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Review: ‘People’s Republic of Capitalism’

“Koppel on Discovery: The People’s Republic of Capitalism Discovery”

Debuted June 9-12, four stars out of four

Let one of the world’s best journalists tackle one of the world’s biggest stories, and we all end up the winners.

Filmed in China over an eight-month stretch, “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” is exactly what you’d expect from Ted Koppel: a well-reasoned, scrupulously reported, endlessly fascinating special, devoid of either fear-driven pessimism or blind-eyed optimism.

More interested in fostering understanding than assigning blame, Koppel spends his four-hour, four-night special attempting to find and explain the links and strains between our two countries — and telling a great story in the process.

There are no easy answers offered, just as there is no easy way of disentangling our complex economic ties. Ask the American worker profiled for the June 9 program, who lost her job when it was exported to China.

Unemployed, she saves money by shopping for low-cost Chinese-made imports at Wal-Mart. And she sees the bleak humor in the situation.

Rather than encamp in the more familiar Beijing or Shanghai, Koppel and his producers went where that job went: to “the Detroit of China,” Chongqing.

From the first shot of the skyline of this enormous metropolis, you’ll wonder how such a city could fly under our cultural radar, which is just one of program’s points.

Koppel’s curiosity, tenacity and dry humor make the lesson a pleasure. Fascinating moments abound, from the “nostalgic” evening devoted to “the good old days of the Cultural Revolution” to the energetic, pedal-to-the-metal anarchy caused by China’s late-blooming embrace of car culture.

By staying put for a prolonged stretch of time, Koppel is able to show us how large social issues play out in the lives of individuals: the dance hostess who becomes a salesgirl, the woman who succumbs to family pressure and stays married to her drunken, lazy husband.

The picture that emerges is of a country with significant economic advantages that faces equally significant stumbling blocks — one that is far from the monolith we sometimes imagine.

And to see that picture more clearly, you merely have to invest four hours in “Capitalism.”

How can you lose?