[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Emmy-winning documentary China's Challenges announced its third season at a Beijing event on Dec 16.

The previous seasons, which respectively aired in 2012 and 2014, explore the ways in which China is tackling critical issues, from disparities in wealth and education to social clashes and severe pollution, through a series of interviews by the program's host, Robert Kuhn, an American expert on China.

The programs have been broadcast in China and the United States.

The first season ran on nearly 190 US public TV stations between 2013 and 2015. The second broadcast on 186 channels in 37 US states since May 2015.

It won the 2016 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award in the category of Best Crime/Social Issues Programming in July.

Secretariat of the All-China Journalists Association Wang Dongmei says foreigners may want to know more about China than its cuisine and martial arts — two pervasive tropes overseas.

Wang regards the documentary's international reception as a model to publicize China around the world.

Western audiences emotionally connect with the documentary since it was created with an understanding of their interests and is narrated according to an international angle, Shanghai Media Group president Wang Jianjun says.

Yin Hong, a media-research professor with Tsinghua University, says the production is distinctive in that it doesn't avoid sensitive questions, which shows China's openness.