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How China Got Rich

1 x 56 HD
Broadcaster:  Tencent

Over the last forty years China has been transformed out of all recognition. China’s decision to open up to the world has been called ‘the most important event of modern world history’, one in which America played a crucial role. So how did an impoverished communist country become an engine of global capitalism, and what actually happened forty years ago and how did China do it?

 

Michael Wood talks to the men and women who had been sent to be 're-educated' on farms and in factories; the farmers who defied the government and broke with communism; the woman given the very first private business certificate; and the US technical advisor sent to China by the UN to kickstart the change. He travels across the country to meet China’s highest ranking female diplomat and the people who worked with Premier Deng Xiaoping. The film mixes these testimonies with fascinating archive of  the Chinese leader meeting President Carter in Washington and on fact finding missions in in Japan and Singapore.

 

In this film Michael Wood tracks the beginning of their meteoric rise, looks at the extraordinary scale of present day developments and asks both Chinese and US experts for clues to the future. With extraordinary access to key witnesses this timely and important film tells the story of How China Got Rich. 

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