AllMovie

This documentary, part of the 20th Century With Mike Wallace series from CBS News and the History Channel, takes a look at the People's Republic of China in the years since the death of ruler Mao Tse Tung. Narrated by series host and CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace, this episode first looks at how China thrived under Mao in an economic and political way. However, Mao's strong, ruthless leadership resulted in scars of human suffering on the country that will never go away. 20th Century With Mike Wallace features footage that was shot from inside China and documents how the rulers since Mao have coped and struggled. Deng Xiaoping worked on making China into a free market economy, even though it was still a Communist country. More recently, Jiang Zemin took China a step backwards after reports of some human rights violations and corruption under his rule.