comply. The all-access look at how both American and
Chinese workers, from blue-collar to management, had their lives transformed by
powerful global economic forces caught the eyes of none other than Barack and
Michelle Obama.

The former first
couple acquired "American Factory" at January's Sundance Festival,
and will release it on Netflix and in select theaters from August 21 as the
first offering from their Higher Ground Productions company. "Mrs Obama
said it resonated with her because her father had done an intense, hardworking
job for decades just to provide for his family, and she felt the Midwesterness
of the film in what she saw on screen," Bognar told AFP. "She felt
her own family in the film, and I think the President felt there was a certain
amount of policy issues and big broad globalization" themes in the
documentary, added Reichert.

'Cultural chasm'

The battle for
economic supremacy between the US and a rising China is perhaps the defining
geopolitical story of the 21st century. The filmmakers set out to understand
what that rivalry looks like on a human level, and were granted extraordinary
access by Fuyao founder and chairman Cao Dewang, who was as interested in
bridging the cultural divide and showcasing Chinese capitalism as making a
profit. "The chairman's a maverick-he's very much his own person, an
independent self-made business guy," said Bognar.

"He'd seen
our earlier film and liked it, and so he took a chance on us," he added,
referring to 2009's "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant." In the
new documentary's early scenes, genuine attempts by the US and Chinese workers
to bond with their new colleagues, including fishing and shooting lessons and
shared Thanksgiving dinners, appear to bear some fruit. But as the new Chinese
owners become alarmed by heavy financial losses, they fire the American middle
managers and increasingly invoke their Chinese replacements' sense of
nationalistic pride to spur harder work, leaving the workforce ever-more
divided.

Despite promises,
wages remain frozen far below those of the GM era, while workers' attempts to
unionize and confront slipping safety standards are aggressively shut down from
above. "The cultural chasm was wider than people anticipated," said
Bognar, noting that the new Chinese owners felt equally baffled and let down by
the attitudes of US workers. "To their credit, as the pressure mounted
they did not kick us out, they certainly could have kicked us out at any
point," he added.

'Sense of unease'

While the factory
in Moraine, Ohio is of symbolic significance due to its size and legacy, it is
not unique-Chinese-owned factories are now abundant across the American South
and Midwest. Like Fuyao, many are housed in the same buildings formerly shut
down by American bosses who shipped jobs overseas to Mexico and elsewhere.
"You're getting a slice of what globalization really looks like on a human
level," said Reichert, adding: "I think the film leaves you with a
sense of unease."

Nobody has tapped
into that disquiet better than President Donald Trump, whose 2016 victory was
built on successes in Ohio and nearby Michigan and Wisconsin. For Ohio-based
Reichert and Bognar, who have spent years interviewing blue-collar workers,
that result was no surprise. "We saw that coming, being in Ohio-the enthusiasm,
the yard signs," said Reichert. "Hillary Clinton was not well
liked."

Trump promised
the region's laid-off workers they would get back their jobs. Earlier this
year, another enormous GM factory in nearby Lordstown, Ohio became the latest
to close. But in a strange quirk, even as Chinese investment in the US has
plummeted by over 80 percent under Trump's tariff war, jobs like those provided
by Fuyao have become an important lifeline. - AFP