Four Corners - Season 52 Episode 8 The Fastest Changing Place on Earth
Reported by Carrie Gracie and presented by Kerry O'Brien
The story of modern China told through the eyes of the villagers forced to sell their homes and give up their land to make way for massive urban development. Naturally they are outraged and fearful. Some say they will not bow to the will of the Government, while others ultimately embrace the opportunity to make a fortune.
This is China as you've never seen it before: the China that's behind Australia's resources boom.
White Horse Village is a tiny farming community deep in rural China. A decade ago, it became part of the biggest urbanisation project in human history that will take half a billion farmers across the country and turn them into city-dwelling consumers. The plan decreed that White Horse Village would grow from several hundred people to a city of 200,000 in under a decade.
There's little doubt China's urbanisation is a massive social and economic gamble but, according to the Government, there's a clear logic. At present, 150 million Chinese living in regional areas must leave their families, travel to the cities to work and send money home to help their children survive and prosper. The social tension this creates is significant. To combat this problem, and to try to spread wealth across the country, the Government's plan is to dot the landscape with thousands of new cities. These centres will have new schools, universities and industrial areas all intended to deliver China a thriving, consuming middle class.
Australia is watching this urbanisation closely. If the gamble pays off, the newly created middle class will continue to drive demand for Australian raw materials and food.
Filmed over the past six years, BBC reporter Carrie Gracie follows the lives of three local villagers during this upheaval. She meets Xiao Zhang, a mother and rice farmer desperate to see her children have a better life; Xie Tingming, an entrepreneur determined to make money and push the development forward; and the local Communist Party Secretary, who is caught between the Party's demands and a way of life that has endured for centuries.
First Air Date: Aug 19, 1961
Last Air date: Nov 04, 2024
Season: 20 Season
Episode: 703 Episode
Runtime: 45 minutes
IMDb: 6.90/10 by 7.00 users
Popularity: 42.451
Language: English
Keyword : investigative journalism
Season
Season 23
Season 44
Season 46
Season 47
Season 49
Season 50
Season 51
Season 52
Season 53
Season 54
Season 55
Season 56
Season 57
Season 58
Season 59
Season 60
Season 61
Season 62
Season 63
Season 64
Episode
Revolution in the Classroom
The Comeback Kid?
Syria Exposed
Given or Taken?
Closing Ranks
Dicing with Debt
Egypt: Children of the Revolution
The Fastest Changing Place on Earth
Without Consent
Happy Banking
Blood and Honour
The Killer Within
The Mormon Candidate
Judgement Day
Hard Knocks
Madeleine McCann The Last Hope
Casualties of the Boom
Smugglers Paradise
The Great Euro Crash
WikiLeaks - The Forgotten Man
Gina Rinehart - The Power Of One
Unholy Silence
The Price Of Pearls
Opium Brides
Sex, Lies And Julian Assange
A Matter Of Life And Death
Inside Mail
The Body Snatchers
Koala Crunch Time
The Autism Enigma
Crash Landing
There is No 3G in Heaven
The Hunt for Joseph Kony
Growing Up Poor
Taxing Times in Timor
The Battle for Syria
The World According to Lance
The Super Trawler
Rise of the Superbugs
Another Bloody Business
The Other Side of Jimmy Savile