From Poverty to Prosperity: The Rise of China's Number One Town

Thrown back to 1998, Li Qingshan becomes the city's youngest secretary—then his mentor dies on his first day, leaving him to sink or swim. With his career on the line and a struggling rural town under his watch, he takes a gamble: flood relief, factory development, and pioneering e-commerce in an era before the internet boom. Against all odds, he transforms a forgotten backwater into "the world's number one town," lifting thousands from poverty. As the town flourishes, so does his political career—but can he keep his meteoric achievements under wraps as he climbs toward the nation's highest of…