A screen capture from "China's Challenges". [Photo/Weibo]

China-US co-production "China's Challenges" has garnered an Emmy Award in Los Angeles, making history for such bilateral collaboration, said the show's producer on Sunday.

US expert on China Robert Kuhn, also known for his book "How China's Leaders Think", said he and his team were delighted that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles has awarded an Emmy to their TV series for "pioneering presentation of China's historic transformation and today's challenges."

"It is good for the world to understand what is really happening in China," he told Xinhua in Beijing, where he is working on another show with China Central Television.

"China's Challenges" explores with unique access and in cinematic detail how China is addressing critical issues, including wealth and education distribution, social problems, environmental protection, competing priorities, and relations between China's rich traditional culture and its rapidly modernizing society.

The series was co-produced by The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), an American public broadcaster and television program distributor and The Kuhn Foundation in association with Shanghai Media Group. It was created, written and hosted by Kuhn.

"To our knowledge, 'China's Challenges' is the first international television production in association with a major China-based media organization that has won this prestigious Emmy award, re-affirming the special benefits of our unique US-China collaboration to tell the true story of China to the world," Kuhn said.

"China's Challenges" has been broadcast on over 210 PBS stations in the United States, reaching 24 of the top 25 US markets and over 120 markets in total. There have been about 4,000 broadcasts of "China's Challenges" in the United States alone. Other countries that broadcast the series include Canada, Germany and Australia.