President João Lourenço sees himself as an Angolan Deng Xiaoping

AN INDUSTRIAL ZONE should be a noisy place. At the Zona Económica Especial (ZEE), a Manhattan-sized plot near Luanda, Angola’s capital, the only sound is birdsong. “My boss said to only show you the factories that are working,” a guide tells your correspondent. Yet all is not well at a handpicked pipe manufacturer. It operates at 10% capacity. Power has just gone out, so unfinished tubes droop out of machines, like saggy wizard sleeves. “Would you like to take a photo of a worker pretending to use the machine?” asks the guide.