2004-09-20

BEIJING - China has been on a spectacular economic rise for several years. It threatens to overtake Europe and the US as a global power. Is it a bubble that is about to burst, or should the West really fear the "yellow peril"? Who are China's modern-day gold-diggers, and are Chinese workers being exploited?

In the four-part series "Made in China", TerZake reporter Tom Van de Weghe and cameraman Wim D'hont seek answers to these questions. They spent several weeks travelling around China and knocking on the doors of various companies. Flemish entrepreneurs Thomas and Inge Baert, for example. Thomas has his own carpet and wood factories in Beijing and Shanghai, Inge searches for highly qualified Chinese on behalf of multinational companies. Their adventure looks more and more like a success story.

Meanwhile, more and more European workers are seeing their jobs move to China. Who are the Chinese taking their jobs? A portrait of the hellish life of the Chinese worker. "While people in our country discuss the 40-hour week, the Chinese work an average of 12 hours a day, almost seven days a week," says Tom Van de Weghe. " By the way, the dream of the worker we followed was 'to become a millionaire'. Well, the average Chinese will grow old, but at the wage he earns today, he will have to work for a couple of hundred years to become a millionaire".

There is also a focus on the Olympic Games, which will be 'made in China' for the first time in 2008. The city of Beijing is undergoing a metamorphosis, with a Fleming coordinating foreign investment. Old Beijing is giving way to the most futuristic designs, at the expense of traditional residential areas. And the population, well, they are forced to move.

China is also the counterfeit factory of the world. Around 80% of the world's counterfeit goods are produced in China. Even brands of Belgian origin such as Samsonite and Kipling - both active in China - are eagerly copied and sold illegally. The TerZake team saw this with their own eyes. Is this the price of doing business in China?

Tom Van de Weghe

Tom Van de Weghe (°1975) is an award-winning Belgian television journalist.
Tom Van de Weghe
€2,600 granted on 17/12/2003
ID
FPD/2003/263

TELEVISION

  • "Made in China" (four-part series), from Monday 20 September 2004 on TerZake, Canvas, 20u00. (In Dutch)