PBS Documentary : China from the Inside (Power and the People)

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It isn't easy, running China, with its 1.3 billion people and 56 officially recognized ethnic nationalities. It's a vast mix of languages, living standards, beliefs and customs. Run it successfully, and you have a prosperous, innovative, powerful empire to rival any the world has seen. Make mistakes, and the chaos will be vast and terrible.
China is run by the Communist Party, which bases its legitimacy on delivering both stability and the conditions for prosperity. But stability is under threat as economic boom strands millions at the margin. Meanwhile rampant corruption is sapping people's trust in the Party. Officials are increasingly seen not as public servants but as profiteers.

This episode films patrols along China's border with Kazakhstan, Party meetings, officials in Tibet trying to impose authority at the grass-roots, a village election, and a corrupt embezzler in prison, reprieved from a death sentence. Chinese people throughout, from farmer to Minister, speak frankly about the problems the country faces and the ways forward.
The Party attracts eager young recruits and is trying to re-invigorate its older members. They visit sites of communist achievement, like the Red Flag Canal, hoping to be inspired by the revolutionary zeal of the past. "If all Communist officials today were like those who built this," one Party member exclaims, "the Communist Party would rule forever."

Since 1987, village elections have been part of political life in rural areas. Elections were introduced to cities later. To westerners, the idea of "democracy" in a communist country might seem disingenuous at best, a sham at worst. As Suzanne Ogden, a professor at Northeastern University, a research associate at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies and author of Inklings of Democracy in China (Harvard University Press), explains, local elections play an important role in engaging everyday people in decisions that affect their community. In villages run by clans, illegal societies, or corrupt officials, however, voting simply reinforces long-standing power structures.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Documentary Film
• China
• China from the Inside
• ethnic diversity of China
• PBS documentary
• Communism
• one party system
• dictatorship in China
• Chinese communism
• China:power and the people
• civil liberties in China
• Communist party of China
• Maoism
• Mao Zedong
• Republic Of China
• Mobilization of the Masses
• Chinese Nationalism
• Chinese elections
• Documentary about China
• Chinese Superpower
• Full length documentary

[DrNaturalPhenomena]

@sfsd911 So China is the only country in the world with death on their hands? Breaking "international laws" created by the US to control? Using propaganda and lies to go to war? Stealing?

You seriously believe China is the only country? Well, then I feel rather sorry for you, you are living in a fictional world.

So British superpower came from peace? The americans didn't slaughter 80% of the native population to steal their land? The US isn't manipulating the people to stay in power?

[energyalt56]

this is like 10 years ago

[abcdef123180]

@YuDumPhuck do you mean in China the poor want domocracy and the rich want communism?

[TheBrolit]

@PRINCECOUNTYBEATS Maybe America does, but the US doesn't. It would be better to worry about domestic issues in the US than to worry about China. The majority of the people of China think positive of the government and reforms are being implemented gradually.

[PRINCECOUNTYBEATS]

@china2050 its funny that you think that your government is 5000 years old. America has a history that far too, just less walls and less Mongolians. I dont understand the rest of your idiotic paragraph, just know that your china that is oppressing, executing, censoring, and enslaving its people will be overthrown way before America. and no cheers to you, go die commie

[forestpump]

I'm confused how can they be communist if they have a monetary system? Overall there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between that and capitalism, all the money is going to the ruling class, i like the atheism policy though.

[China2050]

@PRINCECOUNTYBEATS It's so funny to compare a country with 5000 years history with a country with 300 years! outlast what? 200 years ago, before we China fucked by western, we also think we are no.1 in this ever changing world. Just like any empire in history, America is declining. Cheers!

[ucheHapers]

am not Chinese but this documentary is just crap , its not objective, it promotes western ideals which is not perfect and those not promote the success of the chinese people: time would tell !!!

[u2hubbard]

@YuDumPhuck The rich cannot be in communism. Other wise they wouldnot be rich.

[Teletubbiez]

@YuDumPhuck LIke USA?

[minkope10]

I couldnt finish this vid, im of Native America ancestry and to listen to those 2 female shop owners really angered me, using that type of uneducated, arrogant speech, calling them "savages".

[walteriko]

@PRINCECOUNTYBEATS i agree, most products used in the world are made from america anyways and they are way cheaper than china.