China: Power and Prosperity

Technology is transforming China, helping improve life in some ways, but also collecting big data. The government is beginning to convert that data and surveillance footage into social credit scores, which critics say can be used to penalize those who criticize the Communist Party. Nick Schifrin reports as part of "China: Power and Prosperity," with support from the Pulitzer Center.

Communist China's planned economy once prevented its citizens from becoming wealthy. But China now produces billionaires faster than any country in the world, even as President Xi Jinping has cracked down on ostentatious displays of wealth.

For decades, the world's two largest economies — the U.S. and China — have been integrated. But the Trump administration is now trying to undo that, as an escalating trade war impacts consumers and businesses in both countries.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the most expensive infrastructure project in history. Chinese companies are constructing roads, pipelines and railroads across the globe. But they are also building China’s influence, and critics in the U.S. and Asia worry Belt and Road projects can reduce countries’ sovereignty and grow Chinese power. With the help of the Pulitzer Center, Nick Schifrin reports.