NHK Documentary

China the Great Dragon: Citizens Battle to Clear the Skies

"We will become an environmental superpower", China's leaders have declared. This program explores the daunting challenges facing this plan, in a country where nearly 1 million people are said to die from air pollution annually. Beijing has committed billions to clean skies and pledged to cut PM 2.5 pollution 45% by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Can these goals be met? NHK followed citizens battling air pollution in Wuhan, where neighbors of major industries are dying of cancer, and in the steelmaking cities of Qinhuangdao and Tangshan, known as the world's most polluted city. It is a stark reality: despite Beijing's pledges, cities and firms struggle to chart a new environmental path. Severe air pollution is the price of China's rapid economic growth. The program covers 3 years in the struggle to solve this problem.