The series illustrates how dramatically China has changed in ways obvious and not-so-obvious, from the jumble of new skyscrapers in a city that barely existed two decades ago, to the drag bars that operate despite official disapproval.
The opening images drive home the point that the economic interests of the United States and China are intertwined. A woman laid off at a Briggs & Stratton plant in Missouri, wondering if she has the skills to find new work, contrasts with the company's thriving plant in China. Discovery traces an Ethan Allen sofa from its assemblage in China, the upholstery done in the United States, to its purchase by a rich couple in China.
"You may not think you care much about what is happening in China," Koppel told a reporter. "Let me tell you, what happens over there is going to make quite a difference with what is going to happen over here."
What is happening in the auto industry shows the complexity. China is adding 25,000 new vehicles a day, many to first-time buyers, and the country is embarked on a road-building binge similar to what happened in the United States during the Eisenhower administration.
More Buicks were sold in China last year than in the United States, and Ford increased its sales in China last year by 30 percent, the Discovery series says. Liberty Mutual insurance is setting down roots in a society where accident payoffs are often done in cash, on the spot. Now some Chinese automakers are looking to export their cars to the United States.
It is estimated that by 2030, China will have more cars on the road than the United States.
Gas prices are already heading toward $5 a gallon in the United States now. What happens when there's so much more need for oil?
"We're going to be competitive with these people, and whether that competition is resolved by collaboration or confrontation is really the big question for the next 20 years," said Koppel, the longtime "Nightline" host who was ABC News' Hong Kong bureau chief from 1969 to 1971.
He recalled asking citizens of China during the 1970s about their ambitions and hearing only that they wanted to do what was best for their country.
