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China’s development is inseparable from its geography: rivers nurtured the growth of the civilization, while mountains, deserts and the Great Wall shielded it from external threats. Wars, concessions of territory and natural resources have shaped politics in China. Today, through the strategic exploitation of its geopolitical position, China has become a superpower with immense global influence.
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00:06China, a nation full of geographical diversity.
00:15From the peaks of the Himalayas to the dunes of the Gobi Desert.
00:21Rivers, mountains, and deserts have shaped, to a great extent, the maps we see today.
00:31Geography influences the development of the country.
00:36China is actually a fascinating concept. It's not just a country, it's a civilisation and an empire.
00:44China's history is characterised by power struggles, both internally and externally.
00:53How did China come to wield so much influence in the world?
01:0050% of reality, geography. The other 50% is human agency, it's human decisions.
01:09But how do geography and nature determine the course of one of the oldest civilisations in the world?
01:33China, a country of superlatives.
01:45China, a country of superlatives.
01:48China, a country in the world, after Russia, Canada, and the United States.
01:52Its borders, which are over 22,000 kilometres long, neighbour 14 other states.
02:06Today, around 1.4 billion people live in China.
02:10China. They belong to 56 recognised ethnic groups. Among them, the Han make up 91% of the population.
02:22China. But China is not only distinguished by its size, its strategic location is also remarkable.
02:32China is in the centre, and you have the satellite states around.
02:36And this actually is China's Sinocentrism. And this is actually the notion that China is at the centre of the
02:44world.
02:45This conception of the world is also based on China's geography.
02:50Because the Middle Kingdom is surrounded by natural borders.
02:56Rivers, mountains, and deserts have shaped, to a great extent, the maps we see today.
03:04Geologically, China resembles a gigantic staircase with three steps.
03:10The top step in the west is formed by highlands such as the Tsinghai-Tibet Plateau.
03:18The middle step consists of rugged mountain ranges, plateaus, and basins.
03:26The foothills of the mountains slope gradually from west to east.
03:33The lowest step, which stretches down to the coasts, is made up of extensive lowlands,
03:38with China's most important rivers and hilly regions in southern China.
03:44This has led to the development of two major climate zones that have a decisive influence on China's development.
03:51The Hulang dissects China, the rainfall line.
03:55And east of it is where the rain falls into this relatively fertile plains leading down to the sea between
04:02the two rivers.
04:04To the west, the Tibetan Plateau blocks humid air masses from the Indian Ocean.
04:10This gives the eastern Himalayas abundant precipitation, while northwest China remains dry.
04:17To the east, the Pacific monsoon brings a warm and humid climate.
04:22Together with the fertile soils along the Yangtze River, this enables intensive agriculture.
04:28Well, Chinese always say that we are the children of two rivers, right?
04:33The Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze in the south.
04:41At 6,300 kilometers, the Yangtze is not only the longest river in China,
04:48but also the third longest river in the world, after the Nile and the Amazon River.
04:59I think waterways become kind of a place where civilization actually comes together,
05:05because it becomes a source of important irrigation.
05:10Humans first settled along the Yangtze and other rivers in eastern China about 9,000 years ago.
05:18In the drier north, they initially grew millet.
05:22Meanwhile, the nutrient-rich clay soils along the rivers in the south are ideal for growing rice.
05:32From around 2,500 BC, rice became the main staple food in early China.
05:42An important sort of term in Chinese is when you greet somebody and say hello,
05:47it's not hello, it's mainly have you eaten.
05:50So have you eaten already tells you how much importance the Chinese culture ties to food.
05:59In order to use arable land and water more efficiently,
06:03rice farmers began to construct complex terrace systems.
06:14New rice varieties with higher yields and a shorter cultivation time
06:19further accelerated population growth.
06:31While rice cultivation in the south depends on the Yangtze,
06:36in the north, another river plays an important role in the history of China,
06:41the Huanghe, the Yellow River.
06:52The name comes from the high proportion of sediments that the river carries with it.
07:03These are deposited by the slow currents in the north China plain, forming fertile soils.
07:12This is both a blessing and a curse, because the constant change in the riverbed
07:18has led to catastrophic flooding time and again.
07:27From the very beginning, Chinese rulers had to prove that they were able to deal with water
07:33and provide emergency relief when something went wrong.
07:36That meant organizing large-scale hydraulic engineering projects.
07:41A dynasty had to make an effort to get people to actually take part in these things.
07:45So this was a culture where water management was the defining capacity of a ruler.
07:54Legend has it that the first dynasty in China emerged around 2000 BC.
08:05The beginning of the Chinese civilization, in China, traditionally, starting very early time
08:11off, it traces back to the so-called Xia dynasty, and that emerged after a cosmic flood.
08:18So we believe that Xia was a tribal union.
08:26Its legendary leader, King Yu, managed to create a complex system of canals
08:31and control the Huang He.
08:39According to the myths, he thus laid the foundation for Chinese culture.
08:47Archaeologists are still debating whether it is a real dynasty,
08:51that its power really projects upon major swaths of land of today's China,
08:56or just some kind of civilization. So there's still debate.
09:00The existence of the Xia dynasty is still disputed today.
09:05The following dynasty, the Shang under its founder, King Cheng Tang, is historically documented.
09:13The legacy of the Shang, the first Chinese writing, found on animal bones and tortoise shells.
09:25From 1600 BC, the Shang ruled over an extensive area between the Huang He and the Yangtze.
09:34But around 1045 BC, they were replaced by the Zhou dynasty.
09:41The Zhou introduced a centralized administration and reorganized China politically and economically.
09:54For a long time, peace and order prevailed.
09:58But the kingdom began to crumble.
10:01Local rulers fought each other for supremacy in bloody battles.
10:09In these troubled times, a man was born who continues to shape the country to this day.
10:17Confucius. While local rulers wrestled for power, the scholar developed a different version of coexistence.
10:24His credo is harmony and virtue instead of violence.
10:28In his teachings, family is the foundation of society and education is the path to wisdom.
10:34A just ruler watches over a hierarchical order.
10:38I think that's kind of the fluid concept that they're using today as well in terms of the China dream,
10:45the community of shared destiny. It's this idea of if you believe in these ideals,
10:50if you believe in these broad Confucian ideas, then you become Chinese.
10:59The teachings of Confucius did not find widespread acceptance during his lifetime.
11:05It was only in the following centuries that they became the guideline of Chinese culture.
11:11The end of the fifth century BC marked the beginning of the Warring States period.
11:18Several principalities fought for supremacy, which led to advances in technical and military development.
11:27The rival rulers fought countless battles. War and death determined the daily lives of the people.
11:42It was only in 221 BC that Qin Shi Huang emerged victorious from 250 years of war
11:51and united China as the first emperor.
12:01Some historians believe that the word Qin is the root of today's name China.
12:16China at almost 3 million square kilometers, the Qin empire spanned a vast territory.
12:25To better control it, Qin Shi Huang built a network of roads.
12:29He also introduced a unified system of weights and measurements, as well as a currency and writing system.
12:41The first emperor of China established 36 provinces and sent officials from the central court to these individual states.
12:50So that from this time on, a certain standard became a prerequisite for functioning politics in the entire empire.
13:02Standards that were set by the political center that in some cases have survived into the modern era.
13:10To protect him in the afterlife, Qin Shi Huang had an army of over 8,000 terracotta warriors made.
13:24To this day, the so-called terracotta army is seen as a symbol of his authoritarian rule and absolute claim
13:32to power.
13:45China is actually a fascinating concept. It's not just a country, it's a civilization and an empire.
13:53Despite its size, the empire repeatedly found itself threatened from the outside,
13:59especially by nomadic peoples from the north.
14:03As protection, China's first rulers built numerous defense structures.
14:10Under Qin Shi Huang, they were connected to form a continuous line of fortifications.
14:17The Great Wall of China is an enormous defensive structure made of stone, earth and wood,
14:24built to protect against the so-called barbarians from the north.
14:31Building walls in general is just one way of dealing with certain challenges from enemies.
14:43And from the 2nd century BC onwards, these were mainly the Siongnu, a steppe people from present-day Mongolia.
14:54Again and again, they carried out targeted raids along the border with China.
15:03The Chinese tried to keep the nomads out of the northern steppe.
15:08Now, Chinese history has always been characterized by an exchange between nomads in the north and agriculture in the south.
15:18Cattle breeding, for example, is something that has never really been practiced in China.
15:23They had nomads in the north for that.
15:26But despite this economic exchange, there were always military conflicts as well.
15:35The raids by the Siongnu were notorious.
15:39Without warning, they attacked villages, stole food, trade goods and weapons.
15:45But the border area was too vast to protect against them.
15:52That is why, from the 2nd century BC, the rulers of the Han dynasty had the wall extended.
16:02During this dynasty, the structure reached its greatest extent at over 10,000 kilometers in length,
16:09from the Gobi Desert to the Korean Peninsula.
16:14Every 5 kilometers, watchtowers were built, which played an important role in military communication.
16:22Soldiers used smoke and fire signals to transmit messages over long distances.
16:28It was one of the earliest forms of long-distance communication.
16:34The construction was not completed until the 17th century, however, after more than 2,000 years.
16:49With a total length of over 20,000 kilometers, the Great Wall now runs through northern China,
16:57passing through Beijing, Tianjin, 10 provinces and three autonomous regions.
17:05But this came at a price.
17:07Countless people fell victim to the extreme working conditions, accidents and attacks.
17:16While the Han dynasty tried to protect the north with walls,
17:20they were otherwise well-shielded by mountains and deserts.
17:24Ancient China was only connected to the countries of the West by a few roads.
17:33What really distinguishes China from other ancient civilizations is its remoteness from Central Asia.
17:41From Central Asia, relations with Europe have always been easier than with China.
17:49China's isolation was further intensified by powerful nomadic peoples such as the Xiongnu.
17:56It was only the expansion to the West under Emperor Wu that changed this.
18:02Conquests, but also alliances with other kingdoms were intended to guarantee security and trade.
18:12One of the first Chinese people to explore the West was the envoy Jiangqian.
18:17He crossed deserts and mountains, travelled to numerous countries and returned from Central Asia with valuable knowledge.
18:28It was the beginning of one of the most important trade routes in history.
18:32The Silk Road.
18:35Silk Road is hugely important in Chinese imagination and in fact much of the world's imagination.
18:41And it wasn't just silk that was traded along, it was also many goods and ideas.
18:47In this way, Buddhism spread to the East, while knowledge about paper and porcelain making reached the West.
18:57Chinese people are very aware that when they were inventing silk and gunpowder, most of the rest of the world,
19:05including ourselves, were living in essentially mud huts.
19:08This highly developed civilization also created the foundation for a sophisticated trading system.
19:15From 60 BC, the Han dynasty established a tribute system in which surrounding kingdoms offered gifts, such as rare animal
19:24skins, to the Chinese dynasty.
19:27In return, the emperor granted trade privileges and protection.
19:32The economy grew.
19:34During the Tang dynasty, trade routes flourished.
19:40With the brutal takeover of the Mongols in the early 13th century, under the leadership of Genghis Khan and later
19:48under Kublai Khan, new influences came from the north.
19:52The Mongols established a period of relative peace over a vast area, which encouraged safe trade.
20:06From the Mongol era onwards, we can see that this trade increased dramatically, leading to a complex network of relationships
20:16between the Chinese empire and the states further west.
20:27Over the centuries, a trade network with a total length of over 6,400 kilometers was established between Asia and
20:35Europe.
20:37Numerous cities, bases and cultural centers developed along the route, including Xi'an, Duanhuang and Kashgar.
20:59In the late Middle Ages, however, trade and exchange along the Silk Road declined.
21:07The rise of the Ottoman Empire from the end of the 13th century made it more difficult to exchange goods
21:14through Asia Minor.
21:16The Ottomans controlled important cities such as Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem, and demanded high custom duties.
21:31China's answer, the sea.
21:34Eighty years before Columbus, the Middle Kingdom embarked on the greatest maritime adventure in its history.
21:40In 1405, Emperor Zhong Le, of the Ming Dynasty, sent Admiral Zhong He on a mission.
21:48His fleet was gigantic.
21:51Over 240 ships and more than 27,000 crew members.
21:57Those were the largest fleets in the world at that time, and they came as far as Africa, or are
22:03said to have done so.
22:03It's not that easy to pinpoint exactly where they actually went, but it is clear that relations between Africa and
22:11China also existed at that time.
22:14Between 1405 and 1433, this armada crossed the seas seven times.
22:20It is said that the fleet reached more than 30 coastal countries and islands, from Southeast Asia to the African
22:26coast and Mecca.
22:28China established a network of new trade relations, thus expanding its maritime presence.
22:35Wherever Zheng He's ships landed, new markets opened up.
22:40Unlike the later European explorers, China was set on peaceful trade rather than conquest.
22:48They brought gifts such as tea, silk and porcelain.
22:56In return, they received exotic animals from Africa, such as giraffes, lions and elephants.
23:06Europeans also sought alternative routes.
23:09In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail and accidentally reached the Americas.
23:16Six years later, Vasco da Gama found the direct sea route to India.
23:21A revolution in world trade began.
23:25Europe's ships transported more goods faster and cheaper.
23:30The shift initiated the end of the historical Silk Road.
23:37As a result, these European nations began to develop a real presence in East and Southeast Asia.
23:45Portugal established its first settlement on Chinese soil in Macau as early as 1557.
23:52What began as a small outpost quickly became a bridgehead for European expansion in Asia.
24:01When the Qing dynasty opened itself to Europeans in the 18th century, the emperor initially restricted trade to the city
24:09of Canton.
24:10There were strict rules for European merchants there.
24:14This also applied to the British East India Company, which wanted to open up new markets in China.
24:21The empire only accepted silver from them in return for tea, porcelain and silk.
24:27Because silver was scarce and expensive, the British resorted to a different means of payment.
24:32And this was actually the reason why England began exporting opium from India.
24:41North India, which had large cultivation areas of poppies, to China on a large scale.
24:50And the Chinese didn't like it. They quickly saw what this drug could do.
24:58Millions of Chinese became addicted, causing massive social and economic problems.
25:08In 1839, one of the emperor's governors ordered the destruction of around 1,000 tons of opium.
25:16Britain saw its interests threatened and sent warships.
25:19The first opium war began and ended after three years with China's surrender.
25:26Shortly after, the weakened empire also lost the second opium war between 1856 and 1860.
25:35These conflicts marked the beginning of what was known as the century of humiliation for China.
25:43So, eventually, more and more Western powers came to the small parts of China,
25:49tried to nibble away the borderlands, forcing on in unequal trading terms, demanding extraterriority, etc.
25:59After the Opium Wars, Hong Kong became a British crown colony.
26:0516 port cities had to open their markets to the West.
26:09Numerous European trading posts sprang up along the coast and inland.
26:16Russia also took advantage of China's vulnerability.
26:20The Middle Kingdom was forced to cede huge territories.
26:24Over half a million square kilometers changed hands.
26:28One of the largest territorial losses in China's history.
26:33At the core, this involved the region around Vladivostok with its ice-free port.
26:41Russia thus secured strategic access to the Pacific.
26:49The Qing Dynasty gradually lost control over the economy and trade.
26:54A situation that the Europeans increasingly exploited for their own interests.
27:00In Shandong province, this led to tensions among the population.
27:05When two German missionaries were killed in the so-called Zhu Ye incident in 1897,
27:12the German Empire responded by occupying Chinese territories.
27:21Other major powers also secured raw materials and strategic positions.
27:27Great Britain forced China to lease it the so-called new territories around the crown colony of Hong Kong
27:35for the next 99 years.
27:41So, and also having sort of the lease of Hong Kong and the new territories and Macau under Portugal,
27:48you actually saw that China was no longer the Middle Kingdom.
27:51They were now receiving end of colonialism.
27:57In 1899, the Middle Kingdom was on the brink of collapse.
28:02The Boxers, a secret society of martial arts practicing farmers from the North East,
28:08started a rebellion against the growing influence of the West.
28:12Contrary to popular belief, the rebels initially directed their anger not against the colonial powers,
28:19but against their own countrymen, Chinese Christians and missionaries.
28:24What began as a local conflict quickly spread.
28:30The Qing Imperial Court saw its chance.
28:38Relatively quickly, there was also the idea of using these Boxers to take action against the foreigners.
28:46A little later, the so-called Boxer Rebellion escalated.
28:51The rebels besieged Beijing and attacked Christians and foreigners.
28:56In the end, the rebellion was brutally suppressed by an international alliance,
29:01including Great Britain, Germany and Japan.
29:10China was forced to surrender and sign the Boxer Protocol.
29:21So it's very much this kind of experience of being in the Middle Kingdom center,
29:27put up on a pedestal, and then being brought down by the Unequal Treaties,
29:32being told they were an inferior civilization, because the Unequal Treaties actually placed
29:38the Chinese civilization below the European civilization.
29:43The agreement called for heavy reparations and a permanent foreign military presence.
29:58So it's very much a huge shift in history, going from dynastic periods to the Republican period.
30:07So the dynastic period was ended, and that has a lot to do with the experience of Western colonialism.
30:20For more than 2,000 years, powerful dynasties shaped China's history.
30:26They united the empire, promoted trade and culture, advanced science and technology,
30:32and established connections with distant regions.
30:35Under their rule, China rose to become a cultural and economic superpower.
30:43At the beginning of the 20th century, Western powers and a starving population increasingly put
30:49pressure on the ruling dynasty. The death of the controversial Empress Dowager,
30:55Tsixi in 1908, finally ended years of mismanagement. Her successor was the two-year-old Pu Yi. But even his
31:04regents
31:05could no longer stop the decline of the Qing. After almost 4,000 years, the Chinese empire ended as a
31:13result of a revolution.
31:15On January 1st, 1912, the Republic was proclaimed.
31:23The nationalist party Kuomintang, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, entered the political arena.
31:31Its goal, to rebuild a modern and strong nation-state.
31:38While the Kuomintang fought for control over the country, Shanghai developed into China's most important
31:45trade and finance center. France, Great Britain and the United States administered
31:50concession areas in the port city with their own laws. But the nationalists also generated a large part
31:57of their income in Shanghai.
32:02This contrasted with extreme poverty and exploitation of the rural population.
32:10The conditions for the existence of this republic were extremely difficult.
32:16Inspired by the Russian Revolution and the fight against social injustice, students and intellectuals
32:23founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
32:29The brother-in-law of the late Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, took over the leadership of the
32:35nationalist Kuomintang in 1925 and became head of state in 1928.
32:43Conflicts between the nationalists and the communists, as well as economic crises, rocked the republic.
32:50Japan saw this as an opportunity.
32:54The East Asian rival had set its sights on North East China. The reason, Japan needed raw materials
33:01for its expansion plans and growing industry. Manchuria is rich in coal and oil and has fertile soils.
33:14In 1931, Japan occupied the region and established the puppet state of Manchukuo.
33:21It's completely reversed. And I think it's become worse with not just Western colonialism,
33:27but you also have Japanese colonialism that follows afterwards. And this is really like,
33:33you know, putting the salt in the wound.
33:45In 1937, Japan once again attempted to seize power in Asia in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
33:52And at all costs, it did. In the Nanking Massacre, Japanese troops murdered over 200,000
34:00civilians and prisoners of war. Chinese nationalists and communists
34:06fought side by side against their common enemy, Japan.
34:14This situation ultimately led to the Second World War beginning in China in 1937,
34:20two years before it began in Europe.
34:24A year later, China had its back to the wall. The Japanese army was advancing further and further
34:32inland. Cities fell, millions fled. In this desperate situation, the Chinese leadership took drastic measures.
34:42Chiang Kai-shek ordered the advance of the Japanese army to be slowed down. Water was used as a weapon
34:49against the Japanese. The strategy, the river dikes and the town of Hua Yuenco were to be destroyed.
34:57On June the 9th, 1938, disaster struck. The provinces of Hernan, Anhui and Jiangsu,
35:06and a total of 44 counties fell victim to the floods. The affected area stretched for approximately
35:13400 kilometers, about as long as Ireland. The floods claimed up to a million lives.
35:24There is even a saying, yi shui dai bing, meaning to use water as soldiers. That, of course,
35:32is a very brutal way of waging war.
35:39And it was only after the US dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945,
35:46that Japan's war of expansion in China also came to an end.
35:53In 1945, Japan surrenders. China has won the war.
35:59Japan surrendered unconditionally.
36:04Conquered territories such as Taiwan and Manchuria were returned to China.
36:10After the peace agreement, the civil war between the nationalists and the communists under Mao Zedong
36:16continued.
36:19By the time Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China on October 1st, 1949,
36:25China had experienced half a century of crises, wars and revolutions.
36:31But the new communist leadership offered hope.
36:39We shall establish a great, strong and real People's Democratic Republic of China.
36:45The Republic of the past has done a falsehood.
36:49It had a good name, but liked it.
36:52Mao's slogan was that you have to smash everything.
36:57So from a new piece of paper, you can paint the nicest painting.
37:02China is now like the moving sun, rising from the east,
37:07which brightens the earth with its light.
37:10But not everyone followed Mao's vision.
37:13Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang, admitted defeat.
37:18Up to two million supporters left the mainland with him.
37:23Their destination, Taiwan.
37:26There, Chiang Kai-shek founded the Republic of China in 1949,
37:31which was set apart from the communist People's Republic.
37:36A divided nation with divided ideologies emerged.
37:41A conflict that continues to this day.
37:45After Chiang Kai-shek fled, Mao Zedong first turned his gaze westwards.
37:52Tibet was to become part of the communist People's Republic.
37:56Mao's strategic interests followed a geographical fact.
38:00Tibet. Whoever controls the sources also controls the rivers.
38:05This is because the Yangtze, Huanghe, but also the Ganges and the Mekong originate in Tibet.
38:13As early as October 1950, soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet.
38:21A 17-point agreement secured China full control over Tibet.
38:28And over access to drinking water for several hundred million people.
38:36Following his geopolitical success, Mao turned to domestic politics
38:41and to his biggest project to date, economic and social reforms.
38:53Mao Zedong tried to rectify this by saying, we must re-educate the peasants.
39:00Where they should also work in a kind of collective blast furnaces,
39:05alongside their agricultural work.
39:14Mao Zedong tried to rectify this by saying, we must re-educate the peasants.
39:16We must re-educate the peasants, which produced crude iron, which cracked and splintered.
39:19Which was, in a word, useless.
39:24The forced modernization of China failed.
39:28Severe famines claimed up to 45 million lives.
39:32The Great Leap Forward drove the People's Republic into an economic and social abyss,
39:38and was abandoned after only three years.
39:56In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping took a different approach.
40:00The new Communist Party leader prioritized economic success over ideological principles.
40:06And with economic reforms, he turned the country's attention back to the coastal regions.
40:19In 1980, four cities were declared special economic zones.
40:24Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xi'anmen.
40:29In 1984, 14 more coastal cities opened up to foreign investment and international trade.
40:37One year later, three delta regions followed suit.
40:40And in 1988, Hainan Island was made the fifth and largest special economic zone.
40:47I think this coastal region and the inner region of China are completely different countries.
40:52The coastal region has all of the industry, all of the electronics, all of the trade.
40:58So essentially, most of the economic activity is concentrated in the coastal regions.
41:06Foreign companies benefited from favorable production conditions, low wages, and lax environmental regulations.
41:15China developed into the workbench of the world and started producing many goods exclusively for export.
41:32What was interesting about these special economic zones was that suppliers delivered to these special economic zones.
41:38And in doing so, they created large economic zones that went well beyond these small territories
41:46and could act as a kind of economic engine for the whole of China.
41:52The special economic zones became a driver of economic success.
41:58And they paved the way for the country's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.
42:04A milestone for the Chinese economy.
42:07Low custom duties and clear rules ensured further growth.
42:13The strategy worked.
42:14By 2019, the People's Republic of China had overtaken the United States as the world's largest trading nation.
42:22Most countries today have close economic ties with China.
42:26At the same time, critics accused China of undermining WTO rules through subsidies and currency manipulation.
42:36In 2013, Xi Jinping came to power.
42:40The party leader sees himself in the tradition of Chinese rulers, a strong leader for a strong state.
42:48His policies have cemented an unspoken social contract.
42:52Prosperity for the population in exchange for political obedience.
42:58Xi Jinping's goals are China's economic independence and the reorganization of the international order,
43:04China at the top.
43:06The so-called Belt and Road Initiative is a central instrument of the plan.
43:12So the China Dream or rejuvenation or China that they can be proud about becomes very important.
43:18And this is really what's at the core of the Belt and Road Initiative and the China Dream.
43:23That China is actually leading.
43:25China is a new China that's actually being rejuvenating.
43:28Going and pushing things like the center of humiliation into the past.
43:34The Belt and Road Initiative explicitly draws on China's history.
43:42Like the historic Silk Road, this megaproject connects the continents
43:47and is intended to consolidate China's role in world trade.
43:52Ports, railways and economic corridors stretch from Asia across Africa to Europe.
43:58And China's pursuit of power is controversial.
44:02In the autonomous province of Xinjiang, the dark side of Xi Jinping's authoritarian policy
44:09is particularly evident.
44:13Xinjiang connects China with Central Asia and Europe via numerous trade routes.
44:19And with transportation hubs like Kashgar and Urumqi, it is of economic and strategic importance.
44:26The problem?
44:28For centuries, the region has been inhabited mostly by Muslim Turkic peoples.
44:33Their cultural independence is a nuisance to the Chinese government.
44:40Observers report massive human rights violations against the Muslim population,
44:46including the use of re-education camps.
44:53China's internal political tensions are more opaque
44:58because it's not a democracy, it's an authoritarian system.
45:03But we should not underestimate the political and economic tensions inside China.
45:10The result? Activists and journalists are closely monitored.
45:14Critical reporting is severely restricted.
45:16In addition, state control is present in many aspects of everyday life.
45:22A social credit system, for example, evaluates the behaviour of the population,
45:27which can lead to travel restrictions or career disadvantages if rules are broken.
45:35In the face of these internal and external tensions, China is seeking new allies.
45:41With the BRICS partnership, Beijing wants to create a counterweight to the dominance of the West.
45:52Co-operations with four other emerging markets from 2024,
45:57but also the desired departure from the US dollar as the world currency,
46:01as well as international infrastructure projects, have alarmed the other industrialised nations.
46:10The USA and Japan see themselves threatened, and not just in their economic supremacy.
46:21At the moment, China's great economic success over the past three decades
46:28has put it in a position to further expand its military presence in the areas it claims.
46:39For China, the sea plays a central role. It secures its influence by creating numerous trade and military bases.
46:49Yet China's interpretation of international maritime law is controversial.
46:58Because that is strictly regulated, the first 22 kilometres are under the control of the coastal state.
47:05A further 348 kilometres are considered an exclusive economic zone,
47:11with special rights for fishing and the extraction of natural resources.
47:16Behind that begins the high seas, to which no one can actually lay claim.
47:26It's important to know that the policy being implemented now is by no means a new policy.
47:32Zhou Enlai, who represented China on the international stage in the 1950s, always said,
47:37this South China Sea is Chinese. This is stated in ancient Chinese sources. Such and such people
47:44went fishing there. There were Chinese on such and such islands. And this is why they are marked on old
47:50maps with Chinese names. So it's all Chinese territory.
47:58China relies on historical maps that give the country sovereignty over large parts of the South China Sea.
48:10The area claimed extends over approximately 2 million square kilometres, bounded by a line known as the Nine Dash Line.
48:19This is equal to a fifth of the current territory of China.
48:25To this day, China has developed numerous strategies to circumvent maritime law agreements in force.
48:36Chinese are not just building ports all over the world. They are building artificial islands in the South China Sea.
48:45What they do is they find a rocky reef, which they claim is in their territory. Often it's claimed by
48:53other countries, sometimes several.
48:55If you pour enough concrete on that reef, eventually you'll have an island. And they are physically creating facts in
49:01the sea.
49:03Many of these military bases have missiles with a range of up to 400 kilometres.
49:10Enough to threaten ships and aircraft throughout the region and expand China's sphere of influence.
49:23These demonstrations of power are causing tensions. The US and its allies want to ensure free shipping with
49:31freedom of navigation operations and see China's expansionist policy as a danger to international order and stability.
49:40There will come a point at some point in this century, probably where one side or the other will use
49:49this situation to make a point.
49:52Which is why politically now China insists upon sovereignty and politically now the Americans insist on freedom of navigation.
50:01The policy of distancing itself from the West reveals a fundamental change.
50:06With Xi Jinping's strategic reorientation, China is strengthening its global position.
50:13At the same time, the internal power structures within China are gradually coming into focus.
50:20So the ultimate question is one of leadership because Xi Jinping is a hardcore Leninist.
50:28He's taking power away from the experts and giving it to communist ideologues.
50:34That cannot mean well for China's future. So it will ultimately depend on the quality and the wisdom of decision
50:43makers.
50:46The pursuit of internal stability and foreign policy independence has shaped China's history.
50:53With power politics, economic success and new technologies, the country is overcoming its geographical limitations.
51:02But China's rapid rise is also creating new tensions and conflicts.
51:09The battle for global supremacy with the United States has the potential to fundamentally change the international order.
51:18The way the world of the United States has the potential to be recovered and isurmounted in a world.
51:21The.
51:38The.
51:39The.
51:39The.
51:39The.
51:39The.
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