BBC: CHINA part 1 of 4

Air Date: 13/06/06 Release Date: 14/06/06 Video: 640 x 368 @ 25fps Audio: VBR MP3 Avg 128kb/s Source: PDTV Format: XviD Description (PART 1): Power And The People How do you run a country of 1.3 billion people and 56 ethnic nationalities, stretching more than 5,000 kms North to South and East to West? Get it right and you have a prosperous, powerful empire to rival any the world has seen. Mess it up, and the chaos will be terrible. For almost 60 years the Communist Party has been in control, basing its legitimacy on delivering both stability and increasing prosperity. But that stability is under threat as the economic boom leaves millions behind. And corruption is sapping people's trust in the Party. Officials are increasingly seen as profiteers not public servants. This film travels the length and breadth of China. It joins guards patrolling the border with Kazakhstan and party officials in Tibet as they try to impose authority. It follows a village election and meets a convicted embezzler. Everywhere the Chinese people, from farmer to Minister, speak frankly about the problems and challenges facing their country and about whether the Communist Party can retain its grip on China.