now for our reporter series, jared rate will have more well news headlines for you at the top of the hour. until then there's always a website, d, w dot com. i'm rebecca, which is invalid. thanks very much things. who's on the green? do you feel worried about the business? on neil's host of the, on the green fence, pasco, we need to change join me for the green transformations for me to use for the women in asia in the me,

for the all the money and money on the loan. but the voices, the only way i can be on top is to create my own empire this weekend on d. w. ah, this is the drink that greases the wheels in china. the count of mammal time is home to the world's most valuable liquor. brand is corrupt officials prefer it because they only drink the most expensive brand and the love of it, and i was the price to go up to the as

an investigative journalist, your who had stalled curling case. it's an exposed, corrupt officials. his work led to him spending a year behind bars. now he's come to mount time. home to china is most popular. liquor brand wants to go to the region dollar. this is going to and enterprise has come china's most valuable company. it's overtaken the country's biggest bank in valley. well, well i think there's a story here to investigate. pen wasn't guys joseph. here's what i'm interested in doing what this company suffers from all the hills. the chinese government suffers from the rocker. c lies and all sorts of inefficient

oversight and michelle, the doing what the story is, no tie. liquor goes back to china. the civil war in the 900 thirty's. when chiang kai shek nationalist troops were pursuing the communists, the red army embarked on a one year long escape known as the long march. in southern china they came across the town is now ty, home to some fine distilleries. it was a thrilling experience as some soldiers later wrote home in their memoirs when we opened the sellers, the fragrance would fill a nostrils the owner was a well known reactionary. of course we confiscated those soldiers who could hold their liquor,

drank all they could. those who couldn't get apart so their feet in it. ah, it's a story of expropriation in excess. although the drinks official history is rather different. shoot ya is a research assistant at the central committee's party history institute to the law paid for everything to me. they didn't take anything from the citizen last place. they were excited about trying to listen to that. they had to find that. so they didn't drink honestly, which was not everybody likes to drink as much as those soldiers did. one american journalist famously refer to it as liquid razor blades in china. spirits like melted are called by jewel or white alcohol gum. the american entrepreneurs, derek san house, has lived in china for

a long time. he's written 2 books on chinese drinking culture. now tie is what's called a saucer rama bought style by joe. that tends to be very savory as you've got like all the sesame, not kind of like chocolate coffee and also like more kind of out there flavors like mushroom or even like fermented bean pays. rachel has been enjoyed for centuries as a cheap, effective drink when the communist came to power, their priorities were clear, the the very 1st business place and the issue was to bite your factory. the red star distillery and bridging they took a drink that had been up to that point very much like a peasant to workers, farmers drink. and they elevated it to a position of prestige because they were looking to make drinks that were celebrated by the normal working people and make those more popular than what the

lease were drinking. so they began setting up by jo distilleries all over the country. it didn't take long for the communists to remember the small family owned distilleries in the town of mount high jewel. they want to create a big state and enterprise that would provide them with that. so they expropriated the owners to about one of them, didn't agree to hand over the factory was so they executed all that. but i don't feel who has published several articles about ty, he search through archives and talk to witnesses for him. it's not true history. morality represents the vices of modern china. does he look like the liquor,

the chinese bureaucrats like from i don't drink any other liquor, she has an entrepreneur. it has to buy this liquor, do they feel it's expensive? how do they have to buy it? and it has to be this liquor, i don't mean otherwise, they won't be able to establish a relationship with the officials. that the power of the chinese government is to be still. you need to keep the officials happy. otherwise you will have bad fortune . the thing showing is system of state controlled capitalism. bribes are often the only way to get things done. ah, the who's the counted mount high, his long become one with the brand that it hosts tens of thousands of inhabitants have been moved elsewhere to make room for the distillery. as far as you can see in all amounts hi, group kind of family rooms are private liquor factory within sight of the state and

distillery. since china allowed private businesses in the 1900 eighty's, thousands of small distilleries have set up shop in town. the liquor is made from sorghum and wheat, fermented in pits in the earth. unlike western distilled liquors, this one is for meant to dry smell the liquor freight jo authorized for the distillation process, the grainy mass is piled into giant steamer then water is boiled in the steam passes through the mash, releasing the alcohol from the fermented grain is a technique that is unique to chinese spirit production the liquor is then aged in earthenware jars up. all of them are 2

times by storage with us when later, when the kids get married, there's an anniversary. we bought it for them and send it over like g, like you're going to get this services their business model at the famous state own distillery. only top officials can get that treatment me by the late 19 fifties. the drink had become so important to the communist, but nothing would stand in its way. not even catastrophe. at the time now to tongue so called creek leaped forward, led to an economic disaster. the experiment and collectivist ation produced one of the biggest famines in human history. tens of millions of people starve to death. yet the government is fine. green quote is to make sure the mouth tie factory

wouldn't run out of stock. while farmers were starving in the field, the factory continued producing liquor for the party. li it was joe in line, china's 1st premier who made malakai the drink estate banquets, actually he knew well, and he was an experienced drinker. his ability to hold his liquor was well known, and he'd been fond of it since the long barge. now he served it just for visitors. most famously to richard nixon on his 1st visit to china tie became china's official diplomatic drink. that made it even more prestigious for chinese consumers. ah, today the now tie company is worth almost 350000000000 euros journalist,

yo who suspects that the brand that fuels china's corruption, may itself not be on the level. he's travelling to a nearby town by merchants. amount time company has registered an appalachian of origin. will them also own experience produced in the town of mild ty, because now tie them of the economy produced elsewhere but here 50 kilometers for malakai. he discovers that the company is building huge production facilities to meet steadily rising demand. the firm has launched various products, costing between a few dozen to several 100 euros dio, who finds out that some of it is being produced here and not in mount high itself. as opposed to them, sides are often operating the

newer one cares when they do is if the supervisory agent don't exist, simpleton value the for you who the story is now tie is one of corruption. but for many customers, the brands proximity to power makes it even more desirable. a few years ago when president cheech and pings started, his anti corruption campaign prices of mountain dropped. but today there on the rise again, a bottle of its premium brand sells for more than 200 euros. and even the cheaper varieties do, well, the vendor says this one has just risen by more than 10 euros. it was under 20. no,

it's at 30. she says, has a very often door, and there are many people who collect who see it has an investment by the bottles not to drink, to store things sometimes on your founder to them. it's not so much liquor anymore. as a financial product agent wasn't john milton is the spirit of the powerful in china who intends to keep it in his sights. ah, ah, ah, the me

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