Martin Smith on China Under Xi

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

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4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Longtime FRONTLINE correspondent and director Martin Smith returns to talk about his latest documentary, China, the U.S. &the Rise of Xi Jinping.

With President Trump vowing larger tariffs in his second term, the documentary examines China’s rise to economic prominence, the life and vision of its longstanding leader, and rising tensions with the United States over issues such as trade and the future of Taiwan.

Smith sat down with FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath to talk about the challenges of making the documentary — including not being able to film inside China — and why he chose to focus on the life and career of President Xi.

“He's the leader of our chief global rival, and I think a lot about him is not understood,” Smith told Aronson-Rath. “We thought it was important for people to understand who he is, where he came from, what made him into the man he is.”

You can watch China, the U.S. & the Rise of Xi Jinping, from the award-winning team of Smith, producer and director Marcela Gaviria and producer Brian Funck, on FRONTLINE’s website, FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel and the PBS App.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One thing I have to do is economically take on China, because China has been ripping us off
0:09.2	for many years.
0:10.5	In American foreign policy, perhaps no relationship is more important and complex than
0:16.3	the one between the United States and China.
0:19.4	China is a peer country with the United States today. Frontline's new documentary, China, the United States and China. China is a peer country with the United States today.
0:22.6	Frontline's new documentary, China, the U.S. and the rise of Xi Jinping
0:27.0	examines China's rise to economic prominence, and it investigates China's policies under President Xi.
0:33.6	For many Chinese, Xi Jinping is the name you cannot see.
0:39.2	He has chosen to go down the route of consolidating power.
0:44.2	You can read his speeches, and it's all there.
0:48.0	Correspondent and director Martin Smith joins me to talk about his newest documentary.
0:52.9	China is kind of a main event, in my view.
0:56.0	I'm Rainey Aronson Roth, editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline,
1:00.3	and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:08.8	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence
1:13.9	in journalism and by the Frontline Journalism Fund with major support from John and Joanne Hagler.
1:21.1	Martin Smith, thank you so much for joining me on the dispatch.
1:24.8	Oh, it's very good to be here.
1:26.6	So let's talk about the first conversations you and I had about China and what led you
1:31.9	on this journey over the last year and a half.
1:35.6	You know, when we began the project, China was rising in terms of concern over
1:42.1	worsening U.S. relations. I think it was January of 2023 that this odd
	...

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