On October 1, 1949, the People’s Reublic of China came into being following the victory of Mao Tse-tung’s forces over the Kuomintang, which fled to the island of Taiwan. Thus the Communists completed a revolution begun by the idealistic Sun Yat-sen in the early 1920s. This program documents how Sun’s idealism came under Bolshevik guidance; the roles of the young Chiang Kai-shek and Mao; the Long March and the conflict between Chiang and Mao; the Japanese invasion of China; and Mao’s victory and installation as Chairman of the People’s Republic. The program shows how Mao’s administration began to organize 700 million people into one united China within the framework of communism; China’s intervention in the Korean War; the growing warmth and subsequent ideological split between Beijing and Moscow; the military incidents on the Sino-Soviet border; the occupation of Tibet; China’s development and testing of nuclear bombs; and Richard Nixon’s visit to China. The program covers the beginning and end of the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s death, the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, and ends with Gorbachev’s visit to Beijing and the Tiananmen massacre. (25 minutes, b&w/color)