Hello, I’m Zhan Qingyun.

The documentary American Factory has recently become a major talking point. Promoted as the Obamas’ first documentary, it swept through social media. A closer look reveals that it has little to do with Obama, but despite that faint whiff of misleading advertising, I sincerely recommend it. It is genuinely fascinating.

I have seen Da Zhang and many others write about the film. I also plan to invite my friend Pang Ying back for another debate and discuss our views of it.

Today, as a preview—and to keep closely to our legal theme—I will introduce some relevant legal background that may leave viewers curious after watching.

I do not know how many of you have already seen it; those who have need no recap. I do not want to spoil much for those who have not. In brief, the documentary follows Fuyao Group, the Chinese company led by Cao Dewang, as Fuyao Glass opens a factory in Ohio in 2015.

Ohio lies in America’s famous Rust Belt, which runs west from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Indiana to Michigan and Illinois around the Great Lakes. Once the heartland of American heavy industry, it declined—and ‘rusted’—along with U.S. manufacturing.

The film opens with footage from another documentary showing General Motors closing its local plant and leaving thousands of industrial workers unemployed, until Fuyao arrived. Because American saving rates are low, some people sold homes and cars; one woman lived in her sister’s basement, and some temporarily lost their sense of purpose.

When Fuyao first moved in, local industrial workers welcomed the new factory with excitement. Many became friends with the Chinese workers and managers sent far from home. Chinese employees visited American homes and tried shooting; Americans got to know their new Chinese colleagues. At first, everyone seemed to be enjoying a harmonious, win-win arrangement.

Over time, however, cultural differences—and differences between Chinese and American workers—quickly surfaced. The plant remained unprofitable. Chinese managers blamed American workers for a poor attitude, slow work, excessive chatting, and low efficiency.

American workers complained that the Chinese owners and managers, as well as the local American managers they hired, did not respect labor. Pay was lower than at their former GM jobs, breaks were shorter, and safety measures were inadequate in many respects.