NICK SCHIFRIN I'm Nick Schifrin. Welcome to China, Power and Prosperity, PBS NewsHour's in-depth look at the emerging superpower. With the support of the Pulitzer Center, we start at the top by examining the strongest Chinese leader in more than 50 years. In Beijing's Great Hall of the People, the people clap in unison for one man. Xi Jinping, Communist Party General Secretary, Commander-in-Chief, President of the People's Republic of China, says he's making China great again.
The Chinese nation has achieved a tremendous transformation. It has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong. It has come to embrace the brilliant prospects of rejuvenation. It's October 2017, and Xi tells party leaders one of his core beliefs, China's destiny is to reclaim a central role in the world.
The banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics is now flying high and proud. It offers Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind. Not since Mao Zedong, Communist China's founding father, has a Chinese leader suggested so clearly the world could emulate China. Not since Mao has China had a leader as powerful as Xi Jinping. If what the party leader says is the Bible, the scholars who decipher it study here.
The National Communist Party School flies the party flag and teaches the party's version of China. united across 55 minority groups and the torchbearer of the communist flame. Professor Han Chunxiang says Xi inherits that legacy and is now China's indispensable leader. The country's development needs Xi Jinping, and people's happiness needs Xi Jinping.
If China wants to become a big, strong country, it will need Xi Jinping. Xi says his work starts at home. His goal is to double China's GDP and per capita income.
He says he wants to increase the prosperity many Chinese already enjoy and now expect, and reduce poverty. Now in the Xi Jinping era, China has developed. Xi is dealing with making China great and strong.
And that strength is also the military. Xi calls for China to, quote, stand tall in the East. He evokes memories of the Middle Kingdom, a term to describe China's centuries-long role as an international power.
Xi has dramatically modernized China's army, navy, and air force, and opened up China's first overseas base. And most controversially, China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has created military outposts, flouting U.S. objections and international law. Xi Jinping's China flexes that muscular foreign policy on the world stage. And the silver screen.
Wolf Warrior 2 is China's highest-grossing film of all time. Star and director Wu Jing plays Long Feng, a special operations forces soldier who wins the day for the Chinese military. Chinese won! When he's no longer a soldier, trouble comes to him. He becomes a rogue hero, launching a seeming suicide mission against the bad guys and teaming up with fellow Chinese to save the day again.
If a story about a former soldier turned vigilante who uses bows and arrows and takes a ride in a tank sounds familiar, it is. At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. had John Rambo. Wu Jing asks, why can't the Chinese have their own heroes? I think for Leng Feng, I want him to be a hero for ordinary people. I think human beings need heroes.
There are many qualities in a hero, like bravery, selflessness, and dedication. Pass me the flag. It's more than dedication to China. The good guys are the Chinese military.
The bad guy... Welcome to Africa, son. ...is a violence-loving, colonialist American.
People like you will always be inferior to people like me. That's f***ing history. The film has made Wu Jing rich and famous.
He says the film's nationalism is a product of the country's progress under Xi Jinping. In Chinese modern history, China has been bullied for a long time. When we are rich, our country can protect us. When we feel like we are in danger, we will be protected by our country, not like before. But Xi Jinping isn't only about protecting the people.
He protects and restores the prominence of the Communist Party. She has reasserted the party into people's lives and private businesses. Can you describe these awards?
Hong Chong works for the medical and high-tech company Title Star, but her main job is to lead the company's Communist Party Committee. She shows off her party awards. This is for one of the service brands we acquired being in the top 10 of all service brands. Employees meet in Title Star's party room, where Xi Jinping thought is written on the wall, and Hong ensures this private company adheres to party teaching.
Today we're going to study an article. Please open the app, study Xi, strengthen China. Under Xi, the party's primacy has increased and targeted the youngest party members. Employees are encouraged by the company to use the Study Xi Strengthen China app to read about Xi and party leaders and take quizzes. And Hong ensures the company's vision aligns with the party's.
It not only leads our company in long-term development, the app offers our company inspiration. For a while, that inspiration came from Xi himself. Last year, there was a primetime TV show studying Xi in the new era.
A robot from a future rejuvenated China challenges contestants on how much Xi Jinping thought they can memorize. The cult of Xi has included propaganda posters in city streets, suburban villages and rural roads. And state media has called him Xi Dada or Father Xi, a populist who eats like the people and cares about the common worker. Xi calls himself core leader, just like Mao. And Xi's travels recreate Mao's countryside visits.
This year, the cult of Xi has become less visible. But in Beijing's largest bookstore, Xi Jinping thought the book has pride of place. Despite the American celebrities nearby, bookstore manager Qin Hui says Xi's books are bestsellers.
Because we're entering this new era of development, the general secretary Xi's thought points a direction for our future. So we have to seriously study the spirit of General Secretary Xi's speeches. But fly 1,200 miles south of Beijing, and hundreds of thousands of people reject Xi Jinping's thought and everything it stands for.
Xi Jinping's critics say he's not only spreading his own ideas, he's closing the space for anyone else's ideas, both in mainland China and here in Hong Kong, where these protesters say they feel like the city's independence is being eroded. On and off for months, Hong Kong police have clashed with protesters. And many of the protesters connect the crackdown in Hong Kong to the restriction of rights in mainland China.
How can we expect that we will have democracy when the Communist Party is trying to ban all human rights and freedom in China? Li Chuk-yan is a former Hong Kong legislator who's been fighting for democracy for decades. He's protested half a dozen Chinese leaders, but says Xi Jinping is the most oppressive.
Xi Jinping began to be even more aggressive in suppression. They banned the university professor from teaching about human rights, universal values, and he is trying to build up his own Chinese dream. which is a total control of people.
Under Xi, more than a million Muslim Uyghurs have been detained in camps. Xi's China has created a network of more than 200 million surveillance cameras. And Beijing posters have warned the public, especially women, that foreigners could be spies trying to steal national secrets.
What the party says is that this is for the strength of China, that if the party were to weaken, the country would weaken. And there would be chaos. Yeah, they are always brainwashing the people that, you know, without a communist party, there would be chaos.
So what they are trying to say, if you have democracy, then there will be chaos. We believe in democracy, but they believe in suppression. Inside mainland China, few critics are willing to echo that language in public.
Zhang Lifan is a historian who's made public appearances, but he says surveillance has increased. So we met him in the only place he felt comfortable. Inside our hotel room, he wouldn't use Xi Jinping's name. Because the Communist Party of China is unchecked, corruption is widespread within the system. So if he wants to get rid of opponents, he can easily do so by finding evidence of their corruption.
Therefore, he was able to purge many political opponents with an unstoppable force. Lifan says Xi's eyes are everywhere. Lawyers who have represented activists have been disbarred. Journalists who write critically have been thrown out of the country.
And as many as two million party members have been investigated for corruption. Xi has replaced collective leadership with centralized authority. DANG CHIANG, The current leader has changed everything.
He first canceled the term limit of the country's presidency, and then re-raised the idea that the party leads everything. As a result, some of the achievements of the political reforms of the 1980s no longer exist. NICK SCHIFRIN, She's reversing those reforms launched by predecessor Deng Xiaoping is a topic even Xi's allies avoid.
NICK SCHIFRIN, Deng talked about there shouldn't be excessive concentration or leadership by one person. Xi has removed term limits. Why has he done that? This is not a problem yet, not the right time to talk about it. Why are the needs of the country so great that Xi Jinping needs more time?
It's not the time to answer this question. And then he says to our off-camera government minder, This is a very sensitive issue. She and China face headwinds both home and abroad.
But for the first time in modern history, the U.S. is confronted with an increasingly assertive rising superpower that's integrated with the U.S. economy. And as the U.S. puts America first, China is led by a man who believes the future of the world has China at the center. And a major part of China's future, President Xi's Belt and Road Initiative.
The most expensive infrastructure project in history. Chinese companies are building roads, pipelines and railroads around the world. But they're also building Chinese influence. In the middle of West Java, Indonesia, fishermen drop nets from bamboo poles.
And a tea plantation fills rolling hills that lead to a major highway in Indonesia's fourth largest city. Here on the outskirts of Bandung, the commuter train is old and slow. But now, cutting through the hills that lead to Indonesia's capital Jakarta, there's a tunnel for a high-speed train.
And the engineers and managers who lead this $6 billion project are Chinese. They construct railway that will carry the fastest train in Southern Asia, able to travel 215 miles an hour. Xiaosong Xin leads the consortium of Indonesian and Chinese companies building the railroad. The two countries' companies can complement each other, support each other, and develop together.
It's fundamentally a win-win project. 2,000 years ago, the ancient Silk Road helped China spread goods, ideas, and culture all the way to Europe. Today, China aspires to recreate a maritime Silk Road of ports and an economic belt across 70 countries, of roads in the orange and railways in the red. including the high-speed route from Bandung to Jakarta, where in 2013, President Xi Jinping debuted Belt and Road Initiative as a signature foreign policy.
Only with high ambition and hard work can one make great achievements. We have the confidence, conditions and capabilities to obtain our goals. For Indonesia, the goal is to collaborate with China on Belt and Road projects to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty. At this construction yard, many lower-skilled Indonesians in the yellow hats have been trained by Chinese workers in the white hats. Belt and road projects create jobs and spark development, says Indonesian Minister Luhut Pajaitan.
This benefits us very much, you know, because we're going to have also like new cities, you know, suburbs, so then we can spread out people to the area. With new industry, new employment, new production. Yes, indeed.
Indonesia needs improved infrastructure. Right now, the road from Jakarta to Bandung weaves through the edges of forest, where constant traffic means the 90-mile trip takes five hours. On the railroad being built over the next three years, the trip will take 45 minutes.
Luhut dreams of Indonesians traveling like the Chinese. I experienced that when I was in Beijing, you know. I went from Beijing to what name of the city, only one hour by speed train, you know. Very comfortable. Like the train we rode from Hong Kong to the city of Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland.
We will soon arrive at Shenzhen Bay. Welcome to China. In 20 years, China has gone from no high-speed rail to the longest high-speed rail network in the world, thanks to state-owned enterprises.
The rails, the electricity, the telecommunications, all produced by majority state-owned enterprises. And much of the steel comes from companies like the majority state-owned Bao Steel. The company is now so large it has its own ports, four of them, on the outskirts of Shanghai. Bao Steel Group makes as much steel as the entire U.S.
It's actually too much. Excess Chinese steel capacity weighs down the economy. The Belt and Road Initiative gives Bao Steel new markets. Huanwei Liang directs Bao Steel's strategic planning and technology.
For the steel industry, the Belt and Road Initiative will generate direct demand for steel products. With the economic development in those Belt and Road countries, their people's living standards will improve, and thus the demands for durable consumer goods will increase. And China says Belt and Road railroads also improve Chinese living standards by connecting rural, previously unconnected areas such as this site in Sichuan province.
The government argues more rail access produces prosperity and stability. We encourage Chinese companies to go out of China to enhance their production capability. In return, we can use the increased government revenue to improve the income level of some poor areas.
This is important. Xiaowei Ming leads the office in the Chinese ministry that oversees the Belt and Road Initiative. He describes the initiative as helping China to develop internally and expand externally. China has entered a new era.
The Belt and Road Initiative is the banner of China's new round of reform and opening up, as well as a general plan of economic cooperation with foreign countries. But for some countries, that cooperation led to a loss of control. In Kunatan, Malaysia, a state-owned Chinese developer was building this industrial park and port.
But the construction is frozen, stopped by an unlikely critic. China is a big power now, and big powers normally want to expand their influence. Mahathir Mohamad served as Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003. He used to describe the U.S. as the colonizer. But last year, at the age of 92, he came out of retirement and was re-elected.
His opponent was accused of siphoning off Chinese money connected to Belt and Road contracts. Mahathir called China the new colonizer and Belt and Road projects predatory. Everything is imported, mostly from China.
Workers were from China, all the parts and the... The original contracts called for Chinese-built ports, Chinese-built pipelines, a $20 billion Chinese-built rail link, and the Malacca Gateway, a Chinese-financed development project on the Malacca Strait through which almost all Chinese oil flows. Mahathir accused the Chinese of taking advantage of a corrupt government.
The whole thing was done in a hurry by the previous government without due regard for the interest of Malaysia. In Belt and Road deals, countries can lose sovereignty and China can gain assets. Sri Lanka had to hand over a port when it couldn't afford debt payments to a Chinese bank. To build this Belt and Road railroad with Chinese loans, Kenya agreed to apply Chinese law inside Kenya. and give up East Africa's largest port if it couldn't repay its debts.
And to pay for South America's largest dam, Ecuador is selling 80 percent of its most valuable asset, oil, to China at a discount. Mahathir says he, too, feared that loss of control. When you start borrowing huge sums of money and asking foreign countries to develop, and then you cannot pay, then obviously you are going to lose that part of the country. That warning has been echoed by the United States' most senior officials. We don't drown our partners in sea of debt.
We don't coerce or compromise your independence. The United States deals openly and fairly. We do not offer a constricting belt or a one-way road.
The U.S. argues China's version of Belt and Road fosters corruption. The state-owned China Communications Construction Company alone has been accused of bribery across four countries. The U.S. also warns China's ports could one day host Chinese warships.
Last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that could lead to a Chinese empire. When China shows up with bribes to senior leaders in countries in exchange for infrastructure projects, then this idea of a treasury-run empire build is something that I think would be bad for each of those countries and certainly presents risk to American interests. The United States government describes the Belt and Road Initiative as a way for Chinese to exert control. and to increase Chinese power around the world.
We Chinese do not have what you call ambition or a grand vision to change the world order. We only want to promote more economic cooperation. What's your response to that criticism?
That the Belt and Road Initiative contracts are debt traps and aren't transparent? Chinese companies won the bidding and other foreign companies did not win. And the reason is simple. Foreign companies and workers are not as hardworking as the Chinese. But don't those Chinese companies get advantages, not because they're just hard workers, but because they're protected by the Chinese state?
I cannot say it's the Chinese government's support. China's financial institutions will provide financing only if they deem the projects are profitable. We do not make investments blindly.
We Chinese are not stupid. And some of the countries with Belt and Road investments say they're not stupid either. Malaysia renegotiated with China and in late July. The construction of the rail link restarted in a joint Malaysian-Chinese ceremony. China agreed to reduce the price tag for construction by 30 percent and allow more Malaysian workers.
They are willing to listen to our views and in the end they accommodated our problems. US officials say they're trying to develop an alternative. The leaders of a new $60 billion agency that launched in October have been visiting countries where China is investing. The US is pitching public-private deals to counter Belt and Road investments.
And the US advocates Japanese investment as an alternative. Japan built Jakarta's local subway. But the Chinese deals are better, Indonesian Minister Luhut told the Japanese.
Your term on the previous project, I think too tight for us. The Chinese offer us now the term much better. And countries who receive Belt and Road investment say the Trump administration is difficult to deal with compared to the Chinese. They've got this Belt and Road initiative. Does the United States offer anything like that?
Never. To reach Washington is very hard. We don't know to whom they have to talk.
In China, we have so many people over there. The U.S. approach is always with a big stick and very little carrot. This has not happened with the Chinese.
That's not the Chinese way. But the Chinese way is to increase its presence and find allies all over the world to increase influence. The Belt and Road Initiative is the engine to power that expansion, and it's full speed ahead. The U.S.-China trade war has largely played out as a tariff war, but there are fundamental issues and arguments on both sides.
So Katrina Yu and I report together, beginning in China's Silicon Valley, Shenzhen. In Shenzhen's Segi market, you can buy anything electronic. There are 10 floors of circuit boards, battery-powered children's toys, digital watches, wireless headphones, even Bitcoin mining computers.
And all of this is sold all over the world because international companies have long tapped into China's massive market and huge supply of reliable labor. If you have an electronic product that's labeled made in China, the chances are its parts come from here and end up all over the world, including the U.S. For decades, the world's two largest economies, the U.S. and China, have been integrated. But now the Trump administration is trying to change that.
The trade war is not only going to affect American businesses and consumers, but also businesses and consumers here in China. Seigi Market has been called the barometer of China's electronics industry. Components and finished products are sourced from super factories all over Shenzhen. More than 60,000 businesses have set up shop here. While they may sell everywhere, this year all eyes are on the U.S.
I hope the trade war doesn't continue to get worse. Let's keep a peaceful relationship. Don't raise tariffs because no one wins.
All the vendors we spoke to blame President Trump for the trade war. And some say Trump feels threatened by China's success. China's electronics industry is pretty good.
Now Trump is just trying to suppress China's development. Though some freely admit to selling copies of U.S. products. I ask her if this is a GoPro.
No, it's not a GoPro. GoPro is made abroad and it's very expensive. But this one is cheap and it's similar. How similar, Nick?
Well, very similar. The Chinese sports cam looks exactly like the American GoPro. At this Chinese new Barlin store, take a look at the words. The sneakers and the writing look an awful lot like American New Balance. That's just two examples of Chinese copycatting.
that the U.S. has turned into theft on an industrialized scale. The U.S. has indicted hackers connected to the Chinese military for stealing specs of an American power plant similar to this model and navigation satellite technology. And the U.S. says the most expensive weapons system ever, the American F-35, looks just like the Chinese J-31, because Chinese hackers stole the designs. The U.S. says in just a few decades, theft. help China make its military world-class and its companies technology leaders.
JAKE PARKER, Vice President, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China That kind of technological advancement doesn't happen organically. NICK SCHIFRIN, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China Business Jake Parker has lived in Beijing for a decade and is the vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, which advocates for American businesses in China. JAKE PARKER, Vice President, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-China China's system is set up in such a way that the state has access to information.
that companies would consider to be trade secrets. The amount of information that's transferred to the Chinese government goes far beyond what would be expected in another market. As businessman and presidential candidate, Donald Trump has accused China of pursuing decades of predatory trade practices. We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what they're doing. It's the greatest theft in the history of the world.
But when you see China, these are fierce people in terms of negotiation. They want to take your throat out. They want to cut you apart. NICK SCHIFRIN The Trump administration has increased U.S. demands that China stop intellectual property theft and what the U.S. calls other unfair trade practices.
The administration has released two major investigations into Chinese corporate theft and labeled Chinese computer, telecom and technology companies risks to American national security. President Trump has raised issues that have been an irritant in the relationship for a very, very long time. You know, we're the piggy bank that everybody steals from, including China. That have not been adequately addressed by the Chinese side.
And frankly... ... Those issues go to the core of how China's economic system operates. It's state-owned enterprise reform, it's industrial policy, it's subsidies, it's overcapacity. These are not going to be easy solutions that China is going to be able to implement immediately.
That's because those protectionist measures and state-sponsored business development have fueled China's rapid economic rise. Nowhere is that more obvious than China's artificial intelligence, or AI, industry. In China's northeastern Liaoning province, X-Robot is working on human-like AI robots. China wants to be the global center for AI by 2030, and some in the Trump administration believe China is fast closing the gap on the U.S.'s dominance of AI.
They can mimic facial expressions, respond to questions, and even host a TV show. Today, for me, the former robot president Yang Dongyue says his company will be one of the first in the world whose robots can replace service employees. Their main function is to communicate with people, so a good appearance is a must.
If the robot is very good looking, like a pretty lady or a handsome man, people will feel more pleasant when talking with them. Beijing has been so determined to catch up and surpass the U.S. in AI technology. It's committed $150 billion to its development.
X-Robot acknowledges that it receives government subsidies, but refuses to disclose how much. Meanwhile, China accuses the U.S. of investing billions on its own AI technology, like this robotic-packed mule that's being funded by Pentagon Research. But Katrina, the U.S. denies that Pentagon's spending is a subsidy and complains China's subsidies are into private companies. and concealed in every industry, tilting the global playing field in China's favor and violating international trade rules.
The Chinese Communist Party has used an arsenal of policies inconsistent with free and fair trade. These policies have built Beijing's manufacturing base at the expense of its competitors, especially the United States of America. China has built its own manufacturing base that provides cheap and efficient labor, and many U.S. businesses use it to maximize profits.
Shanghai General Sports is one of the biggest bicycle manufacturers in China. The company produces more than 3 million bikes every year. CEO Lei Ge attributes the company's success to building close relationships with his partners abroad, particularly in the U.S. We work with our partner in the States as a family.
That's why we become so close. That supply chain integration has built up over 30 years, and it means the trade war has hit Shanghai General Sports and many companies in China that sell to the US. Lei has had to let go about 30% of his staff.
It doesn't help that China's economic growth has slumped to its lowest level in nearly three decades. Oh, we hate this. It's just more difficult than ever. Of course, we feel disappointed and we feel upset, but there's nothing we can do.
This factory produces up to 13,000 bicycles every day. They're sent to countries such as Australia, Canada and Japan, but 80% of them are made for the United States. And arrive in this South Carolina factory. We're producing this year about 300,000 bicycles.
Arnold Kammler is one of the primary buyers of Shanghai General Sports' parts. Park. He's the chairman and CEO of Kent Bikes, one of the largest bike wholesalers in the U.S.
On every bike frame imported from China, Kent has to pay a 36 percent tariff to U.S. Customs. On every tire, it's 30 percent.
When you pay that amount to U.S. Customs, do you therefore increase your prices to your clients? Of course. The bicycle business is a very high volume, but unfortunately for me, a very low profit margin business. And so when we have an increase of that size, we have no choice but to raise prices.
And those higher prices have led to a 20 percent drop in sales since the trade war began. And that's meant Kammler's had to lay off a quarter of his employees. These tariffs are hurting us very badly, but we're a smart company, and so we'll overcome this challenge by sourcing elsewhere over time. And that's exactly what's happening.
General Sports will turn this field in Cambodia into a 500,000 square foot factory. Lei says it's an investment he wishes he didn't have to make, because he fears labor costs will rise. I prefer to stay in China, speak the same language, and it's easier to find workers.
It may not be good for businesses, but driving companies out of China is music to many in the Trump administration's ears. Some senior advisers want to continue economic integration with China, but others see China as a national security threat and want to separate the two economies. President Trump has vacillated between the camps. In late August, he tweeted, our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China. But at the G7 in France just three days later, he said American companies could still thrive in China.
If we make a deal, I'd like to see them stay there and do a great job. On Chinese media. commentators argue President Trump's flip-flops show he's unreliable.
You cannot be in a situation where I don't believe what you're saying and I don't believe you'll carry out even if you do. How can I have a negotiation with you? China has taken steps to ensure it's less vulnerable to Trump's trade war shots, from boosting domestic supplies of soybeans, corn and cotton, to expanding export markets beyond the US to Africa and South America. With no need for democratic elections and what it calls a higher economic pain threshold, Chinese TV says China can outlast Trump. Anyone who misjudges China will surely pay the price of the Chinese people's steel will.
But President Trump has said he can outlast China and vows to hold his ground, even if that harms the U.S. economy short term. I am doing this whether it's good or bad for you. Your statement about, oh, will we fall into a recession for two months, okay?
The fact is, somebody had to take China on. My life would be a lot easier if I didn't take China on, but I like doing it because I have to do it. Which means U.S.-China cooperation is decreasing, and the confrontation is increasing. And the trade war continues, as two economies that have been integrated for decades are already drifting apart.
For most of the last century, communist China's planned economy prevented citizens from getting rich. In today's China, a life of luxury is supposed to come second to Communist Party loyalty. But as Katrina Yee reports, that's not stopping China from producing billionaires faster than any other country in the world. Their pacing is precise, their spacing is seamless, and their pores are perfect. This is China's first butler academy.
And they're practicing the exact vintage pull. Their six-week course includes centuries-old traditions. But these students aren't being trained to serve old wealth.
Their future employers will be members of China's new rich. In communist China, millionaires are being minted faster than anywhere else. They're filling harbors with multi-million dollar yachts. Watching laser light shows at $3,000 a night hotels and buying luxuries. Sarah Jane Ho knows all about the possibilities and pressures of being wealthy in China.
The average price here is probably a thousand US. Not too expensive at all. The 34-year-old has been called China's millennial Martha Stewart and founded the country's first finishing school. Many of her students are second generation rich. Born in the 80s and 90s and born into millions.
In no other country than China have you had such a great amount of change in such a short amount of time. And now they have so much money that the last thing they want to do is see their kids go through any kind of hardship. For the kids, a lot of it is about individuality. They want to spend on something that other people don't have. Security, good for summer.
Sarah Jane is an expert on where to shop, what to wear, and where to be seen. At an upmarket Italian restaurant in downtown Shanghai, Sarah-Jane shares her Michelin-starred meal with her social media followers. Lunch costs about $400. That's the equivalent of a monthly middle-income salary.
When you make so much money in such a short amount of time, it actually places a lot of pressure. on an individual. There's no old money in China because of historical reasons. A lot of people were very poor.
I mean, everybody was very poor up until the 90s. Accumulating wealth in communist China was once considered counter-revolutionary. Mao Zedong came to power in 1949, vowing to eliminate class and abolish capitalism. Affluent families lost their wealth. and many lost their lives as Mao pursued his utopian vision of communism.
That vision resulted in the deaths of tens of millions from famine and left almost 90% of the population living in extreme poverty. That all changed in the 1980s, when leader Deng Xiaoping loosened state control over China's economy and permitted private enterprise, reforms which would turn the country into the world's second largest economy. Forty years later, Chinese cities have become shopping meccas, catering to China's rapidly expanding middle class and upper class. Chinese consumers make up a third of the $1.3 trillion global luxury market, and luxury spending is expected to grow by over 10% this year.
It's a trend Tao Liang has in the bag. The 26-year-old is known as Mr. Bags. an entrepreneur and one of the country's top online influencers. He has millions of loyal fans who hang on his every recommendation. During an online campaign last year, his company sold half a million dollars worth of bags in just six minutes.
Definitely some Chinese girls buy bags because they want big brands. They want people to know they're rich. They want people to know they're tasteful.
But nowadays, I think a lot of Chinese women, when they buy bags, they really buy bags because they want to pursue happiness. International brands are working hard to contribute to the happiness and handbag collections of Chinese consumers, but they don't always get it right. Last November, Dolce & Gabbana stoked fury after releasing this advertising campaign in China. Chinese social media users accused the brand of reinforcing racist stereotypes. Consumer backlash resulted in Dolce & Gabbana being banned from Chinese online retailers.
Versace, Givenchy and Coach issued apologies after printing T-shirts describing Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate from China. Fallouts with foreign fashion labels have demonstrated the power of China's increasingly wealthy population. But being wealthy in China has its limits.
When it comes to the Chinese government, being too rich can be risky. Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched an anti-corruption campaign and overseen investigations into the country's wealthiest and most powerful. More than 100,000 have been jailed for embezzlement and bribery. Others fired for throwing lavish parties and indulging in expensive liquor.
Ostentatious wealth is regularly denounced on state media and primetime TV. The hit television show, Father, Where Are We Going? , was cancelled because of its portrayal of spoiled second-generation rich children.
Commentator and academic Zhu Dakou says it's in the government's interest to rein in crazy rich behavior. The Chinese government knows that if rich people show off their wealth too much, it will deepen the impression of social polarization by ordinary people. The Chinese government requires rich people to be...
key and poor people to be contented with their life then the country would be stable China's ultra wealthy must closely align themselves with the government Jack Ma, a tech tycoon with an estimated $40 billion fortune, is a member of the Communist Party. I like, I feel proud for what President Xi said yesterday. Movie star Jackie Chan routinely defends Beijing and attacks international critics. Last month, the Hong Kong resident described pro-democracy protests in the city as sad and depressing and called himself a protector of the Chinese flag.
You must firstly be on the same side as the government, so the government can feel they made you successful. All of the successful people should stand on the same side with the government. If you do not support them, they will make you unsuccessful. The government has vowed to eradicate poverty by 2020, saying it's lifted 83 million rural poor out of poverty over the last six years.
But according to the World Bank, many more remain behind. 27% of the country's population, 300 million people, continue to live on less than $5.50 a day. And while some struggle to put a roof over their heads, their head.
Others build roofs for their dogs. Zhou Tianshao spent half a million dollars on a pet paradise for his border collie, Saila. Complete with a training gym, a dog-themed party space, and an indoor doggy pool. Zhou Tianshao grew his fortune selling pet products online.
He showed us a wall decorated with photos of his best friend, who he credits with lifting him out of depression. It's like raising a child. I have deep affection for my dog. I rarely take photos of myself.
When someone asks me, how should I introduce you, I say, call me Siler's dad. He's integrated into every part of my life. In China, the richest 1% own a third of the country's wealth. Zhou says he's bombarded online by critics who question his choice to splurge on a dog while millions must fight to survive.
But the only opinion he cares about is Silas. He never cares about who you are or your social status. People think I'm some silver spoon kid wasting my parents' money by giving my dog a life of luxury. That's not true.
I've worked hard and experienced a lot. experienced challenges. And as the gap between China's rich and poor continues to grow, Zhou refuses to apologize for his lifestyle.
It's normal to be criticized. I don't care. Part of the money you earn pays for the criticism you bear. My mind is at peace. In China, it seems there's very little money can't buy.
Technology has helped China achieve extraordinary growth and wealth. But critics say it's facilitated a surveillance state. We begin the first of two stories focusing on Chinese technology in a remote area that's becoming more connected.
In China's Lipu Mountains, past rolling hillside farms, the remote city of Guilin is nestled into a valley and built along a riverbank that's been inhabited for 10,000 years. Today, this old town is getting older. The population is growing.
is older and often needs medical care. The closest hospital is far, so on this day they line up for a mobile clinic on a bus. Visiting specialists have a small room in the back for X-rays and a nearby room for room for eye specialists to check for cataracts.
In this clinic, everything is electronic, and all the patient records and data feed into a single phone application. It's made by the company Ping An, and the app is called Good Doctor. Local doctor Luo Jiangsheng says the technology changes everything. LUO JIANGSHENG, Good Doctor, Ping An Hospital, China, China, Before we had this platform, patients had to go so far away.
It was a big burden. Now, with this platform, it saves both money and time. For more information, visit PingAn.com.
For decades, a country that suffered from widespread rural poverty relied on so-called barefoot doctors to provide remote areas medical care. Today, technology from medicine to telecommunications to artificial intelligence is helping transform the country. China is quite unique because it's been a rapidly developing country.
So we have very varying, uneven distribution. Technology helps to bridge those gaps and deliver service, particularly in an environment like this. Jessica Tang.
Ping An is the co-CEO of Ping An, who's building towers over Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley. Ping An boomed financially into the world's second-largest insurance company, but now it's celebrating by turning old insurance into new tech. In September, Ping An unveiled new facial recognition software for drivers. Those markings judge whether she's a good driver and feeds all of her data into Ping An's database.
Micro-expression recognition. A separate application uses facial recognition to determine whether Ping An loan applicants are lying about their identity by examining more than 90 distinct expressions. When you are nervous, there are these micro-expressions that people will do.
The system identifies abnormal emotions. Verifying the person who they are supposed to be, in most cases, is quite accurate. So I think already better than the human eye. And those human eyes, China's 1.4 billion citizens, are now entering more and more data on their phones.
And in China, it's big data. Ping An's health care app has 250 million users. Ping An's car accident app that can automatically assess and cause damage has 200 million users.
And China has developed. So, recently, the majority of all of those users have never owned cars, or borrowed money, or earned a credit score. So, to choose loan applicants, Ping An's developed a social credit score based on all of the data. users enter into their phones. Having the expertise to change that series of raw information to actually a credit report or score that people trust.
So we're able to do that based on your mobile phone bills, your shopping records, right? You do splurge on your spending. If you have a good credit record, you get the loans faster at a cheaper rate.
So I think the idea is that there's incentive for people who have nothing. To hide, to want to share. But in communist China, who decides who has nothing to hide?
Like Ping'an, the government is now converting data on its citizens into social credit scores. It's called sharp eyes, and those eyes are electronic, thanks to the world's most advanced surveillance. The five most surveilled cities in the world are Chinese. China now has more than 200 million cameras, including at the entrance to an international conference.
Cameras use software that recognize not only faces, but also how people walk, and can then track their location as they move. That allows cameras to judge behavior. In Shenzhen, cameras watch this intersection.
If people jaywalk, they're publicly shamed when their faces are displayed on the screen. Do you think because that camera is there, more people cross legally? Of course.
They're afraid to be seen doing something inappropriate, so they will change their behavior. If you jaywalk, it reduces your credit score. For example, if you cross the red light, your score would be reduced by two to three.
Behavior change is exactly what the government wants. And the credit score system is so important, there's even a Communist Party-produced national credit magazine. Wu Xiaoyan is the editor-in-chief. The Chinese system's main purpose is to build a credible society of trust. This system has become an effective measure in our social governance.
For example, on the bus, people with regular scores will pay regular price, and people with good scores only pay 80% of that. Rewarding good behavior all across society and punishing bad behavior is enshrined in her magazine. When I look in this magazine, I see an honor list in red. And then in black, a blacklist.
Those on the red list are people who have trustworthy behavior. Those on the blacklist are people whose behaviors are not trustworthy. Does it work? Does rewarding people who act well and punishing people who act badly make more people act well? Of course it works.
And something about that question made her uncomfortable. She and her staff walked out of the interview and the newsroom, but the microphones were still rolling and recorded their conversation about my questions. What kind of question was that? Don't talk about the government.
Talk about companies, businesses. We need to be calm. We cannot refuse to be interviewed. Not too rigid or serious. Ten minutes later, she did come back to finish the interview.
Everything okay? She said everything was OK, but the government's critics say everything is not OK, because they say China's big data is becoming big brother. Companies that use the social credit system and the government say the social credit system improves people's behavior. But critics say that the government can use the social credit system to target and penalize. Anyone who opposes or criticizes the Communist Party.
In Hong Kong, protesters say mainland China is exporting a system of surveillance. So when they demonstrate, they climb up ladders and try and cover up the cameras. And protesters also cover up their faces. This 21-year-old and her friends declined to give their names for fear China would punish them. Although I'm wearing a mask, they're like AI tracking, tracking down our faces.
And maybe they will just use computers and recognize us in maybe just one second. And having all our identifications and all our information, we are scared about it. And protesters fear surveillance goes from cameras to inside their phones. They organize these rallies offline because they believe police hacked into their messaging apps.
We are super scared that our personal information will leak out and we'll get caught based on these informations. Protesters' fears are accurate, says Jean-Li Phan, a longstanding critic of the government. He was willing to sit for an interview but refused to be seen with us in public.
So he met us in our hotel room. Are you, as a constant critic of the government, under surveillance? Of course.
We can feel the surveillance all the time. The Chinese authorities use a network of cameras throughout cities, facial recognition systems, as well as various mobile phone apps to monitor individuals. Surveillance is indeed omnipresent. And that surveillance happens automatically and instantaneously.
Every day, Chinese citizens send more than 45 billion messages on WeChat, the country's most popular messaging service. If you type in something sensitive, like a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Mandarin, the recipient never receives it. Sometimes my wife and I suddenly can't contact each other.
I noticed that whenever foreign media reporters were trying to set up interviews with me, the police would always show up downstairs. And I've noticed that the police who follow me use the same mobile phones from Huawei. Huawei is a $100 billion phone and technology giant that's the world's largest provider of telecom equipment. U.S. officials describe it as the symbol of high-tech Chinese government support. oppression and beholden to the Communist Party, alongside fellow telecommunications giant ZTE.
As a matter of Chinese law, the Chinese government can rightfully demand access to data flowing through Huawei and ZTE systems. Why would anyone grant such power to a regime that has already grossly violated cyberspace? The Trump administration has mostly blocked U.S. companies from selling technology to Huawei. But the company is expanding its 5G, or fifth-generation phone technology. And Vice President Vincent Pang says business is booming.
All our major customers choose to still stay with Huawei. We signed a 50-day contract with our major customers for 5G already. And this year, we will deliver 150,000 base stations outside of China.
I think that is the fact. And that expansion of Chinese technology around the world has enormous implications for China and the US. And now we examine that expansion and why the US believes it's a fundamental threat to democracy. We start by returning to Huawei to look at its influence far outside of China's borders.
It may look like an Apple event in California, but this is Germany, and the presentation is for the Chinese company Huawei. In September, Huawei launched the world's first chip with integrated 5G, or fifth-generation technology. It will dramatically speed up phones, and is designed to connect everything around us, transmit huge amounts of data instantly, and transform entire cities.
We're now walking on the floor that touches everything in your city. Huawei Chief Digital Information Officer Edwin Diender shows off what Huawei calls Smart City. Closed-circuit cameras feed into a database with advanced artificial intelligence.
And facial recognition can identify everyone, cross-reference license plates, and analyze unlimited information. Diender calls it the future of policing. Where, for example, today teams manually need to have to look through CCTV camera footage with a good video cloud analytics platform, you can say I'm looking for a...
White guy, blue jeans, red t-shirt, and give an order or a query, almost like a Google search. I can say, find me this black car with this particular license plate, of which I think it is an L or a 7, a W or an M, but I'm not sure. Then the system can look into different camera points, for example, and does it for you.
Huawei promotional videos compare the combination of AI, 5G, and surveillance to how a brain processes information to control the The U.S. fears that Huawei's information isn't secure because the control is actually the Chinese government's. To have Huawei operating as a 5G network in our country or in our allies' countries, we believe represents a fundamental compromise of our national security and the privacy of millions of citizens. It may actually be billions of citizens.
Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies are building 5G and smart cities. in more than 65 countries. PBS NewsHour producers in three continents heard praise from police and alarm from human rights advocates, beginning in the Philippines. RODRIGO DUTERTE, President of the United States of America, The government of President Rodrigo Duterte is waging what it calls a war on drugs. It's turned to China for help.
In 2016, Duterte traveled to Beijing to secure Chinese government loans that allow the Philippines to buy a Chinese safe city. Huawei sets up safe city solutions. In terms of the benefit of this project to the country, it's immeasurable. Jonathan Malaya is the Philippines' Department of Interior and Local Governments Undersecretary. If we are to ensure the safety and security of our countrymen, we must use every tool available.
But how are those tools being used? The government's opponents call the war on drugs an extrajudicial, murderous crackdown that's killed tens of thousands. And they say Chinese technology could enhance government suppression.
What a safe cities program is all about is increased electronic and technological surveillance. Francisco Ashley Estadio is a former congressman. He says Huawei is a front for the Chinese government.
Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is a current member of the Chinese Communist Party. and former officer of the Chinese military. And international researchers say Huawei employees regularly collaborate with analysts from the army or PLA. My concerns with Huawei is if a company which was founded and is still currently run by former PLA officers, that already is a problem.
Huawei insists that it's private and independent, and the Philippines government points to Huawei's success. If you look at the Southeast Asian region, No country has banned Huawei. Why should we be unduly alarmed when the rest of the world is not alarmed?
But critics say that misses the point, because Manila's safe city could hand over unlimited data to Chinese companies that must collaborate with the Chinese government. Chinese law says, quote, any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law. China has no independent judiciary for companies to appeal. They cannot say no to any request from the Chinese government for such kind of intelligence gathering.
We found similar concerns 5,000 miles west in Ethiopia. For more than a decade, Ethiopian and Chinese officials have collaborated to improve Ethiopian infrastructure. including the phone and Internet backbone for state-owned Ethio Telecom.
Almost $1.6 billion, we have an agreement with Huawei. They are implementing the telecom infrastructure. NICK SCHIFRIN, But that infrastructure provides a backdoor for intelligence agencies, says investigative journalist Daniel Berhane. DANIEL BERHANE, They designed the system in a way the security agencies can apparently access the Internet data and the voice data.
NICK SCHIFRIN, The New York Times Press Conference on Ethiopia's first political blogger. Berhani is the editor of a news site and was Ethiopia's first political blogger. He accuses multiple Ethiopian governments of repression and surveillance, but says Chinese technology has allowed this government to better exploit Ethio Telecom to spy on its critics, including journalists.
Berhani says he too was targeted by government surveillance, and his accounts were hacked. BERHANI, The New York Times Press Conference on Ethiopia's first political blogger, Berhani says he too was targeted by government surveillance, and his accounts were hacked. SPY AGENCY, use that code and enter my Facebook account.
Huawei was an accomplice in setting up the system in a manner. I'm always doing a business. Why would they care about my political rights and my freedom? That same question was asked by the new government in another country, 8,000 miles further west, Ecuador. ECU 911 coordinates Ecuador's emergency responses and receives a national network of 4,600 surveillance cameras.
Juan Zapata is ECU 911's director. Video surveillance and technology gives absolute results because they're our eyes without resting. We have saved lives.
Former President Rafael Correa built ECU-911 with Chinese technology and Chinese government loans. In 2016, he gave Chinese President Xi Jinping a tour of the center. But the new president, Lenin Moreno, says ECU-911 surveillance wasn't only designed to save lives.
It was built... With a backdoor to Ecuador's intelligence agency that allowed ECU 911 surveillance to be weaponized against the government's opponents. The tasks the institution should have exclusively focused on were diversified to a different task.
task, a perverse one, espionage of political opponents, an espionage of citizens they had intentions to harm. NICK SCHIFRIN, This is what that espionage looked like, in this safe neighborhood at the capital, Quito, a single camera. camera stands watch, and looks right into a specific living room. Retired Colonel Mario Pazmino was a constant critic of the former government.
He says they installed the Chinese-produced camera to keep watch. MARIO PAZMINO, Former Chinese-Produced Government Colonel, They choose Chinese companies because China had already developed a monitoring system that allowed them to have control over the activity of the population. Their gift is a Trojan horse. designed to control everything in society.
Which brings us back to Shenzhen and the core of the U.S.'s concerns. A White House official talking to me called this authoritarianism in a box. What's your response to that? What do you want me to say?
I think it's also liberation in a box. I think it's also city management and being very efficient in daily operations in a box. Some governments are using that to persecute or target their critics. So can this be used for surveillance? Is it being used?
for surveillance? Well, what you're looking at is an element of intelligent video surveillance, which is common technology that's available worldwide. Like every technology, it can be used in certain ways.
Does that concern you, that some of these countries might be using this? Personally, yes, of course. I'm a person just like everybody else is a person. I have my own concerns and my own views. And, yes, of course, that is a concern.
But the genie is out of the bottle. Huawei's been packaging smart cities and 5G for years. The U.S. is trying to contain. Huawei's expansion and is building its own 5G systems. But the U.S. is behind, says another Huawei technology recipient, Indonesian Minister Luhut Pajaitan.
LUHUT PAJITAN, Indonesian Minister for Technology and Innovation, U.S. The American technology is very good, but the last five years, I think the Chinese technology is much better. I think, to some extent, I agree to America about Trump policy, but I think it's too late to force China to... I think it's too late to force China to... to follow all American desire.
Senior U.S. officials say they're trying to stop Chinese technology before it changes the world. But China's system of surveillance, facial recognition, and exporting safe cities has already changed the world. Another way China's trying to change the world?
By making strides in the green economy. China's known more for the pollution it produces than the gas it saves. But it's now the world's largest market for electric cars. And as Katrina Yu reports from Hefei, China, that market is now making domestic and international automakers more green. In one of the world's most advanced factories, a start-up is working to ensure the future of electric cars is driven by China.
NIO is described as China's Tesla. It produces electric SUVs, for environmentally conscious millennials. Each vehicle comes with an artificially intelligent dashboard robot, access to drive-through NIO power stations that swap out dead batteries, an exclusive NIO cloud, clubhouses. CEO William Lee says NIO is more than a car. NIO doesn't only want to be an electric car brand, but a lifestyle brand.
We hope to create a community which starts from the car. It's about living well, living consciously and creating a happy way of living. That happiness is mostly for China's upper middle class.
The ES6 and ES8 are priced between 40,000 to 70,000 Li says Chinese drivers are slowly seeing the benefits of owning an electric vehicle, but many still need to be convinced to make the switch from gas or diesel. These days, people still aren't familiar with electric cars and can have some misunderstandings. We need to provide a better environment for customers so they can better understand the benefits.
Providing this better environment is exactly what the Chinese government is trying to do. Earlier this year, a Chinese company called A state-earned fund injected NIO with $1.4 billion. And the government doesn't just support companies, it also incentivizes consumers. In Beijing, Zhu Mengxiao's electric car is worth about $30,000.
But after government subsidies, she only paid $18,000. Zhu took me for a spin. In China, owning a car is one thing.
Having the right to drive it can be another. To reduce overcrowding on roads, the government carefully manages license plates. Residents can only get one through a lottery, but the odds of winning are low if you're driving a gas guzzler.
It's like a real lottery. There's a chance that you won't win anything your whole life. When we first applied for a license plate, we were waiting a long time and didn't receive one for a gas-powered car. Only after the exceptions appeared for electric cars could we buy this car. Zhu received her electric car license plate within a few months.
She was initially worried about the car's battery life, but says the pros outweigh the cons. With more advanced technologies, more people are likely to choose electric cars, especially since the price of gas-powered cars is so high. fluctuates and often jumps. Electric cars can be cheaper to use and more eco-friendly. Putting more eco-friendly cars on China's roads is critical.
Just outside Beijing, a coal plant belches smoke. A reminder that China remains the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Two-thirds of China's electricity comes from coal.
And it often leads to days like this. Reducing air pollution is central to China's campaign. paint to make cars green, says industry analyst Qiu Kaijun. The government's goal of cutting emissions is aligned with its promotion of the electric vehicle industry. In total, there are about 400 million vehicles in China, and every day they produce a huge amount of emissions.
If a number of those become electric, then it will have a great impact. Electric cars are also key to reducing the country's reliance on foreign oil, says government advisor Wei Jianguo. China is a country with few resources. Local production doesn't meet the country's needs, so China needs electric cars.
Since encouraging them, we reduced petrol consumption by 9 million tons. That's a reduction of less than 1%. But with public transportation increasingly going green, that figure is set to grow. Top-selling electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has turned the southern metropolis of Shenzhen into the world's first city to rely only on electric buses. Shenzhen alone now operates more electric buses than every city in the world outside of China, combined.
BYD is also greening the city's taxi fleet. Almost all of the city's 22,000 cabs are electric. But some drivers wish they weren't forced to make the switch. Electric taxi drivers definitely earn less because it takes several hours to recharge the car.
Sometimes we have to wait in line. Two months ago, I waited in line one hour or more for a charging station. Then it took me two hours to recharge.
Those are hours I could have been working. But he has no choice. The central planners of China's government say they're committed to ensuring the electric vehicle market becomes a world leader. This year, China imposed an emissions credit system that requires car manufacturers to reduce emissions below a certain level or pay for credits from other countries.
companies. That's an expenditure they want to avoid, so they're being compelled to go more green. And that applies to domestic and international companies.
At a plant in Foshan in China's south, German automaker Audi is building its first fully electric car designed especially for the Chinese market. Audi plans to launch 30 hybrid and electric models around the world by 2025. China is Audi's biggest market, and China's drive for new energy vehicles, or NEVs, is impossible to ignore, says director-executives. executive Heinz-Willi Bossen.
This is a key element here in China, so it would be a very big risk not to be able to offer any new technology in the Chinese market. So for us, not acceptable. We sell more than 30% of our cars, we target to have 40% of our cars sold in China. So for us, it's a key market. Audi isn't the only global brand lining up to comply with China's e-strategy.
Ford and General Motors will also launch electric models made specifically for the Chinese market by the end of this year, while Tesla's first factory outside the US is nearing completion in Shanghai. But for Chinese brands, there have been some speed bumps. NIO is struggling with months of sluggish sales and reports of battery fires.
The company has had to fire 10% of its workforce. And across the country, a weakening economy has reduced auto sales, including a 7% slump in electric vehicle sales. It hasn't helped that consumer subsidies began being scaled back in June, driving up the cost to buy one. NIO CEO William Li downplays concerns. He says his company and the electric industry overall are just starting to get on the road.
The car industry is constantly changing. There are always new challenges. We have more and more customers and their situation is changing too. It is not easy and it takes time.
But government regulations and a massive market will help ensure momentum toward green cars. And that policy makers in Beijing, not Washington or California, are in the driver's seat. From technological to artistic innovation, China has historically produced more than 75% of the world's art knockoffs.
But today, China is the second largest art market in the world, and Chinese artists are recreating what they call China's cultural aristocracy. Artist Zhang Mutuan has never set foot outside China, but he knows a lot about the streets of Paris. From his studio in the country's southern Guangdong province, he's painted tens of thousands of European scenes.
The 44-year-old earns a living duplicating paintings and has copied works by some of the world's most famous artists, including Van Gogh. You know Van Gogh's Starry Night? I used to paint three to five copies per day. Every year, I produce three to five thousand.
Artists here used to produce up to 75% of the world's duplicates. These were ordered by a souvenir shop in Amsterdam. Each canvas earns him just $5, though he knows they're sold for much more. He often spends 14 hours a day, seven days a week, painting duplicates. People say painters here in Dafen Village are no better than copy machines.
We started before things became digital and the quantity was huge. Every copy was almost the same, as if done by machine. But it's not.
It's done by hand and there's a process. And by this process, we become better artists. He lives in Dafan Village and dreams of making his mark on China's art scene.
His timing could be just right. Once notorious for forgeries and fakes, China's art market is now forging ahead. This isn't a mad dash on Black Friday. It's the race to grab a seat at one of the country's most prestigious auction houses, China Guardian. Last year, the firm says it closed $822 million worth of sales.
One third of all art global sales are now made in China, and the country's new wealthy class are a hungry market. Here, ink paintings, paper fans, and calligraphy can sell for millions. With traditional works commanding such high prices, Chinese buyers are starting to see art as a more reliable investment than the stock market. China Guardian is the country's oldest auction house, founded with the mission of recreating China's cultural aristocracy.
We are now living in a flourishing age. We see more people visiting exhibitions, museums and collections. This shows that the level of people's artistic appreciation and cultural quality is improving. In China, we say our nation has 5,000 years of history, and we can understand Chinese society and humanity through our art and culture. Beijing-based artist Hao Liang says China is slowly restoring its artistic legacy, something lost during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
when many artists were condemned as counter-revolutionaries. People have loved to collect art since the olden days, whether it was royal collections or private collections. China was a country which favored art, but we had a break in our history. We are restoring it. There's respect for art and culture.
The 36-year-old's ink paintings have sold to the likes of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Saint-Georges Pompidou in Paris. But contemporary paintings such as his Artists sought after in a Chinese market dominated by traditional art, where some consider more modern work heretical. I think it's fair and normal for people to criticize.
After all, I'm doing what I want and don't think too much about cultural tradition or what's popular according to the current climate. But that climate is changing thanks to younger buyers. Beijing gallery M.
Woods is popular with millennial art lovers. and often showcases collections by Western artists, including British artist David Hockney. Visitors to this gallery represent a new generation of Chinese art enthusiasts, educated abroad and increasingly interested in Western work.
But they are the urban elite minority. The majority of Chinese art buyers are middle-income, middle-aged and buying their art in places like Dauphin Village. Art dealer Jack Yeh serves a man looking to decorate his home.
Ten years ago, most of his customers were foreigners looking to buy copies of European paintings. Today, he says they're mostly middle-income Chinese looking to buy original Chinese art. He says the change is thanks in large part to a government push to shed China's copycat label.
Highly skilled painters or art school graduates we're trained and encouraged to create original work. Artistic taste and education is improving, and in the future, it will be even better. It's that future that Zheng Wuchuan looks forward to. When his copies are complete, he works on his own art, a fusion of Western and Chinese styles. Zheng says China's growing art market means it's now more profitable for him to be original.
These days, when customers are interested in my work, They're more generous in what they're willing to pay. As an artist, I dream of producing excellent art of my own and leaving behind influential work for the next generation. As China's art market develops, artists like Zhang Wuchuan are producing art that's more reflective of themselves and hoping for a life spent copying less and creating more.
But in China, the freedom to create does not carry over to everyone. Uyghurs are Muslims who trace their roots back for thousands of years to Central Asia. Today, most of them, about 11 million, live in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. They represent less than 1% of a country that is 92% Han Chinese, the ethnicity that China traces back to the Han Empire.
The U.S. says the Chinese government has thrown more than a million Muslim Uyghurs into camps for what the Chinese say is re-education. Communist China has long persecuted people based on their religion. But survivors of those camps and international researchers say this is different.
They describe the largest state-sponsored internment based on religion and ethnicity since Nazi Germany. We begin in a city to which many Uyghurs have fled, Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul is 2,500 miles from Xinjiang, China.
Muslim Uyghurs who live here are free, but their minds are still imprisoned. I never imagined this could happen in the 21st century. Innocent people, subjected to cuffs on their hands, shackles and black hoods over their heads.
Gulbahar Jalilova lives alone in a small apartment. The injuries she suffered in Chinese detention two years ago have healed, but she hasn't gotten over the memories. I saw them, 14-year-old girls to 80-year-old women.
They take them for interrogation. They would come back and their bodies were bruised, their heads swollen. After three months, they put a black hood over my head and took me away. Is it still upsetting? What are you thinking about?
I feel like I'm in there right now, there in the cell. I'll never forget this as long as I live. They destroyed my life. Abu Salam Muhammad also found sanctuary here on the banks of the Bosphorus.
He and every Uyghur we spoke to live in self-imposed exile because they are too scared of the Chinese government to go home. Can you describe for us what that detention center was like? They brought everyone in there because they called us suspicious. There is unimaginable oppression inside.
Every day they'd toss us a little bread and water so that we didn't die. And every day they would interrogate 15 or 20 of us with unbearable brutality. We are a people who've lost their freedom.
We became their target because we'd studied religion and because we had influence in our society. They locked us up in jail. Then, after taking us to a camp, they'd tell us that we hadn't done anything wrong, that they were just educating us. The Chinese say they are re-educating Uyghurs by teaching them Chinese and vocational skills. This is state media video.
The detainees we interviewed and international researchers call it staged and scripted, a facade that hides what's really happening. As seen in the only video that exists of a camp under construction, the entrance has an iron gate, the windows have bars, and the cells look like jails. And in this drone video the U.S. believes is authentic, prisoners in blue with shaved heads are kept blindfolded and are led away, one police officer per prisoner. Mohamed says what the Chinese call schools for re-education are actually prisons for brainwashing.
The 10 hours of class they would teach one day were the exact same hours they'd teach the next. The goal was to change our minds, our faith, our beliefs. It was a plot to force us to renounce our religion.
The Chinese call some Muslim Uyghurs extremists and terrorists. In 2009, Uyghurs in Xinjiang's capital rioted. Almost 200 died, and hundreds more were injured, mostly Han Chinese, the ethnic group that represents 90% of the country. Uyghur militants affiliated with al-Qaeda took credit for this 2013 attack in Tiananmen Square that killed...
two people. And China blames male and female Uyghur militants for this 2014 knife attack that killed more than 30. Those attacks are claimed by Uyghurs who call Xinjiang East Turkestan, which self-declared independence in the early 20th century. China says it's administered Xinjiang since 60 BC, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China is fighting separatists.
The education and training centers are schools that help the people free themselves from the influence of extremism and terrorism and acquire professional skills. The centers are anything but horrific concentration camps. But in Xinjiang and a neighboring province, residents say China's launched a campaign against Islam.
The government has partially or completely destroyed at least a dozen mosques. And Uyghurs say the Chinese aren't only targeting their religion. In Istanbul, Uyghurs describe how China criminalized Uyghur language and all Uyghur culture.
International researchers have called that campaign cultural genocide. China has even banned Uyghur music. Yusuf Suleiman sings about a culture that's been lost and a people who've been silenced.
They're disappearing our famous artists, composers and songwriters before anyone else. They're disappearing our intellectuals. They've burned what they wanted to burn and scrubbed what they wanted to scrub. He gave us photos of all his family members who have disappeared into camps.
He hasn't heard from any of them in more than two years. The absolute worst thing is that I don't know whether they're dead or alive. Our communication is completely cut off. bjbjLULU NICK SCHIFRIN The attacks on Uighur culture extend to close in the core of a conservative Muslim culture. YASIN ZUNIN, Uighur Muslim Culture Leader, When's the last time you were able to speak to your wife?
NICK SCHIFRIN YASIN ZUNIN came here hoping to expand his business and then bring his wife and daughter. But as soon as he left, he says the government kidnapped them and threw them into camps. That was more than three years ago. We've been each other's life.
I don't feel for anything beside my wife and children. Even when I wake up at two in the morning, I check my phone to see if I can find videos of them. One night, he did find something.
Photos online of his daughter in a Chinese school dressed in a Han Chinese costume instead of traditional Uyghur clothes. NICK SCHIFRIN And a video of his wife and other Uyghur women wearing traditional Chinese makeup and costumes. That's his wife. He calls her a sheep forced to wear the wolf's clothing.
ZHANG ZHANG, They are trying to make us deny our own culture, and they are targeting and assaulting our women. Instead of suffering from this kind of shame, I wanted to just die and be over with everything. If I can't protect my woman, how can I call myself a man? Abliz Ablakim says many Uighur men have been powerless to protect their families from the Chinese government. Can you tell me how a Han Chinese ended up basically as a member of your family?
Ever since the government began locking up most of the men, women, children and the elderly have been left behind. The government has sent officials to be ears in these households. They sent one to my uncle's house. Ablaqim takes out his phone and opens a grainy photo.
His aunt in Uyghur clothes, his uncle in Uyghur clothes holding his baby cousin. And then a Han Chinese man posing like a member of the family, but he's not a member of the family. MICHAEL MING, Was he forced onto your family? DR. HENG-FU CHIANG, He was forced.
He wouldn't be able to live there if he weren't. DR. HENG-FU CHIANG, State media does stories on Han Chinese inserted into Uyghur families and calls the program United as One Family. 1.1 million Han Chinese have been sent by the government into Muslim homes. In your opinion, why is the Chinese government doing this?
They refer to Uyghurs as criminals. If we ask them what our crime is, they say openly, aren't you Uyghur? That's crime enough. In Xinjiang's capital, a huge statue of Chairman Mao looms over the city.
In multiple interviews across China, we heard the same thing. China's fighting terrorism and fake news. Su Ge is a former ambassador and former head of one of the Chinese foreign ministry's think tanks.
China and the United States, I think that we feel the same about the extremists. We also have this danger of terrorism. The best way...
To eradicate radicalism is to provide education, to provide development. There have been cases of imprisonment that are on a mass scale, not just of terrorists or suspected terrorists, but actually entire families and entire cities. Oh, well, to us, that's just somebody trying to write a story about it. Meaning you think they're fiction.
But I would say that. If you have only interviewed those people who, for some reasons, who are paid for, you know, somehow. Do you think they're paid to tell these stories?
I do not know. I'm only saying that. They must have a source for income. You ask them, how many policemen have been injured and they're just by terrorists. But in the name of pursuing terrorists, International researchers say China turned Xinjiang into an open-air prison.
Local residents say police keep a close eye on all Uyghurs, interrogate them wherever they go, check their documents every few feet, and forcibly collect DNA samples. And researchers identify at least 85 camps and probably many more across Xinjiang. All of them are recently built.
A barren field in August 2016 became, in one year, what researchers say is a former school turned into a camp with... barricades and barbed wire. Just six miles away, researchers say another camp started being built in early 2017. By late 2018, there were barricades, watchtowers and barbed wire enclosures and more than a million square feet of buildings.
The U.S. says more than a million Uyghurs have disappeared into Chinese detention. On the outskirts of Istanbul, Uyghurs have been doing their own building to try and protect their identity. It's a school.
It's a school. where hundreds of Uyghur children are being raised and educated in Uyghur language and history. The children are all right because their memories aren't formed, but the adults stare into the distance, trying but failing to forget.
Akhil Shamsky is the English teacher. First, my mother was arrested, and three months later, they released my mother, dead, dead body. My mother was very healthy. When she was at home, three months later, she died.
It is impossible to walk through here without adults asking to share their stories, so we assembled five of them. Could you raise your hand if you have multiple members of your families currently in a camp in Xinjiang? Siraj-e-Din Abugadir fled Xinjiang after the Chinese threatened to take his passport.
Today, he's the school security guard. He hasn't heard from his family since he left them three years ago. I told my children farewell, and we will meet again.
That's the only thing I got to say to them. I never thought this would happen. I'm security here.
They provide my meals. At this age, I cannot do anything else. That is what God gave me.
I'm incredibly lonely. Everyone here has their own stories of family imprisonment. Both of Tursin Yassin's brothers, 42-year-old Abdugeni Moussa's daughter and other children. Ablet Tursin spent one month inside a camp.
And 72-year-old Amina Emmet is the principal's mother. Do you know where your children are? I don't know. I'm searching for any kind of news every day.
The Chinese say they have closed the camps and Uyghurs have returned home. But everyone here says their family members are still missing. And it's 19 children, grandchildren, and their spouses are still missing. I wish God would free us from the Chinese.
The Uyghurs are too weak to resist. There are no Uyghur people left, no people left in our homeland. My eldest son passed away years ago.
I basically raised the two of his kids myself. But even they were taken away. Now every Uyghur, no matter if inside of jail or outside of jail, is feeling the same thing.
Fear of disappearing from the world. A few miles away, Gulbahar Jalilova's mind is still in detention. I'm drinking tea, I'm eating bread, but those helpless people are desperate.
They don't have enough to eat. I see them all in front of me. as if I were still in the camp myself. After she was released, she wrote down all the names of the people in her cell.
Just one. of what could be tens of thousands of cells across Xinjiang, China. And while Uyghurs fight to maintain their culture, many in Asia's business capital, Hong Kong, are fighting for their voices to be heard.
The city is going through its most significant upheaval since the British gave up control more than 20 years ago. For weeks, millions of protesters have filled the city's streets. President Trump says the city's fate could decide China's relationship with the U.S. The protesters and Beijing say the future of the city is at stake. In the shadow of downtown, Hong Kong teenagers spend their weekends denouncing their government.
These students say they used to be apolitical, but now they feel they have to fight to save what makes their city unique. In China now, all is controlled by the government. Hong Kong is not like that, right?
Now my hope is to save Hong Kong's freedom. Every protester plays a part, and 16-year-old Shum Shums is to give free hugs. She wears a mask that's now been banned by the government and provides only her nickname to hide her identity from Hong Kong authorities she accuses of persecuting protesters instead of improving people's lives. We are teenagers. Now when we grow up, then maybe the government may be more harsh.
Maybe there's no any freedom. Hong Kong's Generation Z wants freedom from Beijing so much, they wrote their own national anthem. With its own music video that's gone viral. Break now the dawn, liberate our Hong Kong, they sing.
United, we say this is today's revolution. Free Hong Kong! Free Hong Kong! This is one of Hong Kong's main thoroughfares and protesters have completely taken it over. And they use umbrellas, not only for the sun, but also because it's the symbol of the democracy movement here.
And they say that the freedoms that this city has enjoyed. are being eroded. They started protesting with a narrow demand, withdrawal of a bill that would allow for the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China, where they say the judicial system is not independent.
The government will formally withdraw the bill. Chief Administrator Carrie Lam eventually withdrew the bill, but protesters expanded their demands to include her resignation, the freeing of arrested protesters, and what many here call freedom, the ability to vote directly for their legislators. without Beijing's interference. Others describe freedom more broadly and have deeper grievances. Pollsters say the number of Hong Kong residents identifying as Chinese is at its lowest level ever.
When you guys think of your identity, do you identify yourselves as both Chinese and from Hong Kong, or just Hong Kong? Just Hong Kong. If we give up, we're just telling China that, yeah, Hong Kong people is just... Like the same in mainland China.
So we are not going to let this happen. Hong Kong is not China. For centuries, Hong Kong was part of China.
But in the 1800s, foreign powers attacked, and the British forced China to lease the city as part of what the Chinese government calls the Century of Humiliation. In 1997, the British handed the city over, and under a deal known as One Country, Two Systems, communist China promised Hong Kong to keep its British written laws and independent judiciary, but had to turn over its defense and foreign policy. Beijing's defenders say China has lived up to its promises, and protesters' talk of revolution is misguided.
I think they're over-worried. In Hong Kong, the rule of law, the well-entrenched common law system underlines our freedoms and rights. That's why they can have protests every day.
Regina Ip is a member of the cabinet that runs the Hong Kong government. She says one country, two systems is doing just fine. After more than 180 years of Hong Kong as a city, we have a very strong and unique culture.
There's nothing wrong with a big country having different regional cultures. It's the same in the U.S. You know, the Californians are very different from those from Iowa or the Texans, you know.
But protesters argue China has not lived up to its commitments and is encroaching into every aspect of residents' lives. Professor Samson Yoon is studying the protests with the help of student pollsters. I think this is a gradual buildup of people's discontent about how China is ruling Hong Kong or how the Hong Kong government is not representing the local population but more representing Beijing.
That sentiment has taken hold since pro-democracy demonstrators occupied Hong Kong streets five years ago, demanding universal suffrage. No reforms have been done. And instead there has been a lot of disqualification and prosecution.
So people have been angry for a period of time. It's a time bomb. And one country, two systems can't stand on these time bombs.
Pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong has been arrested five times in the last five years. In 2015, the employees of a bookstore that sold books criticizing Beijing disappeared inside mainland China. And in 2016 and 2017, under pressure from Beijing, Hong Kong's high court disqualified elected members of Hong Kong's local government, including the youngest ever member, 23-year-old Nathan Law. At the end of the day, that accumulated anger, that infuriated crowd exploded in this summer and became what we have seen. Law says he was disqualified not because of a proper ruling.
But because Beijing was afraid of the younger generation's power. I promised to my constituency that I would not obey a regime that brutally kills its people. I will keep my promise in my campaign that I will serve the people instead of the regime. Autonomy, democracy and rule of law has always been our core values. In September, Law and other pro-democracy activists urged the U.S.
Congress to pass legislation that would allow the administration to sanction China for any Hong Kong crackdown. They say they need U.S. help. We are at the stage where we have tried all the tactics that we can on the ground in Hong Kong. But then that's not enough to gain that traction that we need to keep this.
momentum going on. Denise Ho was one of Hong Kong's biggest pop stars. Since she started protesting, Beijing removed her music from Chinese websites and banned her from performing in mainland China.
She says the protest leaders are not demanding revolution, just justice. We are at the stage where Hong Kong is in a police state, and we do not have any means whatsoever to bring justice to this situation. police violence and brutality. On October 1st, for the first time, police shot a protester with live ammunition, a step up from the tear gas and batons used previously. But the violence goes both ways.
Back on July 1st, protesters broke into the Legislative Council. They ransacked the building, spray-painted crude messages on the walls, and briefly occupied the main chamber, the seat of Hong Kong power. There are people within this movement who say that this was a mistake and that you needed to stay peaceful in order to make your point. What's your response to that?
We have to try all the peaceful ways. And what did the government, what was the government's response? It's nothing. For the young people, they said that, you know, people like me have been fighting for 30 years, 40 years, and they don't want to be like us, having to wait 40 years.
And I can understand that. Sentiment. Free Hong Kong!
Lee Chuk-Yon is a union organizer and former member of the Legislative Council. He says Beijing is trying to silence Hong Kong demonstrators to prevent change in Hong Kong and prevent anyone in mainland China from making the same demands. China is trying to destroy Hong Kong and our identity, our culture, our rule of law, our aspirational democracy, our freedom.
The Communist Party is trying to ban all human rights and freedom in China. So the only way for Hong Kong to survive, to have democracy, is that we need to fight China also. We need to change China before China changes. Pro-democracy protesters believe their more aggressive tactics are accelerating change.
But Beijing has used the tactics to portray protesters as violent threats to stability. On Facebook, Chinese state media outlet China Daily equated the protesters to terrorists who attacked the U.S. on 9-11. For two months now, The Hong Kong police have been doing their duty according to the law.
Hong Kong's radical demonstrators have repeatedly attacked police officers with extremely dangerous tools. They have already committed seriously violent crimes and have begun to show signs of terrorism. China also began threatening to use its military. Troops massed on the Hong Kong border and the army unit already garrisoned in Hong Kong released a slick video showing soldiers practicing. But Beijing knows there's consequences to its relationship with the U.S. if the military intervened, because that's what President Trump has warned.
We're also carefully monitoring the situation in Hong Kong. The world fully expects that the Chinese government will honor its binding treaty. How China chooses to handle the situation will say a great deal about its role in the world in the future.
Chinese officials say Comments like that encourage protesters to become separatists. The situation in Hong Kong has deteriorated to the point where some protesters dare to openly challenge the principle of one country, two systems. I don't think this is independent from the irresponsible and inciting remarks of some Western politicians. And Beijing's defenders point out one of the protesters' core demands, direct elections, can only happen if Beijing allows it.
Hong Kong is part of China. And according to our constitutional order under the Basic Law right now, for any kind of universal suffrage to be implemented in Hong Kong, or political reform, we need a consent from the central government. Holden Chow is the vice chairman of a party considered pro-Beijing.
He says if Beijing is going to consider giving in to demonstrators' demands, the protests need to stop, and splits in Hong Kong society need to heal. There's a kind of mistrust between some people in Hong Kong. and also the central government and mainland. So if we are not able to gain their trust, I don't think we will be able to implement any kind of universal suffrage. But that means the two sides might be caught in a vicious circle because demonstrators vow not to stop until their demands are met.
I think the key to fix the political problem in Hong Kong is really to have... More democracy here, not less democracy. The more you crack down, the more people will be disgruntled, will build up a lot of grievances.
And those grievances may have already fundamentally changed the city. Pro-Beijing and pro-democracy protesters have scuffled in shopping malls. And as the protests escalated, more and more Hong Kong residents have decided the city may not be a good place to raise their children, including Sham Sham's father. I'm feeling my daughter's future.
The Hong Kong protests keep on in this way. I will try to leave Hong Kong. I will try to choose to leave Hong Kong. NICK SCHIFRIN, Hong Kong families, residents on both sides, and pro-democracy activists and Beijing are fighting for the city's future.
And the fight is nowhere near over. NICK SCHIFRIN, And that's our series. Thank you for watching China, Power and Prosperity.