Episode 2
Michael Robinson returns to China to assess the prospects and problems of a non-democratic, state-planned China versus Western democracy and free market ideology.
"China," Napoleon is believed to have once said, "is a sleeping giant. When she awakes, she will shake the world."
China endured decades of occupation, division and international isolation since that 19th century warning. When it finally opened to the rest of the world, foreign money and expertise flooded in.
Now - little more than a generation later - China is poised to overtake Japan to become the world's second largest economy. Its unprecedented growth in exports has left it holding more foreign currency than any other nation - financial power which China is beginning to use to challenge the US dollar's long-standing dominance as the medium of international trade.
This documentary series examines the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of China's growing global influence. Michael Robinson, who documented China's awakening for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ almost 20 years ago, returns to assess the prospects and problems of the unrelenting shift of power from West to East.
In the second part of this series, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Michael Robinson looks at the potentially world-shaking clash of cultures between non-democratic, state-planned China and the American-centred world of democracy and free market ideology.
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- Mon 31 Jan 2011 09:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Mon 31 Jan 2011 12:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Mon 31 Jan 2011 15:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Mon 31 Jan 2011 20:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Tue 1 Feb 2011 01:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Sat 5 Feb 2011 10:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Mon 7 Feb 2011 03:05GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online