China: The Making of a Nation

China: The Making of a Nation is the story of the painful transformation of the vast Qing Empire into the Chinese nation after the 1911 revolution. Spanning more than a century up to the Xi Jinping era, the story pits the two pivotal leaders of this transformation against each other: Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China for 47 years, and Mao Zedong, who rose from ‘red bandit’ to master of the mainland in 1949. Sworn enemies, they fought a merciless battle: first military, then diplomatic, and finally, beyond their deaths, in the conflicting memories of the Taiwanese and the Chinese of the People's Republic. Beyond their fierce hatred, the two tyrants also had much in common: a certain vision of Chinese territory and the greatness of China, the desire to regain the country's sovereignty and the quest for a Chinese identity in a nation that also includes Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols... and a certain ability to rewrite history.

Documentary

Seasons

1. The Blue Sun

Air Date: 2026-02-10

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, China faced a historic turning point: how could the nation find its path to modernity? Under the symbol of the “Blue Sun,” Chiang Kai-shek carried forward the legacy of his mentor Sun Yat-sen, fighting to abolish foreign concessions and restore national sovereignty. From the revolutionary overthrow of the imperial dynasty to the era of Xi Jinping, China underwent a century-long transformation to reclaim its former greatness. The relentless struggle between the nationalist Chiang Kai-shek and the communist Mao Zedong forms a gripping historical panorama.

2. The Red Sun

Air Date: 2026-02-10

In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the “Blue Sun” of nationalist China seemed to be at its peak: it had reclaimed foreign concessions and become one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Yet behind this façade, corruption and brutality were rife. The Republic eventually fell in the civil war to Mao Zedong’s “Red Sun.” Defeated, Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, while Mao began reshaping the Chinese state according to his vision.

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