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.
Episodes in Season 52
Revolution in the Classroom
45 min
The Comeback Kid?
45 min
Syria Exposed
45 min
Given or Taken?
45 min
Closing Ranks
45 min
Dicing with Debt
45 min
Egypt: Children of the Revolution
45 min
The Fastest Changing Place on Earth
45 min
Without Consent
45 min
Happy Banking
45 min
Blood and Honour
45 min
The Killer Within
45 min
The Mormon Candidate
45 min
Judgement Day
45 min
Hard Knocks
45 min
Madeleine McCann The Last Hope
45 min
Casualties of the Boom
45 min
Smugglers Paradise
45 min
The Great Euro Crash
45 min
WikiLeaks - The Forgotten Man
45 min
Gina Rinehart - The Power Of One
45 min
Unholy Silence
45 min
The Price Of Pearls
45 min
Opium Brides
45 min
Sex, Lies And Julian Assange
45 min
A Matter Of Life And Death
45 min
Inside Mail
45 min
The Body Snatchers
45 min
Koala Crunch Time
45 min
The Autism Enigma
45 min
Crash Landing
45 min
There is No 3G in Heaven
45 min
The Hunt for Joseph Kony
45 min
Growing Up Poor
45 min
Taxing Times in Timor
45 min
The Battle for Syria
45 min
The World According to Lance
45 min
The Super Trawler
45 min
Rise of the Superbugs
45 min
Another Bloody Business
45 min
The Other Side of Jimmy Savile
45 min
