Abstract:

"From fledgling cottage industries to the Shanghai stock market, China represents a unique blend of communism and capitalism. This program studies that phenomenon by examining how the Chinese themselves are adapting to the quasi-free market system. Chinese economic modernization is studied at a shoe factory, where communist worker ideals and capitalist goals coexist. In the largest migration in history, 90 million rural Chinese have moved to cities in search of jobs, a better life, and a larger slice of the capitalist pie, only to find the gap between rich and poor widening each day. Corruption, say many, is rampant. The issue of how these trends will eventually affect China's stability is examined. A BBC Production."