China Rising

• Evan Osnos, China correspondent for The New Yorker, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
• Chas Freeman, U.S. Foreign Service lifer who rose to top jobs in State and Defense. He was translator for Nixon, Kissinger and Mao back in the 70s, and author of Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige
• Eugene Wang, Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University, author of Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China
• Yiyun Li, Beijing-born Chinese American writer, author of Kinder Than Solitude

China is in its own gilded age, says The New Yorker writer Evan Osnos, into a second generation of ultra-modern tech, a still-developing country bristling with billionaires. On the eve of Chris’ trip to China, we’re wondering how a country with nearly a century of poverty, collectivism, and authoritarian rule adapts to its explosive (and vastly unequal) wealth.