Medical Mecca (2004)

A controversial treatment using the stem cells of aborted foetuses is producing remarkable results. Many desperate patients see it as their only hope.

They come from all over the world in search of miracles. "We heard that people were coming over to China and they were getting better," explains Mike Thomas. "They were walking again, talking again, breathing again." China's lax safety regulations and different ethical considerations have enabled Dr Huang Hongyun to blaze a trail in this field. He is the only doctor in the world to inject stem cells directly into the brains or spinal cords of ALS suffers or paraplegics. His work has turned two pieces of conventional medical wisdom on their head -- that spinal injuries are untreatable and that ALS is impossible to stabilise. For the first time ever, Dr Huang has allowed tv cameras to film the extraordinary surgical procedure. In the words of patient Laura Jackson, "He does miracles here."

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• Medical Mecca - China
  

Electronic Trash in China

Electronic Trash Village - China (2007)

Every year, 35 million tonnes of electronic waste is exported to China to be scrapped. There the rubbish is broken down by hand, poisoning workers and polluting the environment. "Smoke from the computers is too strong to breathe", complains one disposal worker. "I feel dizzy and can't see any more". Many employees at the electronic disposal plant suffer from respiratory illness or skin diseases. They work for ten hours a day, with no protection from the hazardous chemicals.

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• Electronic Trash Village

China's Pollution Busters - China (2007)

In the past six years, infant birth defects in China have increased by an unprecedented 40%. This rise is being blamed on pollution from factories. Now green campaigners are taking on the multinationals.

"The untreated waste is pumped out secretly at night", states activist Wu Deng Ming, pointing at a water outlet leading from a factory into a river. "People living along the river have enlarged livers", claims one local. They suffer from: "loss of appetite or cancer and all sorts of terminal diseases". Although strong laws governing pollution exist, these are regularly flouted. "Some local officials give protection to polluters", claims Ma Jun. In an attempt to put pressure on polluters, campaigners are naming and shaming guilty companies online. "We let people know that this company, with such a popular brand, is violated waste water discharge standards". There are also signs that central government is taking the problem more seriously. "The state is very serious about environmental problems", states official Zhou Linbo. Some factories have been closed down. But strong resistance to change still exists. "Polluting factories hire hooligans to deal with people they believe will damage their reputation", claims Wu Deng Ming. Other companies threaten to relocate to Vietnam or Indonesia where; "we can still discharge more of less freely".

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• China's Pollution Busters
  

Production Line to Picket Line (2009)

Computers, clothes and toys once poured off China's production lines, destined for the West. Now the factories are closed, millions are out of work and Chinese officials fear serious political unrest.

All of the orders vanished' says Tanley, the owner of a toy factory in Dong Guan, known as 'the factory of the world'. He's seen factory upon factory close since the autumn of last year. Often, owners flee without paying their staff. 'The local government had to pay the workers' Tanley says. For the 30 million Chinese now thought to be unemployed, there is no safety net. But the government is stepping in to control the large protests evolving out of sudden plant closures. 'We all know the workers are working in the worst situation in the world' says radio DJ and former Tiananmen Square protester, Han. But he believes the crisis has forced the government to address labour rights. 'It's a bad image to arrest workers for going on strike for legal payment - they don't want to exacerbate the tensions' he says. It's 60 years since the communists came to power and 20 years since the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Now at the sharp end of this economic crisis, the government is doing everything it can to prevent a revolt. 'This is progress in the absence of genuine democracy, a more tolerant authoritarian regime.'

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• Production Line to Picket Line
  

China Slowdown (2009)

Chinas economy is in danger. We travel to Dongguan, the Southern market city known as the workshop of the world to discover just how the global financial crisis is bringing down the Asian Giant.

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• China Slowdown
  

Reds Go Green (2009)

Meet the F3 the electric-powered car of the future made in China. Keen to reduce its choking emissions and limit its dependence on oil, China is spearheading new clean energy technologies.

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• Reds Go Green - China
  

Demolition Dissidents (2009)

Economic development and the 2008 Olympics gave Beijing an amazing facelift. But when many Beijing residents were forced to evict their homes they were left struggling and angry at the political system.

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• Demolition Dissidents - China
  

Uighur Dilemma (2009)

Ever since the violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, a fear of fanaticism has taken hold. Is the government's decision to demolish the Uighur area Kashgar really due to an earthquake threat?

Kashgar is a cultural icon. Parts of the city have stood for 2000 years and within its labyrinth, Uighur traditions are unchanged. 'We live as we did in the old times' says Tursun, a 6 generation pot thrower. But times are changing. Beijing's deputy mayor has announced that destruction of the old town is the only way to prepare for an earthquake threat.

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• Uighur Dilemma - China

The Great Firewall of China (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - The Great Firewall of China
  

Troublemakers Are Insane (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - Troublemakers Are Insane
  

China's Foul Play (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - China's Foul Play
  

China's Young Athletes (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - China's Young Athletes
  

The Day The Schools Fell Down (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - The Day The Schools Fell Down
  

Quake (2008)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - Quake
  

The New Workers Revolt (2003)

Angry workers in China are defying government orders and taking to the streets to protest about mass redundancies and corruption.

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• Journeyman Pictures - The New Workers Revolt
  

In China's Shadow - Taiwan (1999)

We examine the rising tensions between Taiwan and China.

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• Journeyman Pictures - In China's Shadow - Taiwan
  

China.com (2000)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - China.com
  

China Rocks (2004)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - China Rocks
  

Because they're worth it (2003)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - Because they're worth it
  

Cost of Capitalism (2004)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - Cost of Capitalism
  

Rebuilding Shanghai (2001)

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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• Journeyman Pictures - Rebuilding Shanghai