captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> let me remind you of some of the words that you have used to describe the pharmaceutical industry, your industry... >> yeah? >> corrupt. >> yeah. >> immoral? >> yes. >> depraved? >> yes. they're appropriate, for the behavior that's taken place. >> you are a drug executive. you manufacture drugs. >> many drugs. epidemic in any way? >> absolutely. but once you find out that it's not correct, you have to do the right thing. is there anything more important? >> there's no question bryant viñas betrayed america by joining al qaeda. what you'll have to decide for

yourself is whether he has done enough to earn the protection of the u.s. government. >> i've had many trials involving murderers and, and drug kingpins on my docket. and i was shocked that they took such a cavalier, irresponsible step as they did, to deny mr. viñas witness protection. >> this year, china will build more than a million electric vehicles. and with massive support from the government, they are prepared to challenge not just the american auto industry, but the world. i heard that you were the one who called this car the "tesla killer?" there are 100 or so electric car makers here, including nio. it's a luxury brand, whose es-8 goes from zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds, and has a built-in personal assistant named "nomi." nomi!

>> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm scott pelley. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm holly williams. >> i'm bill whitaker. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes." we still need glasses

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as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? >> whitaker: we have reported on the causes and effects of the opioid epidemic for several years-- interviewing government whistleblowers, doctors, and americans who've grown dependent on the powerful pain pills. we have not had a high-ranking executive from the pharmaceutical industry sit before our cameras... until now.

tonight, ed thompson, a drug manufacturer who spent decades managing and producing opioids for big pharma, breaks ranks to denounce his industry and its federal regulator, the food and drug administration, which he says opened the floodgates on the crisis with a few little changes to a label. >> edwin thompson: the root cause of this epidemic is the f.d.a.'s illegal approval of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain. >> whitaker: the f.d.a. ignited this opioid crisis? >> thompson: without question, they start the fire. >> whitaker: ed thompson told us, when the top-selling opioid, oxycontin, was first approved in 1995, it was based on sciencd effective when used "short- term." but in 2001, pressured by big pharma and pain sufferers, the f.d.a. made a fateful decision and, with no new science to back it up, expanded the use of

oxycontin to just about anyone with chronic ailments, like arthritis and back pain. >> thompson: so this is what a package insert looks like. >> whitaker: wow. the f.d.a. did it by simply changing a few words on the label, that lengthy insert no one ever reads. today, the label says the powerful pain pills are effective for "daily, around- the-clock, long-term treatment." and that small label change made a big change in the way drug companies would market all opioids, allowing them to sell more and more pills at higher and higher doses. >> thompson: a drug's label is the single most important document for that product. it determines whether somebody can make $10 million or $1 billion. >> whitaker: how so? >> thompson: because it allows you to then promote the drug based on the labeling. >> whitaker: ed thompson owns p.m.r.s., a successful pennsylvania pharmaceutical company that manufactures drugs for biar

it's made him a rich man. but now, he's putting his livelihood at risk. he's doing what no other drug maker has ever done. he's suing the f.d.a. in federal court, to force it to follow the science and limit the opioid label to short-term use. thompson is challenging the f.d.a. to start with his newest opioid. it's thompson's creative way to sabotage the system. he may lose money rolling out his new drug, but if he is successful, it would set a precedent. other manufacturers would be forced to change their labels and limit their marketing. a decision going in your direction could pull down a multi-billion-dollar industry. >> thompson: correct. probably somewhere between $7 and $10 billion a year would come off the market. we made a decision to stop selling snake oil to u.s. citizens in 1962. >> whitaker: snake oil? >> thompson: yes, sir.

you're using high-dose, long- duration opioids, when they've never been designed to do that. there's no evidence that they're effective. there's extreme evidence of harms and deaths when you use them. >> whitaker: brandeis professor dr. andrew kolodny is one of the country's most-recognized addiction specialists, and has been an expert witness in litigation against big pharma, including purdue, the maker of oxycontin. he has been trying to get the f.d.a. label changed since 2011 to make clear opioids are not for everyone. >> dr. andrew kolodny: these are essential medicines for easing suffering at the end of life and when used for a couple of days after major surgery or a serious accident. if you're taking them around the clock, every day, quickly you become tolerant to the pain- relieving effect. in order to continue getting pain relief, you'll need higher and higher doses. as the doses get higher, the treatment becomes more dangerous and the risk of death goes up. >> whitaker: and that sounds

exactly like heroin addiction. >> kolodny: it's essentially the same drug. ( train whistle ) >> whitaker: to understand how this began, we traveled to this small courthouse in welch, west virginia, where we uncovered the minutes of secret meetings in 2001 between purdue pharma and the f.d.a. the files were part of the state's lawsuit against purdue for deceitful marketing. "60 minutes" got a court order to obtain these documents. they reveal it was at those secret meetings the f.d.a. bowed to purdue pharma's demands to ignore the lack of scientific data, and changed the label to "around-the-clock, for an extended period of time." >> thompson: i can't think of anything more harmful taking place that took place then. it opened the floodgates. it was the decision of no return for the f.d.a. >> whitaker: purdue told us oxycontin always was approved for long-term use. but an internal document shows

the company was jubilant about the labeling change. "the action by the f.d.a. has created enormous opportunities" to expand the market. the drug company's ads soon extolled the virtues of oxycontin's effectiveness, and sales tripled. >> dr. david kessler: it was a marketing tsunami. and the agency didn't catch it. think about it. >> whitaker: "60 minutes" has called on former f.d.a. commissioner david kessler many times for his expertise on drug safety issues. he ran the f.d.a. in the 1990s, when oxycontin was first approved, but he left before the labeling change. today, he's been retained by cities and counties suing big pharma for the opioid crisis. after reviewing the documents we obtained, and checking on his own, he says changing the label to long-term use was a mistake. >> kessler: there are no studies on the safety or efficacy of

opioids for long-term use. >> whitaker: but there's a law that says that a drug cannot be promoted as safe and effective unless it's proven to be safe and effective. but yet, with f.d.a. sanction, these opioids are being used in that way that you say have not been proven. >> kessler: that's correct. the rigorous kind of scientific evidence that the agency should be relying on is not there. >> whitaker: the label change was a blank check-- one the drug industry cashed in for billions and billions of dollars. now, big pharma had a green light to push opioids to tens of millions of new pain patients nationwide. let me remind you of some of the words that you have used to describe the pharmaceutical industry, your industry... >> thompson: yeah? >> whitaker: corrupt. >> thompson: yeah. >> whitaker: immoral? >> thompson: yes. >> whitaker: depraved? >> thompson: yes. they're appropriate, for the

behavior that's taken place. >> whitaker: you are a drug executive. you manufacture drugs. >> thompson: many drugs. >> whitaker: are you at fault in this epidemic in any way? >> thompson: i wish i was smart enough to have seen this epidemic before-- before i got three or four years into it. absolutely. but once you find out that it's not correct, you have to do the right thing. is there anything more important? >> emily walden: my son wanted to fight for his country. his country failed him. >> whitaker: if there is one victim who confirmed for ed thompson that turning on his industry was the right thing to do, it was emily walden, who would become an unlikely ally. thompson manufactured an opioid, oxymorphone-- the same drug that took the life of walden's son, tj, a private in the kentucky national guard. >> walden: he was getting ready to be deployed to africa, and a few weeks prior to that, he went on a camping trip with a group

of friends. and a police officer knocked on my door the next morning, telling me that he had passed away. >> whitaker: tj had grown addicted to the drug, and was easily able to get it without a prescription. walden went to washington, d.c. to ask the f.d.a. why her community was being flooded with pain pills. it was there she met ed thompson. what did you say to him? >> walden: "you manufactured the drug that killed my son." >> whitaker: he is now on your side. >> walden: yes. >> whitaker: that just seems like an odd connection. >> walden: it is. but ed might be my only hope in getting this fixed. the f.d.a.'s responsibility is public health and the safety of drugs, and they're not doing their job. they haven't been doing their job for 20 years. >> whitaker: dr. andrew kolodny agrees. the brandeis addiction specialist began his own investigation into why the

f.d.a. would approve the long- term use of opioids when there was no credible science to back it up. what did you find? >> kolodny: we found out that a group of experts and f.d.a. and pharmaceutical companies were having private meetings, and at these meetings, changing the rules for how opioids get approved. >> whitaker: he filed freedom of information act requests. in email after email between the f.d.a., big pharma and consultants, he learned of closed-door meetings at luxury hotels, like this four seasons in washington, d.c., where for $35,000 a piece, drug makers paid consultants to, "sit at a small table with the f.d.a.," "hobnobbing with the regulators." emails show one participant worrying it might be seen as "pay to play." >> kolodny: they had drugs in their pipeline, pain medicines that they wanted approved. and through these meetings, they were able to get those products

on the market. >> whitaker: that sounds unethical. >> kolodny: it is unethical. >> whitaker: if not illegal. >> kolodny: if it's not illegal, it should be illegal. >> whitaker: equally suspicious but legal, the large number of key f.d.a. regulators who went through the revolving door to jobs with drug manufacturers. the two medical officers who originally approved oxycontin, curtis wright and douglas kramer, went to work for the opioid maker purdue pharma, not long after leaving the f.d.a. >> kolodny: the culture at f.d.a. continues to be much too cozy with the industry it's supposed to be regulating. >> whitaker: the agency bills drug companies more than $800 million a year in fees, and depends on that industry money to pay the salaries of staffers who not only changed the opioid label, but also review new drugs like dsuvia, the most powerful opioid pill ever approved.

just a few weeks ago, the f.d.a. approved a new opioid that is 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. and this is in the middle of this opioid epidemic. how is that possible? >> kessler: i don't get it. i get your question; i don't get the agency's action. >> whitaker: isn't the f.d.a. supposed to be our watchdogs, to protect us? >> kessler: how many people do you think were working in a division that oversaw promotion or when this epidemic started to occur? >> whitaker: i have no idea. >> kessler: five. >> whitaker: when i'm looking at the carnage in american towns and cities, that just doesn't seem like a good excuse to me. >> kessler: it's not an excuse. it's the reality. you have a system of pharmaceutical promotion that changed the way medicine practiced, and no one, all

right, stopped it. >> whitaker: current f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb declined our request for an interview but, in a statement, said, "the f.d.a. has taken aggressive steps to confront the crisis." but he admitted, "many mistakes were made along the way. while the agency followed the law in approving and regulating opioids, we at the f.d.a. include ourselves among those who should have acted sooner." you say they have to do things to fix the label. the label has been in place since 2001. i'm not a scientist, but that doesn't seem like that's that hard to do. >> kessler: and it needs to be done. >> thompson: we got a real problem here. >> whitaker: ed thompson isn't waiting. he has now joined a growing movement of doctors, lawyers, and patient activists who want big pharma to kick its addiction to opioid profits. that's why he made the decisione f.d.a. if you succeed, you could pull

down a multi-billion-dollar industry. >> thompson: and if i fail, you're going to have ever- increasing deaths every day, as well. it's a pretty good decision, isn't it? >> cbs money watch sponsored by capital one. what's in your wallet? >> good evening. president trump announced tonight he is delaying an increase in tariffs on chinese imports as a result of productive trade talks. fed chair jerome powell talks about the economy to u.s. lawmakers on tuesday. and california's pg and e wants to cut millions in employee bonuses after its bankruptcy filing. i'm david begnaud, cbs news.

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>> pelley: there's no question bryant viñas betrayed america. what you'll have to decide for yourself is whether he has done enough to atone for his crimes. the new york city man, raised catholic on long island, joined al qaeda in 2008. but after he was caught, viñas became an informant, cooperating with the f.b.i. today, u.s. prosecutors say bryant viñas may have been the most valuable witness ever in the war on al qaeda. viñas impressed prosecutors and the judge in his case so much that they prepared to shield him from the prospect of al qaeda's revenge by putting him in the federal witness protection program. all was prepared-- until bryant viñas says he was double-crossed. you can assume that al qaeda wants to kill you. >> bryant viñas: yes. >> pelley: right now, today? >> viñas: yes. >> pelley: why be on television? >> viñas: to let people know what went wrong. >> pelley: life went wrong for

bryant viñas at an early age. he was a troubled teenager. his mother kicked him out. viñas was searching for purpose and converted to islam. later, he was seduced by the online fanaticism of al qaeda recruiter anwar al-awlaki. >> anwar al-awlaki: we are fighting for a noble cause. we are fighting for god. >> pelley: al-awlaki was an american killed back in 2011 by a u.s. drone. >> viñas: a lot of his sermons were captivating. very mesmerizing, i guess you could say. he was talking about the injustices in the world, oppression going on in the middle east. and it hit me in my heart. >> pelley: and you decided that the problems in the middle east were your problems? >> viñas: it was a problem that i could get involved in, yes. >> pelley: in 2007, at the age pakistan and afghanistan. you wanted to kill americans. >> viñas: at the time, yes. >> pelley: viñas found himself

welcomed by terrorists, who had longed for an american recruit who traveled on a u.s. passport. >> viñas: i asked somebody, i said, "what group is this?" and he says, "this is al qaeda." i said, "this is al qaeda?" and he says "yeah. this is not what you see in the videos. this is not what you see on the news." >> pelley: what do you mean? >> viñas: usually, you see monkey bars where guys are training, or crawling underneath barbed wire. and i didn't do any of that. that's not how it was, while i was there. >> pelley: what type of training did you get in this al qaeda camp? >> viñas: so, we did... basic soviet weapons. they go a little bit into explosive theory, suicide bombing vests. >> pelley: viñas says a high- ranking al qaeda leader askepo targets in the u.s. >> viñas: i gave information on the long island railroad, a plot on how to attack it. basically, the tunnel that connects all the trains that lead into manhattan. so, if the tunnel is destroyed, then it would hurt the economy in new york. >> pelley: they wanted to attack

the economy of the united states? >> viñas: yes, sir. the death toll isn't really the primary target. >> pelley: they'd probably never heard of the long island railroad before. you might have relatives or friends on the railroad. >> viñas: yeah, very possible. yeah. >> pelley: how do you feel about that now? >> viñas: regretful. actually, i'm very thankful nobody got hurt. and it was in the idea stages, and that's as far as it went. >> pelley: did you take part on any attacks on u.s. bases in afghanistan? >> viñas: yes, sir. i was part of a defensive team to protect the group that was launching the rockets. >> pelley: what was your job? >> viñas: in case a pakistani helicopter came, we were supposed to attack that helicopter, so it wouldn't attack the group down below. >> pelley: in 2008, after seven months in terrorist camps, viñas took a short break to visit the city of peshawar. apparently, the pakistanis were watching. he was arrested, turned over to the united states and, within days, found himself in federal

prison in brooklyn. there, f.b.i. agents offered him a choice: life in prison, or, tell all about al qaeda. to help convince him, agents took him to coney island. >> pelley: they took you to nathan's hot dog stand? >> viñas: well, i was in the car. and one detective went and got an order, and brought it back... >> pelley: and brought you a hot dog? >> viñas: hot dogs, burgers, fries, a drink. >> pelley: and they showed you around coney island and they said, "you can have a life again." >> viñas: yes. he holds out his arms. he says, "you really want to go back to, to prison, and go to super max for the rest of your life?" and i said, "you know what? this is my chance to get a second chance at life." and i said, "you know what? i'll take it." >> pelley: so viñas decided to plead guilty. his sentencing was postponed until the government could assess the quality of his cooperation.on, viñas spentt yed the f.b.i. >> andrew mccabe: viñas

changed the way we thought about how al qaeda recruits, and who al qaeda recruits. >> pelley: andrew mccabe was the head of f.b.i. counter-terrorism and oversaw the viñas case. this was before mccabe became better known for opening two investigations of president trump. how valuable was bryant viñas to the f.b.i.? >> mccabe: incredibly valuable, through his testimony, through his debriefings, identifying people, teaching us how he had walked this pathway from long island, new york into al qaeda. >> pelley: you didn't know that stuff before? >> mccabe: learning about his experience completely broke the mold from the way that we thought business was happening. prior to viñas, the idea that any american could just head to pakistan and go seek out al qaeda and affiliate with that group was something we thought couldn't be done. >> pelley: he was a game changer for the f.b.i., in terms of al qaeda? >> mccabe: i would say so, yes.

>> steve zissou: his information has stopped more attacks than you can even conceive of. >> pelley: steve zissou is a defense lawyer with a top security clearance. he's represented several terrorism suspects, including bryant viñas. >> zissou: i have reviewed both classified and unclassified information, and the government's submissions to the court make it unequivocally clear that his information stopped attacks, saved lives, and permitted the-- our military to continue the battle. to take it to them, if you will. >> pelley: were drone strikes launched on the basis of his information? >> zissou: no doubt about it. >> pelley: viñas' defense attorney points to drone strikes that killed 14 suspected jihadists where viñas had lived. so they were killing these >> viñas: ye sir >> pelley: how did you feel >> viñas: at one time, they were my friends. but, you know, if i have to leave that life behind, i can't

have them be my friends no more. >> pelley: in 2017, prosecutors wrote this to the judge in viñas' case, nicholas garaufis: "to say that the defendant provided substantial assistance to the government is an understatement. indeed, he may have been the single most valuable cooperating witness, with respect to al qaeda." judge garaufis agreed, adding that viñas had placed his life in "grave danger" to help his country. >> nicholas garaufis: he was the extraordinary case. mr. viñas has certain god-given gifts, one of which is that he has a photographic memory.e had been. he remembered most of the people he had met. he was able to explain to the government how al qaeda recruits. that's why he was so valuable. >> pelley: with that in mind, judge garaufis ruled that the

eight years viñas had spent cooperating from a prison cell were enough. >> garaufis: the sentence was time served, with an additional 90 days. >> pelley: why 90 days? >> garaufis: in order for him to have the opportunity to be placed in witness protection once he's released. >> pelley: so it was your understanding that he was going to be brought into the witness protection program. >> garaufis: yes, it absolutely was. >> pelley: and what happened? >> garaufis: on the 88th day of the 90-day period, i was advised that he had been refused witness protection status by this office at the justice department, the office of enforcement operations. there had never been a problem before in any of my cases involving cooperators who sought witness protection. >> pelley: in prison, viñas already had been in witness protection. judge garaufis told us it's routine for the same protection to continue after release. but the u.s. department of

justice witness security program, known as "witsec," turned him down with no explanation. >> garaufis: they don't give the reasons, and the prosecutors moved for reconsideration. reconsideration was denied. >> pelley: the prosecutors work for the justice department. the f.b.i. agents are part of the justice department. all of them agree that he should be in the witness protection program. and then, another agency inside the justice department overrules them? >> garaufis: that's what troubles me. that they've had 8,700-- at least 8,700-- cooperators placed in witness protection. and i know some of these cooperators.they'v my dets. i've had virtually the entire bonanno organized crime family on my docket. i've had many trials involving murderers and, and drug kingpins on my docket.

so, i'm not a newcomer to this process. and i was shocked that they took such a cavalier, irresponsible step as they did, to deny mr. viñas witness protection. >> pelley: the justice department's witsec office declined an interview, but in a statement to "60 minutes," it hinted at an explanation. it singled out just one of the factors in its decision process. witsec "must take into account the risks associated with giving a person a new identity and placing them in a community that is unaware of the person's actual identity." risk to the community, then witness protection would insure that the government kept tabs on him. and after all viñas has done, garaufis says, the justice

department has an obligation to keep him safe. it's extremely rare, your honor, in my experience, to have a federal judge talk about a case. and i wonder why you have done this today? >> garaufis: i've never done it before in 18 years as a judge. i won't allow the folks who made this decision to hide behind their decision. and it's a potential problem in the future. >> pelley: this would have a chilling effect, in your opinion, on people who might consider cooperating in the future? >> garaufis: that's right. >> pelley: today, bryant viñas is on his own. >> viñas: right now, i'm working washing dishes at a restaurant. so that's how i'm paying the bills. >> pelley: the greatest al qaeda informant of all time, we're told, is washing dishes. >> viñas: that's correct. >> pelley: you're probably the only dishwasher who lectures at west point.

>> viñas: ( laughs ) yeah. >> pelley: after eight years in prison, cooperating with the government, viñas is still fighting terror. he's spoken at the u.s. military academy, and to research organizations, about the false lure of jihad. and he's still helping investigators. do you consider yourself, as we sit here right now, square with the united states? >> viñas: i always feel that it's... it's a continuing process that i should do for years to come. >> garaufis: i don't forgive him for seeking to engage in jihad against the united states. it's not that you forgive him. but he turned a corner. and he was successful in doing it. the government needs to meet, to meet its part of the bargain. >> welcome to cbs sports h.q. presented by progressive insurance.

>> i'm greg gumbel in new york. earlier today here on cbs in college basketball, xavier stunned number 17 villanova, handing the wildcats their third straight big east loss. the in-state battle of michigan went to the tenth-ranked spartans. they beat the wolverines to take over the big 10 lead inch golf, dustin johnson shot a final round 5 under par 66 to win the wgc mexico championship five shots ahead of rory mcilroy. might get windy. have a good shift. fire pit. last use -- 0600. i'd stay close. morning. ♪ get ready to switch. protected by flo. should say, "protected by alan and jamie." -right? -should it? when you bundle home and auto... run, alan! ...you get more than just savings. you get 'round-the-clock protection.

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>> williams: there is perhaps nothing more emblematic of the american century than the automobile. assembly lines rolled out millions of fords, chryslers, chevys and buicks and made motor city-- detroit, michigan-- the capital of the global car industry. but in the race to dominate the auto industry of the 21st century, it is china vying for the pole position. it's chinese automakers building the smart cars of tomorrow. and, the energy fueling them is electric. today, u.s. automakers are caught between a tariff-fueled trade war and threats of cuts to

electric car subsidies by the trump administration. at the same time, beijing is trying to win the race by ensuring the electric vehicles of the future are made in china. >> michael dunne: this year, china will build a million electric vehicles. that's nice scale. that's half of the electric vehicles in the world. >> williams: michael dunne grew up in detroit, america's motor city. then, as a graduate student seeking adventure in the late 1980s, he went to chongqing in western china. >> dunne: everyone was poor, wearing greys and blues, riding mi-- bicycles. there were no cars. >> williams: no cars? >> dunne: no cars at all. >> williams: dunne has watched china evolve from an isolated socialist state, to a controlled capitalist powerhouse. and from a nation of bike riders to car drivers. he's been working as an auto industry consultant in asia for

30 years, including a stint as a top executive at general motors. and now, dunne is witnessing the chinese government literally electrify its burgeoning auto sector. what is the chinese government doing to encourage people to buy electric vehicles? >> dunne: lots. without government regulation, there would be no ch-- electric car industry or market here. >> williams: it's completely created by the government? >> dunne: totally created by the government. so, you get up to $10,000 in rebates when you buy an electric car, in several cities. >> williams: and what else does the government do? >> dunne: in the city of shanghai, for example, typically, you have to pay $12,000 to $13,000 to buy a license for the ability to buy a car. they waive that. >> williams: they're free, if you buy an electric vehicle. >> dun >> williams: the result? an explosion of electric car makers-- ♪ ♪ --a hundred or so-- eagerly feeding at the government trough.

you can buy a great wall, or you can "build your dreams"-- a car maker in which american billionaire warren buffett was an early investor. the latest entrant to the crowded chinese auto market is nio. >> william li: hi, holly. >> williams: hi, william. >> williams: nio's founder is william li... it's nice to meet you. >> li: okay, nice to meet you too. >> williams: ...a 44-year-old billionaire entrepreneur, who we met last year in beijing. nio is china's only all-electric luxury car brand... it's sort of similar to a tesla. ...and the similarity to a tesla is no coincidence. nio's es-8 is competing with american-made tesla for wealthy, status-conscious chinese. their conspicuous consumption has made china one of the biggest markets for luxury goods in the world. with no import costs, at $60,000 u.s. dollars, the nio is about half the price of a tesla.

i heard that you were the one to call this car the "tesla killer?" >> li ( translated ): all right, all right. >> williams: maybe it was you. >> li: maybe, maybe. >> williams: it doesn't look like a killer. should we take it for a spin? >> li: yeah. >> williams: what is the acceleration like on this? li claims his car goes from zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds. 650 horse power? and about 220 miles on a full charge. plus the car has a built-in personal assistant called "nomi"... can we try nomi? >> li: yeah, sure. >> williams: ...who follows voice commands-- as long as you speak chinese. ( chinese ) hi, nomi. >> li: wow, cool. >> williams: she understands me. >> li: yeah, sure. >> williams: nomi is an avatar of artificial intelligence. she'll entertain you with a music playlist, adjust the temperature... >> li: ( chinese ) >> williams: ...or snap a selfie on command.

>> nomi! >> williams: this is chinese innovation-- a great leap forward from china's communist past. what would chairman mao have made of a capitalist like you? ( laughter ) li told us, chairman mao would have said, "you're doing a good job." really? he was a communist. he hated capitalists like you! "we are trying to make a better world," li said. in chinese, the slogan of li's car company is "blue sky coming." that dovetails nicely with one of the reasons the chinese government is pushing electric vehicles-- as a way to reduce the country's choking air pollution. you've been called the elon musk of china. is that fair? >> li: i'm younger than him. ( laughs ) >> williams: i've been speaking to quite a lot of chinese since i got here. and they say they really like teslas. >> li: yeah. >> williams: how are you going

to compete with that? li said it's like the clothes fashion models wear on the catwalk. "the clothes may be beautiful," he explained, "but you can't wear them every day." so the tesla is the super-model, and you're the girl next door? >> li: yeah. >> williams: auto analyst michael dunne says the first challenge for nio is to overcome china's reputation for building cheap, low-quality cars. are they trying to knock tesla out of china, and take on tesla, perhaps globally? >> dunne: there's plenty of market here to allow tesla to play and nio to play. what nio needs to do is establish credibility with consumers and say, "we're legit. we're a really good car." >> williams: in september, nio became the first chinese all- electric car company to debut on the new york stock exchange. the splashy initial public offering raised a billion dollars. this is the race car? a nio team has competed on the

formulae circuit for two seasons, including this race in brooklyn, new york-- proof that electric cars are catching up with gas engines in power and speed. but nios are really designed for tech-savvy chinese owners who link to their cars with a mobile app. tap on a screen for repairs or maintenance. tap to order a mobile charging van for a quick power boost. tap again to visit a swap station, where a depleted battery can be replaced in three minutes by robot mechanics. it's the kind of futuristic scene that william li could only dream of as a child. and did anyone in your village have a car? >> li: no. >> williams: ironically, the founder of this high-tech electric car company grew up in a farming village with no

electricity. so you learned about business, raising cows with your grandfather. >> li: yes, yes, yes. >> williams: and what did you learn? li explained that when you're doing business, "honesty is very important." >> this is all nio. >> williams: li has founded or backed about 40 start-ups, including an online auto marketplace, and a bike sharing company. his estimated net worth is $1.2 billion, and li has plowed $150 million of his own money into nio. americans have been quite slow to adopt electric cars. >> li: uh-huh. >> williams: is it different here in china? "it will definitely be fast," li told us, "because the chinese government is pushing electric cars." there's also chinese companies as well? in shanghai, china has built the largest e.v. database in the world. this is a map of all the electric cars in shanghai? >> ding xiaohua: yeah. >> williams: ding xiaohua is

deputy manager of the shanghai electric vehicle data center, which collects millions of bits of information every day on nearly 200,000 electric cars on this city's streets. so let's find a tesla. >> xiaohua: so this is only tesla brands. >> williams: these are all teslas? >> xiaohua: yeah, all teslas. >> williams: inside every electric vehicle in the city is a black box, automatically transmitting data to the center every 30 seconds. >> xiaohua: for example, the speeds, the mileage, the battery temperature. >> williams: and does that help the government plan for the future? >> xiaohua: yes, public charging points, how many public charging points? and where it is best place for the public charger. >> williams: there is nothing like this in the u.s., or anywhere else. because it's in real time? china is paving the way for the electric cars of the 21st century. and the blue ones are in use? >> xiaohua: yes, moving.

>> williams: most of the country's hundred or so e.v. start-ups will be killed off by the competition. but william li thinks nio will survive, and points out, his company met its modest goal of delivering 10,000 cars last year. why are the numbers so small at the moment? "there are always problems and delays when a company ramps up production of something new," li told us. and nio's cars, he added, are all made-to-order. we visted nio's production line, where the made-to-order cars are assembled in a spotless, automated, high-tech factory dominated by a corps of whirring robots. and with china's massive manufacturing n reign compor at the company's research and development outpost in san jose,

california, padma warrior, nio's c.e.o. in the united states until last december, predicted its cars will someday be on american roads-- but she was cagey about when. what will it mean to american consumers and american drivers, you hope? >> padma warrior: i would hope consumers will look at it as the future. >> williams: a chinese future? >> warrior: china-driven future. >> williams: nio is one of nine chinese electric vehicle-- or e.v.-- companies to set up shop on the west coast, where they can entice the world's best engineers, programmers and software developers. nio has hired more than 600 of them. >> warrior: we have people here that have worked at google, at apple, at cisco, at tesla, you name it. >> williams: think some people might see that as a transfer of american technology to a chinese company? >> warrior: i don't see it that way. i think i see it more as, where is the biggest market for e.v.s,

right? and where is the biggest problem with respect to pollution? clearly, that's china. so i look at it as taking the best of the talent pool that's available, and changing the world for the better. >> williams: this year, the chinese government will require all global automakers in the country to make 10% of their vehicles electric. american automakers are already investing billions in electric vehicle technology. but unlike chinese companies, they don't have the government trying to fix the race. auto industry consultant michael dunne warns, china is determined to bend the electric car industry in its favor. >> dunne: the size of the market alone makes china an irresistible place to be for any global automaker.pling. so china says, "hmow badly do you need our market? all right, very good. you're welcome to sell as many cars as you want, provided that

you also abide by our new rules with regards to electric vehicles." >> williams: has america already ceded leadership in this industry? >> dunne: no. not too late. it's so early. china's been making electric vehicles three years, four years. >> williams: when will it be too late? >> dunne: if we wait to 2025, china will be making five million a year. and if we're still making a half of a million, oh, now all of the technology and design engineering is concentrated in china. how do you catch up with that? >> part car dealership, part private club. >> oh, you can't come here unless you own a nio! >> how nio entices its customers. go to 60minutesovertime.com. feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin and relief from symptoms caused by over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones.

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>> pelley: in the mail this week: some viewers objected to last sunday's story, "investigating the president," in which we referred to president trump as "mr. trump." as longtime cbs news white house correspondent mark knoller wrote on several occasions over his decades covering the white house, "no disrespect is intended. just the opposite. it is cbs news' practice to refer to the president and former presidents on second reference with the honorific 'mr.' everyone else in the political universe is referred to only by their last names." that goes for putin and pelosi, pence and pompeo. after identifying president trump, we use "mr. trump"-- or "mr. bush," or "mr. obama"-- on

second reference, as a sign of respect for the office. i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." wow, that's an aggressive yellow. pretty great, huh? if you're a banana. i find it very... appealing. kellogg's raisin bran with bananas. two scoops meet real banana slices. i've done a good job of raisin ya.

captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org to our neighbors, really? why?thinking of moving and sellin something about babies crying and keeping them up all night; it's not important. you guys should totally take a look at it. (laughs) then we could be neighbors. hey. wait a minute, what about us? i mean, we're married now. maybe we want to buy the house next door. well, amy, we can't move. i'd have to change all the tags in my underwear. you can buy new ones. what-- new house, new underwear. what am i, in the witness protection program? okay. guys, so what do you think? well, i don't know, w-we're pretty happy here. yeah. plus, if we moved, we'd probably just get a loft downtown. really? i always figured we'd get a place with a yard. oh, sure, yeah, and mow the lawn?ou c shootoops how are you two married? you were there. i wore her down. he did. you guys should've talked about all this stuff while you were dating.