| Précis | To many of us, China looms large and scary. It can smash our prosperity if it stops buying our minerals or our meat. It projects belligerence and militancy by building islands in waters claimed by other countries. |
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| At least that's a view from the outside looking in. But what do China's own people think about where their country is going? What do they make of their leader Xi Jinping and his economic reforms, his quashing of dissent and his drive against corruption? |
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| China correspondent Stephen McDonell takes the pulse of the world's most populous nation through the lives of seven people in a single city, the old capital Nanjing. |
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| "Every official has shit on his arse. None of them are clean" - the cynical former state prosecutor |
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| "They want to tear down our house and confiscate our land" - the mother-to-be fighting eviction by developers |
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| "President Xi has taken down lots of bad guys. He's a man of action" - the university student |
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| "The Communist Party has to loosen its grip because it's the trend of history. (It) hates me doing this." - the former TV journalist who now tells dissidents' stories |
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| "Just 15 years ago there wasn't a single Chinese company that could have developed a mobile phone" - the software entrepreneur who's grown his company from 10 staff to more than 2000 |
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| "We're now in a better place" - the young environmental activist who names and shames big polluters |
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| "We should unite with the common people of Japan" - the elderly Xia Shuqin, who was eight years old when she was stabbed by invading Japanese in the "Rape of Nanking" |
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| Sunrise over city Super: NANJING, CHINA Super: TALES OF A CITY | Music | 00:00 |
| High-speed/slow down subway shots, people shots/traffic etc Super: Correspondent |
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| MCDONELL: China is in flux yet again. | 00:22 |
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| Music | 00:25 |
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| MCDONELL: For years, the path to prosperity here seemed clear, with more freedom on the way as well. Yet nobody. | 00:30 |
| Newspapers with President Xi Jinping/Dissenter trials | saw President Xi Jinping coming. This son of a revolutionary hero has taken a sword to the political elite, smashed dissent and the economy is heading in a completely new direction - | 00:39 |
| Woman crying at protest | many Chinese are now wondering just where their country is heading | 00:53 |
| Nanjing skyline | Music | 01:04 |
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| MCDONELL: How do you take the pulse of such a vast populous nation | 01:09 |
| McDonell to camera on Nanjing city wall | with its ever more powerful leader moulding it to his liking? Well we're going to try and do it through the experiences of those living in just one city - Nanjing. If the emerging China is going to work it has to work here in this growing, affluent, former capital which has plenty of problems, but which could become the very model of | 01:13 |
| Nanjing subway/traffic | a modern Chinese city. | 01:36 |
| Li Chunhua riding bike | Music | 01:41 |
| McDonell greets Li | MCDONELL: Twenty eight year old Li Chunhua is the director of a non-government | 01:50 |
| Li and McDonell walk on bridge | organisation called "The Green Stone Environmental Action Network". [on bridge] "Wow! | 01:58 |
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| It's beautiful up here". As well as educating people, her group pressures companies into reducing pollution. She says the heart of this reasonably wealthy, east coast city of seven million has been cleaned up significantly in recent years. | 02:05 |
| View of lake | LI CHUNHUA: The Xuanwu Lake was heavily polluted before. | 02:22 |
| Li | In 2005 there was an outbreak of blue green algae. Later two waterworks were built to purify the lake". | 02:26 |
| City wall/Park | MCDONELL: The old city wall has been preserved and the green spaces here provide great relief from a bustling city. | 02:36 |
| Smoke stacks | But you don't have to go far to see that environmental damage remains unrelenting in this part of China. | 02:50 |
| Woman walks wearing mask/Smokestacks/Industry | LI CHUNHUA : "Air pollution is the number one issue because we have coal-fired power, steel, chemical industries and car manufacturing here. The pollutants from such factories contain sulphide, nitrogen oxide, and inhalable particles. Sometimes they can contain benzene and other toxic trace elements". | 03:02 |
| Li takes water sample from creek | MCDONELL: We watch as Li Chunhua goes to take a sample from the wastewater of a chemical factory. She'll send this away for testing. This outfall is pouring directly into | 03:35 |
| Li stands at edge of Yangtze | a creek which joins China's most important river - the Yangtze. "So you can criticise these factories?" LI CHUNHUA : "Yes". | 03:48 |
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| MCDONELL: "Is it dangerous?" | 04:01 |
| Li | LI CHUNHUA: "No. Not really. In fact we're in a better position now when compared to the past. | 04:03 |
| Yangtze | Most of the companies we monitor get a message from the environmental protection agency. They're asked for details about their situation, so there's a level of cooperation between | 04:11 |
| Li | the government and us". | 04:19 |
| NGO Team sing on street |
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| MCDONELL: Once this group has identified a polluting factory it takes the information to the streets to create public embarrassment for the company. This goes down well in a country with a high level of community anger about pollution. | 04:29 |
| McDonell on street to camera | All round the globe there are debates about how to tackle climate change, but in China environmental impact is a much more immediate issue. When air pollution gets too bad, children don't go to school. People don't go outdoors because they're afraid of what they'll breathe. Then there's the soil and the rivers which can be completely toxic. In fact, some think that environmental destruction is so extreme here that it could even be a greater existential threat to the Communist Party than the economy. | 04:49 |
| [shot continuous] McDonell with Li | "Can I ask you, this type of gathering, does it really have an impact?" LI CHUNHUA: "Yes. We've had many successful experiences regulating factories. These demands for environmental protection are not made by us, but by the public so the plants pay more attention to it". | 05:23 |
| Li riding bike | Music | 05:40 |
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| MCDONELL: From Nanjing's youthful optimism we move to a darker past - more than seven decades ago. | 05:46 |
| Li cycles past Xia’s window
| And those who survived the horrors of a time in this city which still | 05:53 |
| Xia sits by window | shapes relations between China and one of its largest trading partners. | 05:59 |
| When Nanjing people see the Japanese we hate them". |
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| McDonell greets Xia. They look at photos | MCDONELL: Xia Shuqin was eight years old when the Japanese army descended on her city and carried out what would become known as "The Rape of Nanking". | 06:09 |
| Photos. Japanese soldiers in Nanjing | According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people were murdered. XIA SHUQIN: "They held bayonets and rifles. My father was shot dead when he opened the door. My mother was under the table with my little sister. | 06:22 |
| Xia | They dragged her out. | 06:43 |
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| They grabbed the baby and killed her by smashing her onto the ground". | 06:50 |
| McDonell with Xia/Photos of Japanese occupation | MCDONELL: There were fifteen people at her house on the day the Japanese army came. Only Xia Shuqin and her little sister were not killed. She was lucky to survive, given her wounds.
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| Xia shows scar | XIA SHUQIN: "One scar is here. The scar on my back is a hole of this size. They stabbed me three times. It's painful all the time". | 07:10 |
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| MCDONELL: It's part of the Communist Party's | 07:23 |
| McDonell to camera in restaurant | narrative that its right to govern comes from the guerrilla war it fought against Japanese aggression during the time of Xi Jinping's father. | 07:27 |
| Xia in restaurant | For this reason many China analysts think that it serves the Party well to never really mend ties with Tokyo. There have been some small gestures from the current | 07:37 |
| McDonell to camera in restaurant | government, but President Xi's administration is all about projecting a tough approach to the region. | 07:48 |
| Xia and others have meal | Then again, given what happened here in 1937 you can also understand why it might be hard for | 07:54 |
| McDonell to camera | some to accept that China and Japan could ever be friends. | 08:02 |
| Xia in restaurant with family | Since the war, Xia Shuqin's been blessed with two daughters, a son and grandchildren. She's become more forgiving. | 08:07 |
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| XIA SHUQIN: "Actually, we should unite with the common people of Japan. Ordinary Japanese people are good. | 08:17 |
| Xia | I've been there six times and people treated me very nicely". | 08:24 |
| Man outside restaurant on phone. Super: the businessman | Music | 08:28 |
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| MCDONELL: Yet China knows it has to move forward | 08:31 |
| Wang walking on street | and to harness the considerable brainpower here. | 08:32 |
| Super: "Chinese technology is world class. I'm optimistic about the future". | Music | 08:37 |
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| WANG JIPING: "Fifteen years ago not a single Chinese company could have developed a mobile phone. Now many private companies are producing cell phones like Huawei and Xiaomi". | 08:44 |
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| MCDONELL: Wang Jiping is Chief Executive Officer of Archermind, a company that develops | 08:52 |
| High tech store | specialist software for mobile phones, tablet computers and the like. China is pinning great hopes on businesses like his. In recent decades, China's booming economy has been built | 08:59 |
| McDonell to camera in store | on exports and cheap goods. Now the plan is to turn this model on its head - out with the exports - in with domestic consumption - out with the clothes and toys - in with high-tech gadgets. This country still has a long way to go to overhaul its economy but there are signs that it's starting to head in the direction that it wants to go. | 09:16 |
| [shot continuous] McDonell approaches Wang | "Mr Wang, do you think that in the future | 09:41 |
| Shoppers in store | we will see more and more Chinese people buying Chinese-designed high-tech goods?" WANG JIPING: "That's definitely the case. | 09:45 |
| Wang Jiping | Huawei and Xiaomi have grown very quickly in recent years. They're chasing Samsung and Apple". | 09:54 |
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| MCDONELL: "And this device also contains your company's products inside it?" WANG JIPING: "Yes, it contains software developed by my company". | 10:00 |
| Construction sites/ City skyline | Music | 10:06 |
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| MCDONELL: There's been alarm at the recent dramatic fall of the stock market here but those who are most worried about China's economy point to real estate. Last year sales went down by 8% but investors continued to buy into property - up by 10%. The likes of coal mining bosses need somewhere to park their money. They're pushing up prices without sufficient real demand; this is heading into property bubble territory. Then there's the debt of local | 10:08 |
| High tech products | governments as they roll out major infrastructure projects. In tablets, phones and cameras, policy makers see something bright emerging although this is still not a real high-tech powerhouse. | 10:42 |
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| WANG JIPING: "China should increase its investment in basic research. Take mobile phones for example - China produces the final product | 10:57 |
| Wang | but the core parts still aren't made by Chinese companies".
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| Office workers at computers/Mr Wang in office | Mr Wang's company had 10 staff in 2006. Now they employ more than 2000 people. But his ambition hasn't stopped there. In five years time he wants to be five times as big. | 11:12 |
| Karaoke bar | What's more, the | 11:30 |
| Students in karaoke bar. Super: | university students here think they see where Mr Wangs of China are taking the country. In Nanjing every year, another fifty thousand major in IT. | 11:35 |
| Super: "I think there might be a bright future ahead but I'm not sure yet". | MCDONELL: Wu Jingyan recently finished Industrial Design. | 11:49 |
| Wu in karaoke bar | WU JINGYAN: "Since I'll graduate soon, getting a satisfying job is definitely the most important thing at the moment. Other things like marriage | 11:59 |
| Wu | will come after that. | 12:08 |
| Wu in karaoke bar | All we can do is live in the present moment and focus on what we have". | 12:09 |
| Wu and friends in karaoke bar | MCDONELL: This generation hasn't been through the hardships of their parents and grandparents. So the Communist Party faces quite a challenge satisfying them. Yet, whatever else Xi Jinping does, his showpiece policy, a major anticorruption drive, has struck a chord with young people. | 12:14 |
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| WU JINGYAN: "President Xi has done a lot for this country like cracking down on corruption and reining in wasted spending. He's also taken down lots of bad guys.
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| Wu | He's a man of action compared to former leaders so many people like him". | 12:46 |
| Wu on to street | Music | 12:55 |
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| MCDONELL: In this city alone, both the Mayor and Communist Party General Secretary have been taken down by Xi Jinping's anti-corruption investigators. | 13:00 |
| Shen walks by city wall. | Plenty have cheered along, but some are more suspicious. | 13:09 |
| "Every official at every level is corrupt". | SHEN LIANGQING: "So what if the Party Secretary of Nanjing City embezzled tens of millions of Yuan? It actually sounds to people like a small number. If it was hundreds of millions, people would still think it was pretty standard". | 13:16 |
| Shen walks to teahouse | MCDONELL: As a former state prosecutor, Shen Liangqing has seen the widespread payment of bribes, the awarding of contracts to friends, the hiding of laundered money in the accounts of family members. He says corruption is everywhere within Chinese officialdom. SHEN LIANGQING: "Every official has shit on his arse. The question is whether you investigate or not. | 13:33 |
| Shen | If you do, they will have problems. I am very pessimistic. We should definitely crackdown on corruption, but a crackdown carried out by a Party Discipline Inspection Commission using the illegal means of 'shuang gui' is a breach of human rights".
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| Shen working on computer in teahouse | MCDONELL: Shuang gui is a form of extra-judicial interrogation using sleep deprivation to extract confessions. | 14:21 |
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| SHEN LIANGQING: "In a room - usually a hotel room in a remote place, a military base, somewhere secret - | 14:32 |
| Shen | the first thing they do is take away the bed so you have nowhere to sit. You can only stand. Usually there are eight people taking shifts watching you, two at a time. You can't sleep until you confess". | 14:43 |
| Shen working on computer in teahouse | MCDONELL: Mr Shen says party investigators will hold a suspect for 3 to 5 days if they confess early, but it could be 3 to 5 months. Theoretically, it could be forever. He also says that any genuine campaign would put checks and balances in place like a free press or independent courts. | 15:04 |
| Bridal couple on jetty | SHEN LIANGQING: "It's like in the Ming Dynasty | 15:29 |
| Shen | when they had a very harsh anti-corruption system. They used to skin the corrupt officials, stuff them with hay and display them in the halls. But that didn't solve the problem of corruption". | 15:35 |
| City skyline | MCDONELL: So what could be really going on here? | 15:52 |
| Shen working on computer in teahouse | SHEN LIANGQING: "The campaign should treat everyone equally with a framework of the law | 15:55 |
| Shen | but this is a campaign with selective targets. It's used to attack enemies". | 16:02 |
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| MCDONELL: "Is one of the results of this greater power for Xi Jinping?" | 16:06 |
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| SHEN LIANGQING: "Yes". MCDONELL: "Much bigger than right now?" SHEN LIANGQING: "It must be. He's already taken down many political opponents. Using this anti-corruption campaign it's very easy for him". | 16:11 |
| Shen walks by city gate to taxi | Music | 16:20 |
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| MCDONELL: Shen Liangqing worries that the anti-corruption drive is part of a Communist Party power play with President Xi Jinping promoting his allies. Others think positive change can come from the ground up. | 16:25 |
| Taxi passes Sun on street. Super: the journalist. |
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| Sun walks on street | SUN LIN: "My father was a Red Army soldier. He taught me that I should be a good person and do good things for people. Even though my father was a Communist Party member and I really hate the Communist Party, I think he was right". | 16:48 |
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| MCDONELL: Sun Lin is a former Chinese television journalist who now specialises in the experiences of dissidents. | 17:19 |
| Sun at home. Photographs on walls | His walls are covered in the photographs of those he's interviewed for overseas websites. The interviewees with yellow ribbons on them are now in gaol or some form of detention. Going into | 17:28 |
| Security cameras. McDonell to security camera | Sun Lin's house is like entering a secret bunker. In Xi Jinping's China any activity which might be considered a potential threat to the power of the Communist Party has become increasingly dangerous. | 17:43 |
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| And that especially applies to activists, lawyers and journalists. [knocking on door] "Hello". | 18:01 |
| McDonell in Sun Lin’s home | SUN LIN: "Hello.” | 18:11 |
| Sun Lin | 'Those who have bare feet are not afraid of those with shoes on' because I have nothing, there is nothing they can use to squeeze me". | 18:31 |
| Sun Lin reports | MCDONELL: He's been doing these underground reports since leaving formal journalism in 1996 | 18:41 |
| Sun Lin at home | and for this, has spent 4 years in gaol and multiple stints in labour camps for causing trouble. | 18:50 |
| Xu Juan at table | Ordinary people like Xu Juan, who believe they've been wronged by corrupt officials, find their way to Sun Lin. | 18:57 |
| Xu Juan and neighbours on street | MCDONELL: She says that developers have been trying to force her family and her neighbours out of their homes, and that she's been fighting back on their behalf.
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| XU JUAN: "They offered us 4,000 Yuan per square metre but the 2011 local housing price had already surged to 20,000 per square metre. | 19:19 |
| Xu Juan | The gap is huge". | 19:28 |
| Demolished and abandoned neighbourhood houses | Music | 19:31 |
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| MCDONELL: She says most of her neighbours have already caved into the pressure to leave. In this former community only 8 families are still holding out for what they say | 19:35 |
| Xu Juan looks at photos of demolition confrontations | is fair compensation. Xu Juan says paid thugs, working with officials, have been sent around to try and bully the remaining residents into leaving. She is seven months pregnant when we speak to her. "You're not afraid that | 19:46 |
| Xu Juan on street | these gangsters will force you to go?" XU JUAN: "No, I'm not". MCDONELL: "Why?" XU JUAN: "Because I don't think my requests are unreasonable. My demands are just - and yet they use thugs against me. It only shows how shameless the Government is". | 20:09 |
| Protest outside municipal office |
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| MCDONELL: The problem of forced evictions is a huge one in China. We stumble across a protest outside a municipal government office in downtown Nanjing. As soon as we arrive, people who claim they've had their homes stolen are eager to speak. | 20:38 |
| Woman at protest | WOMAN #1: "They didn't notify me before demolishing my house. Now I have nowhere to live". | 20:57 |
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| POLICEMAN: "You're making us lose face in front of the foreigners". WOMAN #1: "I'm from Nanjing City, Gulou district. Meitanggang Road, number 5". MCDONELL: This woman proudly declares her name and address to the camera despite police urging her to be quiet. | 21:06 |
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| WOMAN #1: "Because I spoke to you today I might now be thrown in jail". | 21:19 |
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| MCDONELL: "Have you all come here with the same problem or different grievances?" WOMAN #1: "We're all the same". MCDONELL: "You're here because your houses have been demolished?" | 21:25 |
| Printed sheet showing photos of evictions | They also have stories of violent evictions. | 21:36 |
| Woman #2 shows photos | WOMAN #2: "You can see my parents were beaten to death. Both houses were my legal property. They took our houses and they beat us". | 21:41 |
| Police film McDonell and protestors | MCDONELL: The police bring out their own camera to capture us, but they're also interested in the demonstrators. The authorities film as those who've spoken out give their contact details. The police tell us to stop recording. The residents keep coming. | 21:52 |
| Woman #3 crying | WOMAN #3: "I tell you my house was demolished illegally. They took it. It's been six years, six years and they haven't paid me. Give me back my house. No compensation. It's been six years and they haven't paid. They beat me. They detained me. What can I do?" | 22:11 |
| Official questions McDonell | MCDONELL: Then plainclothes officials arrive and familiar questions are asked. OFFICIAL: "Hello. Hello. I am from the Propaganda Department of this district's Party Committee. Do you have a journalist card?" MCDONELL: "Of course I do". OFFICIAL: "So give me a look". MCDONELL: "Who are you?" OFFICIAL: "I'm from the Propaganda Department of this district's Party Committee". MCDONELL: "Well can I see your ID?" | 22:33 |
| [shot continuous] Official looks for his ID | You get the feeling he's not used to justifying who he is. | 22:49 |
| Protestors | A call goes in to his superiors.
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| Official on phone. McDonell beside | OFFICIAL: "Now he's asking for my identification but I don't have my ID with me. | 22:58 |
| Official with McDonell | The police can verify that I work for the Propaganda Department. I want to see if you have the right to do interviews". MCDONELL: "Of course I do". OFFICIAL: "If you let me have a look, I'll give it right back. | 23:05 |
| Official scrutinises McDonell’s ID | Australian Broadcasting Corporation". MCDONELL: We're told that we need to hear more than just one side to this story. | 23:15 |
| Official writes on his notepad | The official gives us his contact details but, in the coming days, when we ask to interview a government representative we're refused. Instead we're told we'd be reported to the Australian Embassy. | 23:27 |
| Nanjing GVs | Music | 23:42 |
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| Right across China residents have been forced out of their old homes and paid less than a 10th of their value. Developers, in collusion with officials, go on to build large tower blocks. Yet, in modern China some say it's getting harder to hide fraud in the real estate market and many are hopeful the corrupt might be rounded up soon. SUN LIN: "In the past, people thought they should support anything the government does. | 23:46 |
| Sun Lin | Now people are aware. They get knowledge from the internet and from those with overseas connections". | 24:17 |
| Sunset/Sun Lin and others lighting fireworks | Music | 24:29 |
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| MCDONELL: Sun Lin says he has a different view to those who think China is becoming less free under Xi Jinping. He points out that, under the former administration, he was gaoled but that during President Xi's time he's not been arrested. Although online censorship has been ramped up here, he and others have great faith in the long-term impact of the internet in China. | 24:36 |
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| SUN LIN: "Regarding liberty, I think the Communist Party has to loosen its grip | 25:00 |
| Sun Lin | because it's the trend of history. You can't go against this trend". | 25:08 |
| Night shots: boats lit up, people walking around | MCDONELL: The vast ship of the Chinese nation is certainly changing direction under Xi Jinping. Though people here may not know where it will end up, it is hard to knock the optimism out of them. | 25:14 |
| Li Chunhua by Yangtze | Li Chunhua's group continue to operate, looking for new factories to clean up. | 25:35 |
| Xia Shuqin by window | Xia Shuqin still wants Japan to admit what happened here in World War II. | 25:42 |
| Wang Jiping with robot | Wang Jiping is looking to develop robots. He says they'll soon be serving humans every day. | 25:47 |
| Wu Jingyan at karaoke bar | Wu Jingyan has found a new job. He's designing luggage and other bags.
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| Shen Liangqing in park | Shen Liangqing is unemployed. He says police harassed him when he tried to set up a business. He's surviving on money from his parents' pension. | 26:04 |
| Photos on Sun Lin’s wall | Sun Lin's interviews go on and feature mainly on the Boxun website. | 26:16 |
| Still. Xu Juan with husband and baby | And Xu Juan now has a baby boy, definitely one of the new faces of China. | 26:23 |
| Fast motion. Night shots |
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| Reporter: STEPHEN McDONELL | 26:54 |