LCFC (联宝) is officially not a 'dark factory' but a WEF Lighthouse. Fully automated lines run there, and yet 12,000 to 19,000 people work in production.
By Jun Jiang
The difference is in one character: 灯塔 (lighthouse) versus 黑灯 (lights out). Both contain 灯, lamp. Read China with European concepts and you confuse the two, and draw the wrong conclusion about automation and jobs.
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Five steps: market opportunity, technological build-up, scale and chain integration, cost reduction with stable quality, and finally influence over the structure of the market itself.
China exported 25.34 million packaging machines in 2024, up 31.8 percent year on year, worth $4.62 billion.
Chinese pet food grows from $12.7 billion in 2025 to $20.75 billion by 2031. Premium grew 18 to 22 percent in a single year; online is 59 percent of sales.
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