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An incredible story, told through the lives of China's billionaires, of a country transformed from poverty into the world's second largest economy. 40 years ago, capitalism was a dangerous word throughout this land and people starved under communism. Now, China has become a factory for billionaire tycoons, creating more ultra-wealthy almost every day.
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00:43The world's factory that also mass-produces billionaires.
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00:52Xi Jinping simplesmente não vai tolerar qualquer caipulho que abençoe o partido abençoe.
01:09China, um país de mais de 1.4 bilhões.
01:14Ela gera mais de 200 bilhões por ano, mais rápido que em qualquer lugar do mundo.
01:22China é uma fábrica do mundo do mundo.
01:26Hoje, China tem sido chamada a Dynastia do Bling.
01:31É uma explosão de riqueza de riqueza, depois décadas de opressão.
01:36Eu assisti China ir de bicicletas para o Bentleys.
01:40Apenas roupas, handbags, várias diferentes roupas, até tens de thousands de dólares.
01:46E a pessoas que conduzam essa grande crescência são os cidadãos de China.
01:52Estes homens e mulheres estão mudando o mundo e a forma que vivemos.
01:57Você sabe, China moves rápido.
01:59Ela tem tantas pessoas e tantas ambições e tantas habilidades.
02:05Mas China's tycoons estão enfrentando um novo ato.
02:10Eles estão em risco de se tornarem paus em uma guerra econômica econômica entre China e o West.
02:15As Americans, we should all be concerned about any company beholden to a foreign government
02:22to burrow into the American telecommunications market.
02:27And China's population has become less tolerant of its homegrown ultra-rich.
02:33China is one of the most unequal society in the world today
02:39in spite of having a Communist Party governing it.
02:42With shades of the hard-line past,
02:45alarming news reports like these
02:48highlight how President Xi Jinping
02:50has taken extreme action against some billionaires.
02:55He was spirited out of that hotel
02:57along with his bodyguards
03:00and then taken to the mainland.
03:04Even among the most powerful Chinese tycoons,
03:08no one is above the party.
03:12Jack Ma was one of the planet's wealthiest men.
03:27He formed the online marketplace Alibaba in 1999.
03:31His flamboyant personality
03:36on clear display
03:38in some bizarre yet memorable performances
03:41saw him as the fun, friendly face of China's dot-com boom.
03:45Always say, you're making progress.
03:47So, see, that's what's the next step.
03:49High-quality men.
03:51Thank you, Jack.
03:52Thank you so much.
03:57Alibaba connected China to markets around the world.
04:00China, you sell everything from textiles to fruits
04:05to heavy machinery to technology to toys.
04:08They've taken away the need to travel to China
04:13to go to a manufacturer's.
04:15You don't have to do that anymore.
04:16You use Alibaba.
04:19Alibaba came from nowhere
04:21to break New York Stock Exchange records in 2014.
04:24The listing made Ma the richest man in China.
04:29And to make a splash, the size that they did,
04:34it had enormous symbolic value within China.
04:37And the man behind it became China's most famous,
04:41most extrovert tycoon.
04:43His performances are eccentric and extravagant.
04:50But who really is the man behind the mask
04:53who rocked global stock markets?
05:00Ma Yun, or Jack, was born in 1964
05:03in Hangzhou in southeastern China.
05:08His upbringing was full of hurdles.
05:10The story of Jack Ma is really the story of China.
05:15People said he wasn't smart enough.
05:16People said he wasn't capable enough.
05:18People said he was harder working
05:20than he was maybe capable.
05:22But he was persistent.
05:25In 1972, an event happened
05:27that changed history and Ma's life.
05:30President Nixon broke tensions by visiting China.
05:34He visited Ma's hometown
05:36and this visit created a tourist mecca
05:39overnight.
05:42Jack Ma offered to take lots of foreigners
05:45around the city on free tours
05:47if they would teach him English.
05:49These Western tourists opened my mind
05:53because everything they told me
05:56are so different from the things
05:58I learned from the schools
06:00and from my parents.
06:02Ma realized his route to prosperity
06:04was by connecting with the West.
06:06But he had many setbacks on the way.
06:09He was not an academically gifted student.
06:13I failed primary school test for two times
06:17and I failed three times for the middle schools.
06:21He famously wrote to Harvard ten times,
06:24rejected every single time.
06:26There's a great story
06:27that when KFC finally came to Hangzhou,
06:30every single person got the job but him.
06:33When I tried to be a KFC person,
06:36rejected.
06:37When I tried to be a policeman, rejected.
06:39I want to be a hotel waiter, rejected.
06:41So I get used to it.
06:43As an entrepreneur,
06:44one of the quality I have
06:46is that when I'm rejected by people,
06:48I get used to that.
06:49Amateur video shows Jack's popularity
06:54in his first job as an English teacher.
06:57But it was a trip to the U.S. in 1995
07:00that he saw a way to make it big.
07:03A friend showed him the Internet.
07:05His first efforts with what he learned
07:07were caught on camera.
07:09My friend said,
07:10this is Internet.
07:11Search whatever you want.
07:12So I searched the first word of beer.
07:15I don't know why,
07:17because it's easy to think.
07:19It's easy to spell, baby.
07:21But there's no beer from China.
07:23So we made a small,
07:24very ugly-looking page
07:26called China Page.
07:28I got a phone call from my friend.
07:30He said, Jack, you know,
07:31you got five emails.
07:32I said, what is email?
07:36Jack Ma realized the web
07:38could connect foreign businesses to China.
07:43He came back to China
07:45and Alibaba turned into this
07:47e-commerce behemoth.
07:50At home,
07:51Ma became incredibly popular.
07:53But some began to say
07:56the fame had gone to his head.
07:58He's very well known
08:18for his karaoke appearances
08:20at Alibaba parties and events.
08:23That became more and more eccentric
08:36as time went on.
08:42But is he sort of like this billionaire playboy?
08:46The charisma that had charmed the tourists
08:54also charmed the global power players.
08:59Political leaders began to reach out to him
09:02as an ambassador.
09:03He was very, very visible,
09:05not just doing TED Talks,
09:07but also with political leaders.
09:09I'm starting to pitch already.
09:10Those are the kind of things
09:12that the government does.
09:14One of the most talked about encounters
09:16was in early 2017
09:18when he met the president-elect.
09:22Jack and I are going to do
09:23some great things.
09:25Small business, right?
09:26Just small business.
09:27We'll focus on small business.
09:30Jack Ma went and met with Trump
09:32and then had a press conference with Trump
09:36pledging to create a million jobs
09:39in America through e-commerce.
09:41My guess is that was not sanctioned
09:43by the party.
09:46Then in 2019,
09:48amidst rumors he was forced out,
09:50Ma retired from Alibaba
09:52to concentrate on his spinoff
09:54Ant Financial.
09:58He planned to float Ant
09:59on the stock exchange,
10:01a sale that would put him back on top
10:03as the richest man in China.
10:05The IPO of Ant
10:06was pulled at the very last minute.
10:09The Ant groups listing
10:10in both Shanghai
10:11and Hong Kong
10:12have been suspended.
10:14It was going to be
10:15the largest IPO
10:17in the world at that point
10:19of almost $35 billion raised.
10:21So this was a huge shock
10:23to everyone,
10:24to the whole world.
10:26Some believe Xi Jinping
10:28blocked the sale
10:29after Ma mocked
10:30the government
10:31at a business conference.
10:41Jack Ma had made this
10:43very, very offensive
10:45incendiary speech
10:47to China's
10:49top banking regulators.
10:51They had to make an example of him
11:07because he was the biggest,
11:08the most admired,
11:09the most successful
11:11in people's eyes.
11:12If you're going to give a signal
11:13to billionaires,
11:14especially the tech billionaires,
11:16who's your daddy,
11:17you bring down Jack Ma.
11:19That lets everybody know
11:21that everybody's fair game.
11:23The man who brought the Communist Party
11:38to power in 1949,
11:40vowing to eliminate capitalism
11:42and class,
11:43is Mao Zedong.
11:48Families were stripped
11:49of their wealth
11:50and many brutally killed.
11:53The banning of private
11:54farm ownership
11:55also led to tens of millions
11:57dying from famine.
11:58The first 25 to 30 years
12:02of Communist Party rule
12:04under the Mao Zedong,
12:06China underwent
12:09some pretty horrific experiences,
12:12including
12:17the great leap forward
12:19where
12:20in
12:21about three years
12:2240 million
12:24or more
12:25people
12:26starved
12:27to death.
12:34In the early 70s,
12:36while the West enjoyed
12:37booming growth,
12:38China's soul
12:40was crushed.
12:41China
12:43no longer
12:44had believed
12:45whether it's in religion
12:47or in the
12:48traditional
12:49Chinese culture.
12:52So what did they believe in?
12:54They believed
12:55in making money.
12:58Life changed
12:59in the 1980s.
13:00Relations
13:01with the US thought
13:02and Mao's successor
13:04Deng Xiaoping
13:05tried to free up
13:06the economy.
13:09Come 1980,
13:10China takes
13:12an enormous pivot
13:13with reform
13:14and opening.
13:15Foreign direct investment
13:16starts to roll in
13:17and
13:18we start to imagine
13:19China's
13:20development story
13:21as
13:22the manufacturing
13:23miracle
13:24that so many of us
13:25are familiar with.
13:26China encouraged
13:28foreign firms
13:29to form partnerships
13:30providing investment
13:31and training
13:32to China's millions.
13:33These companies
13:34could tap into
13:35China's vast
13:36skilled workforce.
13:37You see
13:38these companies
13:39moving
13:40to China
13:41as a means
13:42of accessing
13:43cheap labor,
13:44cheap land,
13:45cheap production.
13:46Multi-nationals
13:47from all over the world
13:49came in.
13:50China was the new gold rush.
13:52gold rush.
13:59By 1985,
14:00most urban families
14:01and half of rural families
14:03owned a TV.
14:04For a few,
14:06Hollywood provided
14:07glimpses
14:08of the free world
14:09and dreams
14:10of a better life.
14:11They crave
14:13the big houses,
14:15the big cars,
14:17the technologies,
14:18everything they could see
14:20in the American movies
14:22they want.
14:27But the growth
14:28was rife
14:29with corruption.
14:34The people
14:35started asking
14:36for a different
14:37China,
14:38a democratic one.
14:39China's revolutionary moment
14:42came in 1989.
14:44Around 1 million people
14:46descended on Tiananmen Square
14:48to protest.
14:49The world watched
14:50as violence erupted.
14:53as violence erupted.
15:02Hundreds,
15:03perhaps thousands,
15:04of people were killed.
15:10It was really
15:11an assertion
15:12that
15:13Communist Party control
15:15over China
15:16was always
15:17the most important goal
15:19for China's leaders.
15:31Deng Xiaoping
15:32crushed the uprising
15:33but continued
15:34launching several
15:35special economic
15:36zones in the South
15:37that would encourage
15:38foreign investment.
15:39He went South,
15:40planted a tree
15:41in Shenzhen
15:42symbolic of
15:43there will bloom
15:44a new city
15:45there will flourish
15:47a new economy
15:48and
15:49it really did.
15:52People flooded
15:53from the countryside
15:54to find work.
15:59The migration
16:00created enormous
16:01demand for homes
16:02for homes
16:04and Deng changed
16:05the laws
16:06to enable real estate
16:07trade
16:07for the first time.
16:10You couldn't
16:10privately own
16:11your own property
16:13based on your station
16:15in the factory
16:16you got assigned
16:17this apartment.
16:19In the late 90's
16:20real estate developers
16:21could now
16:22build buildings
16:23and then individuals
16:24could actually
16:25buy rights
16:26to live
16:27in these buildings.
16:29One man spotted
16:30this as an opportunity
16:32to get rich.
16:33He went on
16:34to become
16:35China's wealthiest
16:36tycoon.
16:44Wang Jianlin
16:45is the founder
16:46of Dalianwanda
16:47a global conglomerate.
16:49Glossy
16:50and bold marketing
16:51on its website
16:52portrays its position
16:53as the world's
16:54largest commercial
16:55property enterprise.
16:58It owns
16:59shopping malls
17:00cinemas
17:01sports teams
17:04luxury hotels
17:06and theme parks.
17:18Wang Jianlin
17:19was born in 1954.
17:21His father fought
17:23for Mao's Red Army.
17:25at 15
17:28Wang too
17:29became a soldier.
17:31He eventually
17:32ended up
17:33in charge
17:34of a state-owned
17:35property group.
17:36When that privatized
17:38in the early 90's
17:39he emerged
17:40as the
17:41majority owner.
17:42The Bentleys
17:49and the Mercedes
17:51were everywhere.
17:52It was such
17:54a booming business.
17:59Houses were
18:00over the top
18:01very Trumpian
18:02actually
18:03with very bad taste
18:04of gold
18:05and glitter
18:06and anything
18:07to look lavish.
18:08Wang Jianlin
18:10also realized
18:11burgeoning
18:12city populations
18:13would become
18:14consumers
18:15and set up
18:16shopping malls
18:17all over China.
18:18In the early 2000's
18:20Wang took
18:21an audacious
18:22leap
18:23directly into
18:24the heart
18:25of the USA.
18:26He famously
18:27bought
18:28the American
18:29AMC
18:30cinema chain.
18:31Wang's shopping spree
18:40in entertainment
18:41continued
18:42into Hollywood.
18:43His firm
18:44Dali and Wanda
18:45will buy
18:46legendary entertainment.
18:47They produce
18:48Godzilla,
18:49Jurassic World
18:50but also
18:50the Dark Knight
18:51trilogy.
18:52A big thing
18:54for him
18:55was Wanda
18:56as being
18:56the major player
18:58in entertainment
18:59in China
18:59and ultimately
19:00also abroad.
19:02In 2016
19:03Wang became
19:04Asia's richest man
19:06worth
19:07over 28 billion dollars.
19:11He often celebrated
19:12his successes
19:13at company events
19:14by confidently
19:15yet awkwardly
19:16serenading
19:17his staff.
19:20Good reason
19:21to belt out
19:22a well-known
19:22folk song.
19:23He's got a flamboyant
19:39personality
19:40but different
19:41from Jack Ma.
19:42But like Jack Ma,
19:43the tide turned
19:44on Wang.
19:45The party were
19:49apparently unhappy
19:50with the level
19:51of Wanda's debts
19:52and his Hollywood
19:54trophy purchases
19:55had hit a nerve
19:56with U.S.
19:57politicians.
20:00And as some of his assets
20:01failed to deliver,
20:02Wang's rollercoaster ride
20:04was over.
20:07Wang then
20:08sells off
20:09a lot of his assets
20:11and then takes a step back
20:14from the limelight.
20:19But Wang Jianlin
20:20was only able
20:21to lower his profile
20:22so far.
20:24His son is a prolific
20:26social media influencer.
20:27In China,
20:30there's this idea
20:31that's called
20:32Fu Ar Dai.
20:32It's second-generation
20:34rich.
20:35And Wang Jianlin
20:37has a very
20:38prominent
20:39wealthy son
20:40named Wang Si Cong.
20:44When you think of
20:45the flashy
20:46Playboy,
20:47global,
20:48cosmopolitan,
20:49very spendy.
20:53In 2015,
20:54he bought
20:55gold-plated
20:56Apple Watches
20:57for his dog.
21:00Cute snaps
21:01of the pampered pooch
21:02proudly showcasing
21:04the $10,000
21:05timepieces
21:06appeared on the dog's
21:07social media blog.
21:16The post went viral
21:17for all the wrong reasons.
21:20It was symbolic
21:21of a generation
21:22of ultra-rich kids.
21:25You can imagine
21:26that sitting
21:27on the side
21:28of the road
21:29eating $1
21:30street food
21:31and then
21:32you see
21:33a Lamborghini
21:34fly by.
21:35The ultra-wealthy
21:36flashing their wealth
21:38was beginning
21:39to create
21:40more
21:41distaste.
21:46Overt displays
21:47of wealth
21:47and debts
21:48may have been tolerated
21:49before Xi Jinping
21:52but changes
21:53were afoot.
21:58In 2012,
21:59a new
22:00paramount leader
22:01was elected.
22:02Xi Jinping
22:03has a strong
22:12communist bloodline.
22:15His father fought
22:16in the Red Army
22:17in the 1930s.
22:20After university,
22:21he followed his heart
22:22into the Communist Party
22:23where he climbed
22:24the party ranks
22:25before becoming
22:26one of the world's
22:27most powerful men.
22:28The Chinese Communist Party
22:31has always played
22:32an instrumental role
22:33in the lives
22:34of China's wealthy.
22:35For Chinese
22:36billionaires
22:37to become successful,
22:38they need to
22:39be connected
22:40to the government
22:41in some way.
22:42Every company
22:44in China
22:45has to answer
22:46to what the party
22:47wants.
22:48Not doing so
22:49puts ones
22:50at huge peril.
22:52Xi Jinping
22:53had made it
22:54his first priority
22:55to clamp down
22:56on the corruption
22:57that was blighting China.
22:58Our government
22:59as a government
23:00as a government
23:01as a government
23:02has to be connected
23:03to the government
23:04in some way.
23:05Chinese billionaires
23:06to become successful,
23:07they need to
23:08be connected
23:09to the government
23:10in some way.
23:11Every company
23:12is the biggest
23:13danger.
23:13To be honest,
23:14to be honest,
23:15to be honest,
23:16to be honest.
23:19Xi made 1.5 million
23:21anti-corruption arrests.
23:24Many simply vanished
23:26or were put in prison.
23:28He had a real good case
23:29to make
23:30because the party
23:31was in real trouble.
23:32There was no institution
23:33that was trusted.
23:34And there was no safety
23:36to be found abroad.
23:40He first introduced
23:41something called
23:42Operation Fox Hunt,
23:44which has since been
23:45superseded
23:46by Operation Skynet.
23:49And in some cases,
23:52they were involuntarily
23:54helped
23:55to return to China.
23:56Some people would call it
23:57basically being
23:58kidnapped back to China.
23:59Some allege
24:04the real motive
24:05behind Xi Jinping's
24:07anti-corruption drive
24:08was to remove
24:09any potential
24:10political enemies
24:11and cement his power.
24:14Some tycoons
24:15were jailed
24:16for lesser offenses
24:17like Jimmy Lei
24:19from Hong Kong
24:20whose crime
24:21was commemorating
24:22the Tiananmen Square
24:23protests.
24:24Hong Kong
24:29had once enjoyed
24:30the freedoms
24:31of the UK
24:32to protest,
24:33but under party rule
24:34that changed.
24:35In 2020,
24:37China introduced
24:38a national security law
24:39making it easier
24:40to arrest people
24:41after mass demonstrations
24:43in the city.
24:44There's one man
24:52who's avoided
24:53the scrutiny
24:54of Xi Jinping.
24:56Instead,
24:57US intelligence
24:58has been the thorn
24:59in his side.
25:08Ren Zhengfei
25:09is the founder
25:10of telecom Goliath
25:11Huawei.
25:13His company manufactures
25:15Wi-Fi network hardware
25:19and has annual sales
25:20totaling
25:21100 billion dollars.
25:25Born in 1944,
25:26Ren Zhengfei
25:27lived through
25:28the cultural revolution
25:30but video
25:31portraying his life
25:32through the company
25:33lens showed
25:34how despite this
25:35he always
25:36considered himself
25:37lucky.
25:38Ren Zhengfei
25:42started off
25:43in the Chinese military
25:44and eventually
25:47he left the military
25:49and started Huawei
25:50this kind of
25:51upstart
25:52telecommunications
25:53technology firm.
25:54Archived footage
25:55from the early years
25:56showed how Ren
25:57started Huawei
25:58with a little
25:59over 5,000
26:00dollars
26:01from a decrepit
26:02apartment
26:03in Shenzhen.
26:04It gave an insight
26:06into bygone telecom
26:07equipment
26:08that helped
26:09the company
26:10quietly
26:11make a meteoric
26:12rise.
26:13Huawei's initial success
26:13was linked
26:16closely
26:17to its contracts
26:18with the Chinese
26:19government
26:20and the Chinese
26:21military.
26:22Huawei's architecture
26:23was ambitious
26:24too.
26:26Each area
26:27of its
26:28region
26:29concluded
26:30and
26:30its
26:31completed
26:32with the Chinese
26:32military.
26:33Huawei's architecture
26:34was ambitious
26:35too.
26:36Each area
26:37of its region
26:39was ambitious
26:40too.
26:41Each area
26:42A base de sua base de desenvolvimento e desenvolvimento representa uma cidade europeia.
26:46É até mesmo tem a própria metro sistema.
26:50Ela é só uma máquina de R&D.
26:54Por 2016, quando essa investimento começou a pagar,
26:58Huawei became a major ponto de contention na U.S.A.
27:05Eles viram inundar o preço.
27:09E parecem que eles estavam carregando um mandato de governo.
27:13A empresa parece que veio de novo,
27:16e no março de 2017,
27:18Huawei's sales outstripped Apple.
27:22Concernos na U.S.A. aumentou
27:24quando Huawei lepte ahead na 5G race across the globe.
27:295G networks are set to power the next technological revolution.
27:35Se você não stop Huawei,
27:37a maioria do mundo,
27:38a maioria do mundo é comprido por os chinês,
27:40e o Oeste não está.
27:42Então, isso é um grande risco de segurança.
27:44R&D cita o sucesso de ser privado.
27:50Mas a verdadeiro holding da Huawei é uma questão contente.
27:56O problema com Huawei é que você não sabe.
27:59Eles dizem que é trabalhado por um...
28:02um...
28:03um...
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29:04U.S.
29:06quadro.
29:16Não usamos Huawei, porque nós achamos que é um risco seguro de segurança,
29:22que é um risco grande de segurança.
29:27Mas Huawei está o maior suporte do mundo do telecoms network gear.
29:33Rennes tem o apoio completo da parte.
29:35Obviamente, na Unidade, Huawei é uma palavra dirtya,
29:38mas em toda a parte do mundo, Huawei é um dos líderes de essa tecnologia
29:44e realmente é um impacto em lugares que os Estados Unidos não têm a melhor reputação.
29:49Sem o que o telecoms é tão popular,
29:52não sabemos que Huawei é tão bom e tão bom.
29:56Então, o nosso mercado é o telecoms para nós.
30:02Ren Zhengfei é uma das muitas pessoas que têm uma filha de boração.
30:07Uma quantidade de mulheres que se tornou o cilindro na China.
30:11There's hardly any females in senior government positions, so what you can do is you can go
30:19out and make money.
30:22Chinese women are formidable.
30:25In 2021, the country had a total of 85 female billionaires, two-thirds of the global number.
30:39China's one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2016 is considered a factor.
30:47It was brought in to curtail a booming population growth.
30:52If you had a second child, you would be subject to heavy fines.
30:56You would probably be fired, and your second child would be ineligible for the free education.
31:07For family businesses, if that child is female, then they're going to still pass on control
31:13of the family business to that one child, their daughter.
31:18But many women have made it without inheriting a business.
31:27One such lady is Zhou Chenfei.
31:32In 2017, she became the richest self-made woman in the world.
31:38Zhou Chenfei is known to have a sharp and daring business mind.
31:41China is one of the biggest smartphone, not just creators and manufacturers, they also put
32:04together the smartphones for all the non-Chinese companies in the world.
32:08It's sort of like the story of the California gold rush.
32:11The guys who really made it rich, they're sort of the person selling the pickaxe at the beginning
32:16of the gold rush.
32:19Zhou Chenfei found her gold rush selling smartphone screens.
32:25Her story encapsulates China's rags-to-riches narrative.
32:30She was born in central China to a poor family, and her father had a lot of influence on her.
32:38Her mother passed away when she was five, and her father was injured in an industrial accident,
32:45so he injured his hand and he was blinded.
32:48The accident left them in dire poverty.
32:53Pressed to make ends meet, 16-year-old Zhou dropped out of school.
32:59She worked at a factory, and the conditions were terrible.
33:02And so what she did was she wrote a resignation letter and basically talked about how she wanted
33:06to leave and for these specific reasons.
33:08And her boss was so impressed by it that he actually promoted her.
33:13In 1993, with just $3,000 in savings, Zhou started her own business called Lens Technology.
33:22They were making the glass for watches.
33:25And then Motorola approached them to help them with their new Razer mobile phone.
33:34Zhou got her second big break when the iPhone launched in 2007,
33:39and she was chosen to supply the screens.
33:46She put up her apartment as a guarantee to get a loan for new equipment.
33:52From there, it just kind of took off.
33:54They produced the really high-quality screens for Apple as well as for Samsung.
34:01In 2020, Lens' profits almost doubled to $31.6 billion.
34:06Zhou's lifestyle now couldn't be further from her humble start.
34:19Manufacturing tech for the world created a nursery for new talent in China.
34:23The city of Shenzhen became a breeding ground for tech startups.
34:36The region experienced massive growth, building on the ideas of Silicon Valley.
34:44It's just absolutely incredible.
34:45It's kind of like some artist's rendition of what the future would look like with flying cars and the Jetsons.
34:57And money started flowing.
34:59You started seeing the fancy cars, parties.
35:02When somebody got their company funded, they'd have a party with ice sculptures.
35:08With a population of 17 million, Shenzhen became a tech mecca, snapping at the heels of Silicon Valley.
35:17Silicon Valley sort of feels like that 45-year-old who's already had a couple of successful ventures.
35:23Kind of like the middle-aged entrepreneur versus that hungry, driven startup that used to define the area.
35:31One company formed in 1998 now sits in the top 20 largest tech companies in the world off the back of smartphone app technology.
35:44Ma Wateng, a.k.a. Pony Ma, is one of the richest people on the planet.
35:57He co-founded Tencent, an internet colossus and gaming empire.
36:02He also has stakes in Tesla, Spotify, and Snapchat, among thousands of other startups.
36:17Pony Ma grew up in Shenzhen.
36:21China's rags to riches story had become more of an investor's dream by the time he came of age.
36:27Pony Ma was a quiet child, a nerd. He really liked esterotomy. His parents were kind of wealthy.
36:38He got him a computer, which he got really into. He started his first company.
36:46The company was called Tencent. He set it up with classmates.
36:50His big break came in 2011 when he launched a super app called WeChat.
36:57China's massive population skipped over computers, instead using the more affordable smartphone.
37:04WeChat became its backbone.
37:06WeChat is kind of like your WhatsApp and your Facebook and your Twitter all combined into one on steroids.
37:21From when you wake up in the day, from where you read your news, from how you book a restaurant, to how you pay off your debt, to how you pay for the subway.
37:29I mean, all of these things can be accomplished within WeChat, which of course Tencent owns.
37:36Cash is useless in Shenzhen.
37:40Everything is through a QR code.
37:43I scan you, you scan me.
37:46Even stands on the side of the road.
37:50Click, click. All right, there you go.
37:52Pony gave Tencent a further boost moving into the gaming industry.
38:02While building its own games, Tencent swallowed up a medley of other gaming firms.
38:08It is now by far the world's largest video game vendor.
38:13He's building on that level one.
38:16But Beijing soon pulled the plug on Ponyma's gaming exploits.
38:28So-called Grandpa Ji was unhappy with the time kids were spending online.
38:34He introduced laws to limit access.
38:37Under-18s could now only play for one hour, on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.
38:47The concern that the government had was if you were running the screen the whole time, your social skills become quite retarded that way.
38:53Basing your life on likes, which are things that we talk about in the West, is quite a concern.
38:58It's just that the Chinese government has acted on it.
39:00The gaming laws were part of wider reforms that would have a devastating blow on China's tech giants.
39:11President Xi empowered his crackdown regulators to go after platform companies like Tencent.
39:17They were accused of creating monopolies.
39:22Ponyma has always denied that Tencent has acted as a monopoly.
39:26Tencent was one of several fined by China's regulators, and its value plummeted in mid-2021.
39:36It had a merger deal blocked, and new registrations to WeChat were temporarily suspended.
39:43Perhaps reflecting on the treatment of his competitor Jack Ma,
39:48Ponyma appeared instantly compliant.
39:52In this new era of tight political scrutiny of China's billionaires, Ponyma's approach has been much smarter than that of Jack Ma.
40:04Ponyma, I think, has recognized that China's tycoons need to keep a low profile.
40:11Jack Ma actually reappeared in January 2021.
40:14In what was coined the hostage video, he was seen addressing village teachers on state media.
40:22But Ma's company, Ant Group, was broken up by regulators.
40:28Xi Jinping wants a fairer society, expecting the wealthy to be more charitable.
40:38Jack Ma is now concentrating on philanthropy.
40:42Several others have followed suit, leaving senior posts.
40:46There's a sense that people that have done really well ought to have more sense of social responsibility and be willing to give back.
40:55And one billionaire's company donated $375 million to fight the world's COVID pandemic.
41:02Jen Yeming is the founder of ByteDance.
41:15Better known for its addictive app, TikTok.
41:19The most downloaded app in history.
41:22Only around since 2012, TikTok has sensationally dwarfed Facebook, Insta, and BuzzFeed.
41:35It's basically a short video platform that also allows folks to livestream whatever they're doing.
41:42The app uses artificial intelligence to get users hooked.
41:46That is really the secret sauce of ByteDance.
41:51They were one of the first companies to use recommendation algorithms at scale.
41:57By 2021, TikTok boasted 689 million users, with over 2 billion downloads worldwide.
42:05Jan Yeming set up ByteDance from a small apartment at the age of 29 with his college roommates.
42:18A marketing video from ByteDance's YouTube page plays up Yeming's rags to riches story by returning to the apartment where it all started.
42:26He grew up in a middle class family.
42:37He was not by any means very wealthy.
42:40Yeming had several attempts at launching apps.
42:44But his real success with TikTok came in 2017, when he bought the lip sync app Musically that was wildly popular in the U.S. and Europe.
42:53It gave the app an instant international audience.
43:01All had been well for Yeming until TikTok hit the headlines in the West over censorship.
43:07The Chinese-owned social network TikTok has apologized to a U.S. teenager who was blocked from the service after she posted a viral clip criticizing China's treatment of the Uighur Muslims.
43:18I can't open TikTok. My phone is blocked from even using the device. It's just a black screen and it won't let me go into the app.
43:28It was also accused of deleting articles critical of Chinese authorities.
43:34Like Huawei, this created concerns about its true ownership and the privacy of its users' data.
43:40President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok in the United States.
43:47President Trump has mentioned impending action on TikTok and for good reason.
43:52With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok are significant threats to personal data of American citizens.
43:58TikTok said Ms. Feroza's account freeze was not related to the Uighur video and was a moderation error.
44:08It lifted the ban after she raised concerns.
44:11TikTok has consistently denied it would provide user data to the Chinese government and says personal information is safe and remains in the U.S.
44:20Its U.S. operation was spared by a federal judge before Biden revoked Trump's ban in 2021.
44:31Frankly, the reason TikTok was so successful is it took the average consumer and certainly the average senator years to figure out that it was a Chinese company.
44:41And despite Jan Yiming becoming Asia's richest man, in 2021 he left his posts.
44:55It is thought that his skills are being realigned with party ambitions.
45:01He wants to do something even more impactful for the world.
45:06I believe he's working on those other new frontier technologies now.
45:14And one frontier technology to have taken off is the drone.
45:19China is home to the world's largest drone company, DJI.
45:23Frank Wang is one of China's formidable baby billionaires.
45:36Frank Wang was China's youngest billionaire and he's always been very interested in helicopters so it's not surprising that drones became his forte.
45:46The commercial drone industry is big business. It's worth well over 18 billion dollars globally.
45:55China dominates. DJI has an 80% share of the market.
46:03Drones are today used in many inventive ways.
46:06From delivering medication and even organ donations to reaching awkward places in industry.
46:15And covering large areas of land.
46:18The future looks ambitious for transport.
46:25Light shows are already challenging firework displays to be the most awe-inspiring.
46:30Wang's dreams began when he crashed a remote-controlled helicopter his parents bought him.
46:41He decided to fix it himself.
46:44He got interested in controller technology for helicopters and from that hooked up with friends and partners.
46:55Wang headed to Shenzhen in 2006 to find his fortune.
47:00He just innovated and innovated as personal drones were coming up.
47:07Like many other Chinese success stories, it was input from a Western firm that helped Wang take flight globally.
47:16With the American market, what he did was he teamed up with an American.
47:20The two developed drones with cameras that could record aerial footage and presented DJI with American marketing.
47:28You would go to the DJ offices in Shenzhen and it looked like Silicon Valley because it was as many foreigners as Chinese.
47:36They didn't have Chinese on their name cards because they didn't want to be Huawei.
47:40Although DJI grew from strength to strength, Wang's desire to avoid the same plight as Huawei failed in 2020.
47:49The Financial Times reported the U.S. looking to add more Chinese tech and healthcare companies to its economic blacklist.
47:58This included the world's largest maker of drones, DJI included.
48:02Like Huawei, DJI was labeled a national security threat, with U.S. companies prevented from supplying it parts.
48:11In 2021, it was alleged that its drones were used in the surveillance and repression of the Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province.
48:21Drone footage of shackled and shaved prisoners was leaked, leading to widespread condemnation.
48:31DJI has denied that it poses a national security threat to the U.S.
48:38And has rejected claims it assisted the commission of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
48:44But armies of drones are becoming more prevalent in the control of China's citizens.
48:51Astonishing footage of their use in monitoring and commanding the public swept social media and reached international news streams.
49:16The country taking some extraordinary measures to contain this outbreak.
49:21Drones were used to surveil the areas under quarantine.
49:31And so if you had people who were in the fields out for walks that they weren't supposed to be there,
49:36the drones would be used to basically identify them.
49:38And they actually had speakers on them to tell them that they needed to go home.
49:42China has become the world's most prolific surveillance state.
49:59It introduced concepts like social credit, which monitors the behaviour of individuals and give a rating to that,
50:16which will then affect whether that individual can or cannot do certain things.
50:21For example, whether one can take a high-speed train to travel in China or not.
50:29Whether one is allowed to get out of the country or not.
50:33Positive ratings are given to those displaying good behaviour such as volunteering or using green technology.
50:40But a negative rating is applied to those not complying.
50:46For example, failing to recycle correctly.
50:49Or parking in the wrong spot.
50:54And if citizens are unsure what constitutes good behaviour,
50:59they can turn to the digital equivalent of Mao's Little Red Book.
51:02For some, this is compulsory.
51:03They are spending significant time on their phone on this app called
51:14Xi Jinping Thought, basically.
51:17They have to watch videos of Xi Jinping's speeches.
51:20They've got to read documents.
51:24And then they've got to take tests.
51:25And the answers to that test go up to a central database.
51:28The first thing I do when I wake up is to answer the test questions.
51:35Of course it's meaningful, so your mindset won't be loosened.
51:39And since 2018, Xi Jinping has made it mandatory for any organisation over three members
51:47to contain a party cell.
51:49These cells support members, but only in return for growing loyalty to the regime.
51:55The first consideration of Chinese education is to train people, embrace the party's leadership, and support their leader.
52:05The smartphone created frictionless living, but not without a footprint.
52:10Combined with artificial intelligence, CCTV, QRs, sophisticated facial recognition, and Huawei's powerful 5G network.
52:25The party has taken what it needs from its tech tycoons.
52:29Technology can be used to destabilize a very authoritarian system.
52:36It can also be used to strengthen the capacity of those authoritarian systems to stay in power.
52:45Xi Jinping is highly popular among the masses.
52:49But could Xi fully close down the Bling dynasty?
52:56Or will the hostile landscape push the next generation abroad?
53:01More and more Chinese entrepreneurs are leaving the country.
53:04So in the future, when we look at a Chinese billionaire list, we may see entrepreneurs who are working on businesses that aren't even available in China.
53:19Given China's tightening authoritarian ideology, though, will the Western world ever be as welcoming to its highly ambitious next generation?
53:28The Chinese government's actions and distrust is ruining their ability to be global entrepreneurs.
53:37That's a very, very sad thing to see happening.
53:40Customers of China
53:56ney
54:03Legenda Adriana Zanotto
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