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China's Capitalist Revolution (2)

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Subjects: Anthropology, Asian Studies, History, International Relations, International Trade, Political Science

Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No

Running Time: 2x50 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No

Copyright Date: 2009
Available in French: No

When Chairman Mao died in 1976, hardliners were determined to continue the Cultural Revolution, driving the middle classes out to work in primitive agriculture. But party member Deng Xiaoping - a former key ally of Mao, but later a critic - thought their policy was mad. China's food production had collapsed and its industry was on its knees. With the help of Politburo colleagues, Deng encouraged the peasants to take back their plots from the communes. He set up New Economic Zones which brought in Western technology and investment and allowed China to produce goods for export. This set the country on course to become one of the fastestgrowing economies in the world.

A decade after the reforms, Deng's legacy was damaged by the brutality of Tiananmen Square. Unemployment, corruption and profiteering provoked demonstrations. Deng did not give up. Right up into his late 80s and early 90s, Deng kept campaigning for economic reform, declaring that without foreign investment and private enterprise, the Chinese communist state would collapse. He died in 1997 - but not before seeing his country firmly established as the fastest growing economy and the principal challenger to the United States.

Featuring interviews with Chinese government officials, entrepreneurs, workers who helped engineer Deng's reforms and with the ordinary citizens whose lives were changed by them, this programme tells the story of China's transformation into an economic superpower - while remaining still, nominally, communist.