China’s Dark Satanic Mills 32:00, 2008 (Ref: AS08630)

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Description

Runaway economic growth has turned China into a by-word for pollution. While the government ineffectually tries to grapple with the country’s growing environmental problems, rising discontent among the masses augurs political changes. Reforms in the 1980s made economic growth the Number 1 priority. As a result, China is now the world’s fourth biggest economy. As Li Hengyuan puts it, “In just 20 years, China has made economic strides that it took other countries 200 years to make.”

Even so, the giant leap forward has come at a heavy price. This documentary starts close to the city of Chongqing, on the Yangzte River. It is one of the most industrialised and polluted areas in China. Drinking water supplies for the local population are precarious at best. Some 360 million Chinese find themselves in the same boat. Luo Liquan, an entrepreneur, lost 450 tons of fish as a result of illegal dumping.