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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