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Just came out of an LED panel factory in Guangzhou. Most notable thing after having toured European manufacturers for over a month last year: Nobody minded us taking pictures. In western factories that's taboo, because nobody wants any information about how they produce circulating. I asked the production manager why they don't care here. His answer: "You can see how we do it, but each of these machines costs ¥3m (~€400k) and we run dozens of them." The moat is capital. There's also a default assumption that everything gets copied anyway, so nobody builds their business on production secrets. Another big reason is that showing the line is marketing. About 95% of companies selling LED panels here are trading companies. Middlemen = somebody's taking a cut = you're paying a bad price. Letting you see the factory proves they actually produce, shows the quality of the components, and signals you're getting a fair price. Same with privacy. In Europe, filming workers beyond their hands is a no-go. Here people glanced up at three people filming them and continued working. Try that in a Bavarian SME. Some numbers: > 95% automated: that means machines assemble 95% of components, humans 5% > Factory runs 24/7 on two 12-hour shifts. In Europe this would be 3x 8h > 60h weeks, two days off, just not always the weekend > Guangdong minimum wage is ¥2,680 (€360) per month, so ~€1.40/hour > Employer cost is ¥4,100 though and employee pays ¥700 in taxes. Those are all pension and social contributions. There's no income tax on salaries below ¥5,000 The owner is called Cha-Ming, so he goes by Charming for foreigners. He definitely enjoys leaning into this name for branding.