China is pulling out all stops as its capital takes to the world stage as host of the 2008 Olympic games. Since winning the bid seven years ago, Beijing has undergone a construction boom, making this Olympics the world's most expensive games ever, at a cost of $43 billion. This week on 101 East we ask, what does hosting the 2008 Olympics mean for China and its people?
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In 25 years China has been taken from poverty to modernity, the Olympics and the brink of superpower status. But their have been costs - galloping inflation, the world's worst pollution and a social fabric that is showing the stain. This episode of 101 East asks what the future holds for China after the games.
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Islam is still establishing itself in China under beijing's watchful eye and decades have been spent building a fragile trust between the country's Muslims and the Communist central government. People & Power profiles two key Chinese imams who walk a fine line between their followers and the political authorities.
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There are lots of people who don't care if the goods they buy are original or knock-offs, as long as they look like the real thing and they're cheap. After all, what harm can there be in buying a fake designer bag or trainers - all you're doing is denting the profits of the multinational manufacturers. But, as the first of this two-part investigation shows, it goes much deeper than that. For instance, with the counterfeit market now encompassing pharmaceutical drugs, consumers could be damaging themselves, too. Among the more eye-opening revelations is a massive seven-storey shopping mall in China selling nothing but fakes, and a peek into a backstreet factory that manufactures eggs out of industrial chemicals because it's cheaper than keeping real chickens.
Two-part series examining the global industry of fake goods and how luxury brands and large companies are struggling to fight back. The hidden victims of counterfeiting are slaves forced to work in factories, relatives of people who have died after taking fake medicines, and investors and regulators who face death after leading the battle against illegal goods syndicates. The programme also looks at how the internet has led to a rise in the number of fake medicines detected across Britain.
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China has the most sophisticated censorship and internet surveillance in the world. But despite this autocratic control some guerrilla bloggers are still managing to get their message through."The Government always wants to try to act as the cat to control people's access to information but I think the mouse is running faster." This is the voice of Isaac Mao, he was one of China's earliest bloggers, and has learnt how to work the system. "The Chinese government's goal is not to control one hundred percent of what people are doing one hundred percent of the time," if they are too authoritarian, they will be faced with civil unrest. As CNN correspondent Rebecca MacKinnon points out, "to remain in power they want to prevent certain uses of the internet that might lead to overthrow." Journalists like Zhang Shihe work the gaps in the censorship to broadcast their message, " I rely on my instinct. Am I telling the truth or lies? Am I trying to help improve the situation? I know if I can control this, I'll be fine." He regularly films and comments on rural working conditions, and has as yet avoided jail. But his story is not typical. With about 30 known journalists and 50 internet users known to be behind bars, the Committee to Protect Journalists has branded China "the world's leading jailer of journalists."
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Chinese authorities have got a radical weapon against troublemakers: lock them up indefinitely in police-run mental hospitals. Written off as 'dangerously ill', 'patients' are often never seen again.
Zhang, a democratic activist, was abducted by the police and taken to an institution where he's been detained alongside genuine psychopaths. As his sister tried to prove his sanity, it appeared that the motive was his political views. Another victim was incarcerated and force-fed pills for a year after challenging a court ruling. Coming out, she talked to human rights activists: 'What on earth is wrong with me that I must stay with murderers in one cell? Is there a law in this world?' Psychiatrists claim that 'patients' have pathologically distorted views of reality. Anyone opposing the Chinese government must be insane indeed.
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Police in Beijing are racing to rid the streets of so-called troublemakers before the Olympic opening ceremony. Their targets are the law-abiding Chinese who go to Beijing to protest against corruption.
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The young athletes of China have a great opportunity, the chance to win an Olympic medal in their home country. But with great opportunity, comes enormous pressure. The young athletes at No 6 Middleschool in Lanzhou, one of China's poorest provinces, have an exhausting training and school programme. Some students start training from 5:30am and then there are fourteen hours of school programmes per day. Many of the athletes here come from poor farming families. They hope that sport will be their chance not only to compete in the Olympics, but also to have a better future.
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On May 12th an earthquake shook the Sichuan Province. Hundreds of schools collapsed, killing thousands of pupils. Parents are asking why did the schools fall when other buildings withstood the quake?
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ABC's Stephen McDonnell travels to the epicenter of the tragedy, to a city that is no more. He brings back a compelling report that reveals the terrifying scale of the devastation.
As disaster struck, Yingxiu became a mountain of rubble overnight. Thousands of people, including many children have been trapped under ruins for days. Lack of means has hindered rescue efforts, leaving many survivors helpless and frustrated. For locals 'the only future...is to bulldoze everything and start from scratch'. A powerful eye-witness account from the heart of this tragedy.
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It was the most ambitious building project ever attempted in the history of mankind. And its story has been almost impossible to tell - until now. Based on astonishing new archaeological finds and extraordinary first-person accounts, Great Wall of China tells the story of one of the greatest wonders the world has ever known.
It's more than 3,000 miles in length and was built in just 20 years by a workforce of nearly two million using technology and construction techniques that continue to inspire awe even today. The story of its building, one of human drama, labour and loss, is told in this film through three individuals, each one central to the tale. Thirteen-year-old Emperor Muzong, whose Kingdom is pushed to the brink of destruction by invading Mongolian warriors, demands that a wall be built that can never be breached again. General Qi Jiguang, a military hero and engineering genius, is tasked with overseeing the largest workforce ever assembled on earth. And Zhou Li, an ordinary soldier, is forced to work in conditions of unimaginable hardship but ultimately finds sanctuary and peace in the shadow of this great wall.
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A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze, navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." In the biggest engineering endeavour since the Great Wall, China has set out to harness the Yangtze with the world's largest mega-dam. Meanwhile at the river's edge Yu Shui says goodbye to her family and turns to face the future. From their small patch of land, her parents watch the young woman walk away, her belongings clutched in a plastic shopping bag. The waters are rising.
The Three Gorges Dam, gargantuan and hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle, provides the epic and unsettling backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic and disquieting feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream. Stunningly photographed and beautifully composed, Up the Yangtze juxtaposes the poignant and sharply observed details of Yu Shui's story against the monumental and ominous forces at work all around her.
Recent unrest in Tibet has once again raised questions about media freedom in China. The gulf between Western perceptions of this developing superpower and China's desire to control the message now seems bigger than ever.
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The US economy is facing the prospect of a recession, with the sub-prime credit crunch adding to its problems. But many analysts are looking to China to pick up the global economic slack. China's phenomenal expansion in the last 25 years, with current growth roaring ahead at more than ten per cent annually, has raised hopes that its strength could insulate Asia from the weakening American economy. That has not been an entirely painless process; inflation on the mainland has been climbing, with many ordinary Chinese suffering as the cost of staple foods and goods soar.
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Every year, 3000 Tibetan refugees risk death from the weather and border guards as they flee China across snow covered passes in the Himalayas to Nepal.
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Part 1 tells stories and reports on the conditions back in the villages where many migrant laborers come from. We are given insights into the conditions that catalyze the decisions for migrant laborers to move to the city, and what happens to families as a result.
Part 2 shows a bit of the underbelly of Shanghai. for many of Shanghai’s 6 million migrants, equality is something of a dream. For many of these 6 million, they work day and night doing jobs the native Shanghaiese would never do. Their kids go to substandard schools, and there are few safety nets. Without the migrant labor there would be no Shanghai, no Beijing, no economic miracle...
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This film is being brought to television as a result of a BBC/British Film Institute co-production. A recently restored treasure-trove of colour films from the 1940s and 1950s provides the core of this astonishing film, which allows us to see what Tibet was like before its brutal occupation by China. As members of the aristocracy and the Tibetan government in exile recall, the Tibetans world revolved around a series of colourful religious festivals, taking up 68 days of the year. In The Great Prayer Festival, monks take over from the government for a few days and, whilst ceremoniously whipping their subjects, impose fines for such offences as singing in public or having a dirty house. The film includes a revealing interview with the Dalai Lama, who reminisces about how much he missed his mother and his envy for his brother who got to play with all his toys.
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According to Old Tibetan law, Tibetans were divided into 3 categories, each was further divided into 3 classes. The Pala Villa owners´ wealth was beyond imagination. His house had about 1,000 rooms, in which there were 50 servants. His family also had 6 other estates in Tibet, and over 50 people to manage the estate. Gesang Quzhen and her mother slept in a room without roof. They were always hungry, but dared not ask for food. Deqing Zhuoma´s family were serves for 4 generations. She was born in a cowshed, and she was the 4th generation serf. Before 1959, there was a practice in Tibet, that is lama service - If a family had two sons, one of them had to be a lama. The basement of the building was a prison, where many cruel and savage ways of punishments were practiced. At meal time, the prisoners were sent to the streets to beg for food. Those who could not get food, would have to go hungry. The streets were full of beggars. Democratic reform was carried out in Tibet, it put an end to the system of feudal serfdom. It turned 1 million tibetan serfs into free men.
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Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born in Daktse Village in Qinghai. He was the son of Tibetan peasants. In every aspect, the Dalai Lama enjoyed the most expensive attention a supreme personality could enjoy in mediaeval Europe. The West has long been interested in Tibet. After living Buddha Radeng´s death, Tenzin Gyatso was deeply influenced by the thoughts of "independence". The indication from the Angel was the 16-year-old Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso should lead. Dalai Lama began his political career then. In Zhongnanhai, the Dalai Lama met Chairman Mao for the first time. In 1956, General Chen Yi arrived in Lhasa, leading a delegation from the central government. The US started deeping their hands directly into Tibetan affairs. In 1959, the Dalai Lama and his followers openly announced "Tibetan independence".
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China's CCTV-9 broadcasts a fifteen minute´s documentary on the riot happened in Lhasa, Tibet on March 14th at 22:00 Beijing time on March 20th.
The video shows the criminal acts of beatings, vandalism, looting and burning, plotted by the "Dalai Clique" in Lhasa, March 14, 2008.
The riots in Lhasa last Friday are the most serious incident in the region for decades. Local residents are still reeling from the aftershock, even as they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. In the following documentary, we look back at the events to see how they've impacted the people in Tibet.
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There are 75,000 children in China orphaned by AIDS (2004). In Yingzhou District, impoverished farmers sell their blood for 53 yuan (slightly less than $7) and some cake. The plasma is removed from the blood, and the remainder re-injected into the donors, so that they can recover quicker to donate again. Infected blood has given AIDS to 10% of the population of some villages.
The Blood of Yingzhou District chronicles the lives of several orphans: and also documents the efforts of Chinese and foreign relief workers to help the children, even though the challenge appears overwhelming.
Newsnight's Tim Whewell reports on China's multi-billion pound aid for minerals deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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A timely report on life in Tibet under Chinese occupation as Tash Despa returns to his homeland after eleven years in exile, accompanied by award-winning director Jezza Neumann. For three months the pair risked imprisonment and deportation as they tried to uncover the true extent of the so-called 'cultural genocide' described by the Dalai Lama. Their film reveals that the nomadic existence of native Tibetans is being eradicated and that freedom of expression is increasingly tightly policed.
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Unaccompanied by Chinese authorities for the first time, BBC cameras offer an insight into the daily lives of Tibetans and reveal the significance of Buddhism within society.
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China's economy is, by any measure, a success story. Eleven per cent economic growth, rising wealth even among the poor and it's all set to be showcased spectacularly at the Olympics. Amid the celebrations, it's hardly been acknowledged that this is the 50th anniversary of the Great Leap Forward - Chairman Mao's failed attempt to modernise China the first time round. In Paul Mason's powerful presentation on China he asks what few in that country's media are prepared to: What are the parallels between then and now? We'll also be getting Lord Patten's analysis of how China is faring economically. Fifty years on from Mao's Great Leap Forward, BBC Newsnight's Paul Mason finds a country haunted by fears of a financial bubble, environmental disaster and struggling to come terms with the political injustices of half a century ago.
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Angry workers in China are defying government orders and taking to the streets to protest about mass redundancies and corruption.
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Santa's Workshop takes you to the real world of China's toy factories. Workers tell us about long working hours, low wages, and dangerous work places. Those who protest or try to organize trade unions risk imprisonment. Low labour costs attract more and more companies to China. Today more than 75% of our toys are made in China. But this industry takes its toll on the workers and on the environment.
The European (and American) buyers blame bad conditions on the Chinese suppliers. But they say that increasingly hard competition gives them no option. Who should we believe? And what can you do to bring about a fairer and more humane toy trade?
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Cars are racing into China, supercharging its economy and delivering dreams of a better life. But cars are now clogging highways and spewing out clouds of pollution. The rest of the world better watch out, because some Chinese automakers have plans to flood the global market with cheaper models. In the Geely Automotive plant in Ningbo, a worker shares some alone time with his girlfriend in the canteen after hours before heading back to the dormitory he shares with seven other men. The company's chairman and founder, Li Shufu, welcomes the freshmen at his university in Beijing, who one day will work at Geely and take its products global. David and Vivian Ren shop for a car in Beijing, before spending a 12-hour day picking it up, arranging the licence plate and paying for it all with cash. The automobile industry and private car ownership are pivotal to China's economic advancement. Call it a driving dream or a nightmare, this is China's revolution on wheels.
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We examine the rising tensions between Taiwan and China.
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They're on billboards, buses, and benches. China has declared the tech industry its new life blood, and it's making authorities very nervous. Dot com companies have taken over the commercial world in China.
Following in the footsteps of many American companies, dot com companies have invaded commerce in China. They're now fully competitive with Western net stocks. But with hundreds of new websites cropping up every month and the number of websurfers doubling every 6 months, the pressure's on the government to find a way to regulate the internet. Jack Ma is the creator of Alibaba.com, a global on-line marketPlace for small and medium businesses. He's eager to stake his claim in the capital available for fledgeling internet companies. The feasibility of this for Jack lies in the decisions the government makes for regulation of these start-ups. The Chinese government has already blocked some sites, such as those having to do with Tibet. Some are seen as borderline, like the site which helps gay men cope with coming out. They must be very careful not to bend the strict government-imposed rules, or they too will be blocked. As China gets more entrenched in the Capitalist world, we can't help but wonder how long the government will be able to maintain a vice grip on the media.
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Is the world’s last communist state experiencing a rock revolution?
Pirate CDs of Western music have come flooding in. The kids can’t get enough of it but authorities remain unimpressed. 500 soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army were sent to keep watch over the country’s first ever outdoor rock concert in the Yunnan province. The local vice-mayor, Zhang Hongping views the new fashion with suspicion: “When young people hear this kind of very stimulating music they often lose their reason,” However, no matter how hard it tries, the Chinese government will struggle to quell the new tide of rock music that is breaking in China.
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Internationally, the definition for absolute poverty is living on an income of under a dollar a day. But the Chinese Government has a lower threshold for poverty: 66 US cents a day. Out of a total Chinese population of 1.3 billion, there are 42 million Chinese who are poor by this definition. This episode of Life looks at a scheme which is helping poor people, especially women, break out of the cycle of poverty and ignorance - by providing them with small loans, basic health information and education. As described in an earlier programme in this series on micro-credit in Bangladesh, Credit Where Credit's Due, these small loans bring many benefits to family life - and virtually all of them are repaid.
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China’s spectacular economic growth has come at a heavy price. Millions of workers have been crippled in unsafe sweatshops.
Sun Hong Yuan was literally trapped in the wheels of production. “The machine was out of control,” he recalls. “It fell down and crushed me.” Disabled and useless to his employers, he was soon fired. With his future plans in ruin, his one hope is that lawyer Zhou Litai will take on his case and help him win compensation. Zhou Litai has dealt with over a thousand similar cases. He’s become a hero to the working classes by taking on the bosses who run unsafe factories or refuse to pay their workers. “Some entrepreneurs simply seek economic profit,” he explains. “They neglect the protection of workers.” But in a society where challenging the system is highly dangerous, he knows he’s pushing his luck. Officials in a neighbouring city were even planning to run him out of town before media attention gave him a measure of protection. “He’s trying to lure the authorities into addressing this very important issue,” explains NGO worker Nicolas Becquelin. And thanks to his efforts, workers in China are discovering rights they never knew they had.
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Shanghai appears to be an amazing achievement of rapid, planned development -but at what price? We take a look at both the winners and the loser in this city.
In 1993, the East bank of the Pudong river was little more than a giant paddy field. Today it’s full of sprawling foreign managed factories and skyscrapers. The scale of construction has been immense - 2 years ago it was said that Shanghai had one quarter of the world’s construction cranes. This rapid rejuvenation is attracting Chinese from all over the Nation: “The Shanghainese live a very busy life, but they think that Shanghai is the best Place to live in the world,” comments Mary Gu, one of Shanghai’s new arrivals. However, in the rush to build, much of Old Shanghai is being flattened. Anxious residents flock to see the urban planning centre model, hoping to find their own few millimetres still intact. Madam Chen is one of those who has already been displaced. She is finding it hard to survive without the rent from her house: “They told us if they tore down 4 houses, they would give me 4 rooms back. Now my life is hard and difficult. I don’t care how much better Shanghai becomes.” Shanghai may be able to impress international investors, but the benefits offered by the government may take some time to filter down to the losers in their game plan.
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The Shaolin monks are famous worldwide for their Kung-fu. But there are now fears that their fame is corrupting their ancient Xen Buddhist traditions. ‘’They try to trick you and get as much money as possible’’. says one German student. In every surrounding village there are schools and tourist traps cashing in on their celebrity.
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As China begins the process of approving new leaders, we examine the new-look Communist party and ask where its future lies.
China’s modern Communist Party bears little resemblance to the one which rose to power under Chairman Mao. Its new heroes are the very figures he used to fight. Factory owner Zhang Yue is one of the richest men in China. He was a teacher when the government began encouraging workers to start their own businesses. Now, 10 years on, his business empire has an annual turnover of $200 million. Recently, the Communist Party has even been encouraging entrepreneurs like Zhang Yue to become party members: “We see the private entrepreneur as one of the builders of the country’s socialism.” Embracing capitalism with open arms, the Party still insists it is red to the core. But others beg to differ. Dai Qing grew up in a revolutionary family. She believes the heroes of the Long March would be shocked by what the Party has become: “There is no Communist Party at all. Right now, we only have a corrupt party.” The gap between rich and poor is widening. Corruption is rife and popular discontent is growing. Will the Communist Party’s new “re-vamped” image be enough to save it from extinction?
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Disturbing new statistics have shown that women in China are far more likely to commit suicide than their male counterparts. But, as our shocking report on the pressures facing modern-day Chinese women suggests, is it really any surprise?
In a Beijing hospital, a women is undergoing an operation. After sawing her leg bones in two, surgeons start drilling holes through her calves. They then hammer in long, metal pins. The aim is not to correct any illness or deformity, but rather to stretch the woman’s legs by 8 cm, thereby making her taller and more attractive. These days, the dull conformity of socialist dogma has all but disappeared, to be replaced by a kaleidoscope of Western-style consumerism. It’s a world where appearance is becoming all-important, where many will go to painful extremes to become something they’re not. It’s a time of breathtaking change in the world’s most populous country. But for China’s women, it seems they have merely exchanged one set of shackles for another.
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The Uighur separatist movement of China’s far western Xinjiang province wants an Islamic state, to be called East Turkestan.
China claims thousands of Uighurs have received training in Afghanistan and have links to Osama Bin Laden. It’s detained thousands of Uighurs since September 11th and torture is allegedly widespread. Muslim clerics have been sent in droves for ‘re-education’. Amnesty International claims “the current campaign is essentially a campaign against dissent and opposition”. But Xinjiang’s Communist party secretary retorts “Amnesty International is prejudiced.” He also makes clear “There’s no room for negotiation. China is a unified country”. Separatist bombings and riots have rocked Xinjiang since the 1980’s, but there have been no serious attacks since 1997 - although Uighur separatists were linked to the recent death of a senior Chinese diplomat in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. It seems the ‘war on terror’ is a pretext for a war on freedom… On the first official media visit to the province in two years, the filmmakers are prevented from talking to ordinary Uighurs, trailed and filmed at every turn, shown a ‘model mosque’ and a ‘model village’. But under the cover of darkness, brave individuals speak out: “Work all day and starve. That’s why people stir up trouble… they all want independence, but don’t have the power to achieve it”. A massive influx of Han Chinese to work on a 4,000km gas pipeline has fuelled Uighur unemployment and done more to fuel resentment than any foreign fanatics.
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More than a decade after the fall of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European communist regimes, the international communist movement has been spurned worldwide. The demise of the Chinese Communist Party is only a matter of time.
ChinaDocs Warning: Please be aware that while this is an interesting documentary, it is made by, and therefore biased towards, the Falun Gong movement. Its neutrality is questionable.
Part 1: On What the Communist Party Is ?
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Part 2: On the Beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party
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Part 3: On the Tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party
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Part 4: On How the Communist Party Is an Anti-Universe Force
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Part 5: On the Collusion of Jiang Zemin with the CCP to Persecute Falun Gong
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Part 6: On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
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Part 7: On the Chinese Communist Party’s History of Killing
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Part 8: On How the Chinese Communist Party Is an Evil Cult
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Part 9: On the Unscrupulous Nature of the Chinese Communist Party
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