Frontline

China in the Red (2003x5)

Air date: Feb 13, 2003

Four years in the making, this two-hour FRONTLINE documentary chronicles three pivotal years in China's historic evolution from a rigid Communist society to an exploding market economy. For more than half a century, millions of Chinese workers labored in state-run factories that provided cradle-to-grave job security. But the economic reforms that have brought the world's most populous nation economic prosperity and world-power status now threaten the livelihood of many Chinese workers. The Chinese Communist Party can no longer afford to subsidize the factories, and millions of workers are being laid off, with no social safety net to catch them. "China in the Red" follows ten Chinese citizens caught up in the social and economic transformation, and through their stories reveals a nation in flux and a people struggling to survive in a world they never dreamed would exist.