Honor guards attend a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square in 2017. Under President Xi Jinping, China has ambitiously pressed its advantage almost everywhere at once. VCG via Getty Images hide caption
China Unbound An in-depth series reported from more than a dozen countries on six continents about what an emboldened China means for the world.
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Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Li Biao, chairman of the Chinese Haite Group, are at the center of the launch of a Chinese investment project in Morocco, in March 2017. Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Containers from China are stacked next to the train station in the Duisburg port in July. Approximately 25 trains a week use a new connection between Duisburg and the Chinese cities of Chongqing and Yiwu. Several European countries use the railway for trading goods both from and into China. Maja Hitij/Getty Images hide caption
Tibetans cheer on a Tibetan team at a soccer tournament in London. Fans say they were pleased and surprised that the tournament organizers didn't succumb to pressure from potential sponsors and dump the Tibetan team to avoid angering the Chinese government. Frank Langfitt/NPR hide caption
How The Chinese Government Works To Censor Debate In Western Democracies
The front page of the Communist Party's flagship newspaper the People's Daily (center) and other papers are seen one day after the unveiling of the new Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing last year. Thomas Peter/Reuters hide caption
Chinese Leaders Leverage Media To Shape How The World Perceives China
A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. China faced unprecedented criticism of its brutal repression of unarmed citizens demanding more freedoms. More recently, China has begun promoting its model of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" as the preferred path for advancing human rights. Jeff Widener/AP hide caption
Chinese border patrol gunboats come downriver from the Yunnan province about once a month in a show of force to keep the Mekong River safe, as China's Xinhua News Agency puts it. Michael Sullivan for NPR hide caption
Brazilian and Chinese players practice at the Desportivo Brasil academy, in Porto Feliz, Brazil, in September. Patrícia Monteiro for NPR hide caption
People cheer and throw confetti after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta flags off a cargo train for its inaugural journey to Nairobi last year at the port of the coastal town of Mombasa. Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Saleem Abbas, a 17-year-old from northern Pakistan, sits front and center in his Chinese language class taught by Nayyar Nawaz at Pakistan's National University of Modern Languages. Saiyna Bashir for NPR hide caption
In Pakistan, Learning Chinese Is Cool — And Seen As A Path To Prosperity
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with President Trump during a joint statement in Beijing last November. Rather than a frontal assault on U.S. leadership, Xi has articulated his vision of a "community of shared destiny." Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A woman walks in front of the China Development Bank tower in the Pudong district of Shanghai in 2015. That and the Export-Import Bank of China have provided nearly $1 trillion in financing to foreign governments since the early 2000s. Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
Panamanian Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi toast after signing a joint statement on establishing diplomatic relations in June 2017 in Beijing. Greg Baler/Pool/Getty Images hide caption
Japanese troops enter Manchuria in 1933. Tokyo sent soldiers and settlers to Manchuria and exerted direct and indirect influence there. Japanese official publications treated Manchuria's people much in the same way as China's Xinhua News Agency now treats those of Xinjiang and Tibet. Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images hide caption