captioni sponsored by newshour productions, llc oo woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: in the hot seat. the u.s. intelgence chief faces questions overhe whistleblower colaint central to the impeachment inquiry, and why it took so long to get to cong, ss. thenwer and prospety. inside the mind of the man reshaping modern china. president xi jinping, and his pursuit of chinese dominance on the world stage. >> ( translated ): in chinese esmodern history, china has been bullied for a long time. when we are rich, our country can protect us. whin we feel like when we ar w danger, wel be protected by our country. not like before. >> woodruff: and, a view from the south.h. a conversation with the south korean foreign minister on the lingering threat of her

country's nuclear neighbor. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ >> life well-planned omarn more at raymondjames >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan fountion. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. pporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corpation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station fromiewers like you. thank you. io >> woodruff: coeand cover-up. that is what the newly-releasedo whistleblowelaint alleges. the complaint says that president trump pressured the ukrainian leader to investigate idhis democratic rival joe and his son.

according to the whistleblower. white house officials then tried to cover it up, the complaint was released just moments before acting director of national intelligence joseph maguire testified today before congress. congressional correspondent lisr desjardins he. >> desjardins: at the white house and capitol, another dayer ce on another explosive document. this morning, the houseen intell committee released the full text of the original whistleblower complaint, thatr o alleges president trump sured a foreign country, ukraine, to investigate one of the president's main destic political rivals, joe biden. all part of a phone call with the ukrainian president in july. the whistleblower author wrote call, but "multiple officials" recounted the facts to them. other serious charlaint lodges that senior white house officials intervened to "lock down" all records of theal ukraine phone call, including usual server, to one forom its classified or sensitive

information.th >> the true whole truth, and nothing but the uth. >> desjardins: the release happened minutes before a much-awaited hearing about the complaint, one with a new sense of gravity. from democrats: >> yesterday, we were presented deth the most graphic evidence yet that the pre of the united states has betrayed his oath of office. >> desjards: republicans >> in the democrats' mania tocr overturn the 2016 elections, everything they touch gets lessly politicized. >> desjardins: and the acting chief of u.s. intelligence: r i believe that everything here in this mat unprecedented. >> desjardins: joseph maguire, who became director of nional intelligence just last month, explained why he did not forward the explosive whistlinlower compabout the president to congress, as the law indicates. he wasn't sure it was an m intelligenter, and moreover, the white house said the call was privileged.co >> wulted with the white house counsel's office and we were advised that much of

the complaintn was in fact subject to executive privilege. a privilege that i do not have the thority to waive. >> i'm just asking about the sequencing here. did you first go to theit house, to determine whether you should proede a complaint to congress? >> no, sir. that was not the question. the question was whether or not it has executive privilege. not whether or not i should send it on to congress.gres >> desjardins: maguire said he is not political or partisan, but made it clear he saw this as a difficult situation. he forwarded the complaint, he, sad charge of criminal wrongdoing, to the justice department.qu democrattioned if the president's own d.o.j. was a reliable arbiter. >> if your office of the blinspector general is not to investigate, then who is able to investigate? >> although it did not come to the committee, to the judicial f departme criminal investigation, this was not swept under the rug. >> desjardin another question: who knew about the complaint? >> did you discuss this subject, this whistlebler complaint,

with the president? p>> my conversation, no matter what the subject is, with th president of the united states, is privilegeconversation between the director of nationar intelligence and the presidents: >> desjardaguire did say the white house never ordered him to withhold information. publicans fired back at democrats, accusing them of political warfare. >> gentlemen, i want to congratulate the democrats on the rollout of their latest information warfare operation against the president, and their extraordinary ability to once again enst the mainstream media in their campaign. >> desjardins: john ratcliffe of texas insisted president trump did nothing wron >> the united stes is allowed to solicit help from a foreign government in an ongoing criminal investigation, which is exactly what president trump did in that conversation. >> desjardins: the president's strongest defender was himself. he spoke to reporters in washington after returning from the u.n. it's a disgrace. it's a terrible thinunfor our y. they can't do any work.

they're frozen, the democrats. they're going to lose .e electi they know it. that's why they're doing it. and it shod never be allowed, what'sappening to this president. >> desjardins: and now, more is happening. intelligence committee members told newshour, they will now y, the ukrainian call. cover-up this, as late to new recording of the president appeared-- audio the "l.a. times" obtained of mr. trump speaking to staff this morning, targeting those in the white house who gave the whistleblower information. >> because, that's close to a spy. you know what we used to do in the old days, when we were smart? right? the spies and treason? we used to handle it a little lt differently than we do now. >> desjardins: meantime, house speaker nancy pelosi indicated that democrats are now focusing impeachment work on the ukraine phone call. e>> this is the focus of moment, because this is the charge. all of the other work th relates to abuse of power, ignoring subpoenas of

government, of congress, abuse, contempt of congress by him-- those things will be considered later. but right now, we'rethe investigating-- the quiring stage. >> desjains: a few hours later, outside the capitol, progressive groups added to the pressure on pelosi, calling for not just impeachment votes, but impeachment votes soon.tes so for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: earlier, i spoke with chairman schiff, and i started by asking him if today's testimony gave him a better understanding of how the trump administration handled t whistle-blower's complaint against the president. >> well, it d, and it raised ofound concerns that a process that was meant to allow a whistleblower provide information to congress broke down, and it broke down on the vice of white house counsel

and thdepartment of justice. considering that the complaint involved activity, misconduct the president, considering that bill barr himself was implicated in the complaint, the idea that a director would go to those twt sources for guidance in whether this complaint needed to be provided to congress shows ik the most direct conflict of interest, and that meant this wecomplaint was withheleks after it should have been turned over to congress, and it was being wiheld at a time when the president was still withholding military aid, vital military assistance to ukraine. soe have a problem here, but, of course, the far broaderpr lem is that we have a president who has tried to leverage te power of his office pressure a foreign government intog helpn yet another u.s. presidential election, this timf by maturing different dirtring on a different opponent, and we're dety ermined to fut to the bottom of this. >> woodruff: so do you have evidence that this was all

suppressed deliberately to protect the president? >> well, that certainly was the goal of ewhitehouse counsel and it was certainly the goal i think of the jus justice depart. after all, when you read the tortured opinion of the justice department it says the director of national intelligence has n jurisdiction when it comes to foreign election interference. the justice department said essentially there's nothing to see, we're not going to investigate it, even while it's said the inspector generals don't have jurisdiction to so i certainly believe the white house and the department of justice are complicit in ying to keep this from congress. in terms of the director, look, i strongly disagree with his decision, but i respect his career of rvice to theco try. at the same time, when congress says that something shall be motived to congress, we mean it. >> woodruff: so when you mentioned the white house counsel, you mentioned the attorney general, are you going be caling them to testify before the committee? and who else in the

administration? >> well, i don't want to get i can tell you that theha whistleblowegiven us details and credible allegations, a road map, if you will, as to how to finout the contours of this presidential misconduct, that is what happened before this call, what knows the raionale that washo given for withholding this bipartan support t ukraine. what about these allegations that this record of call was sequestered away to a computer that'susually used for the most sensitive infortionlike covert actions by the intelligence community and that there might be o tther thinat have been similarly seqeduest for reasons of concealing presidential misconduct. so we know what we need to do to get to the bottom of this andwe will move with all expedition to do so. >> woodruff: and sunabp

individuals, if necessary? >> i have no doubt that that wwill be necessary, andre not fooling around. we don't have a long time to ask people for compliance and then subpoena them and go though contempt proceedings. we are going to move ve ay quickly to compulsion if we're told tt there's no willingness to cooperate, because we feel a sense of urgency here. one thing that i think really left out about the hearing todao is to one, not the director nor anyone else, disputed the whistleblower's complaint was urgent, that it was credible, that it needed to bend investigatedasthe department of justice is out of the business, apparently, of investigating wrongdoing if it and the inspector generous can't do it, it's left to us to do. >> woodruff: chairman schiff,u now that y've been named head of house of representatives move to impeachment insofar as

ukraine is involved, can you give us an understanding of how that moves forward?go isthhat nog to be the mainof focuhe impeachment investigation? >> it is certainly going to be our main focus in the intelligence committeethand i k there' is a general sense that this is at its core thecus most serious allegation, that it was bad enough and serious enough, when the president of the unitedtates, as a candidate, caught help from a foreign power in a u.s. presidential election, that it was more serious, still, when, as president, he used the powers tructe office to obs investigation into his own misconduct, but it is stll a sidentriou serious when a pre use as foreign president to manufacture dirt in a presential election. all understand the seriousness of that and it's the

priority of our caucus that this be the top priority, that we do our best to get the facts and we do so as quickly asib po. >> woodruff: to be clear, this investigation into the whistleblower is now folded into the impgaeachment inveson? >> it is certainly being conducted under the umbrella of an impeachment inquiry, anthat is that this may form the basis of an article or articles of impeachment. the decision has been made to gogoforward and that is a decisn we'll make when we're wein possession of all the facts. but the facts we do hve, already, are pretty damning, and what took place before this intersection before the twoen pres, and what took place after, we still need to flesh out, but what we do need to know and what has been admitted to i believe is a clear violation of the president'oath of ofice. it will be for the caucus to decide when we have the full facts whether we should prowhced

with an article of impeachment. >> woodruff: finally, do you believe any impeachment effort has to be bipartisan in order to blbe cre >> well, i'm regretfully of the view that, aedleast basn performance to date, members of the g.o. do not stand willing to confront this president, nott how repugnant his conduct, no mat r how much his conduct may transgress the law or the constitutio i hope that changes. i hope that changes. but i think that we cannot defer to the oth party here if th have abdicated their responsibility. >> woodruff: adam schiff, chairman of theouse intelligence comm >> woodruff: i'm now joined by kellyanne conway, counselor to president dold trump. she joins us from the white house. ittee, thank you very much. >> thank you. kellyanne conway, thank you for talking with us. i know you heard some of what chairman schiff just said, but i want to come back to th whistleblower's complaint, the essence of it is that the

president essentiallused theus power of his office to try to get a foreign government interfere in the 2020 election conclusion after talking with over half a dozen u.s. officials over some four months. >> well, judy, that's false, and we allth know at because we have actually the complaint, but more importantly we have the transcriio of the convers between president trump and the president of ukraine. at no me did he in the 2020 race, at no time did he talk about joe biden the frontrunner, who i don't know how to beat, i need your help beang him. this president doesn't need ukraine's help to beat joe biden or anyone else anymore than he hillary clinton.help to beat they're terrible candidates to self-emulate all on their own. i must respectfully push back, judy. when chairman schiff says the president is using th sanctity of the office to dig up dirt on

a political opponent, whe is that? i'm looking at the telephone eonversation here. it simply isn't thenore. ime was it mentioned of aid being withherald or 2020. in fact, they're discussing the 2016ampaign, and they spend more time on emanuel macron of france and angela merkel of germany and the fact the ukrainian president is saying these countries are not helping the u.s. amuch an not sanctioning russia as much. >> woodrufwe the point you just makikng, it wasn't stated outright in that conversation there was no transcript, this was a memorandum of people who listened, but what you have is set ofcircumstances because, a short time before thi president trump had stopped any military aidoing to uaine even though his defense department had signed off on at aid and said this is a country that is cleaning up corruption, this ad shod go forward. you had republicans and

democrats in congress faoring it, yet president trump stopped it. so you look at that and combine it with this conversation, the reporting that the president was angry with the ukrainiangry government becse of what had happened in 2016, and the conclusion is what it is. >> well the conclusion is what people want it to be, and we saw that today, in, i thought, a very unfortunate public heaveryg with the acting d.n.i. director led by none other than chairmanv schiff who l to be on tv. that entire hearing could havnd been done beclosed doors. how do we know dothat? because the senate d a hearing t wi same gentleman, the acting d.n.i. director behind closed doors right after the chairman schiff theatrical producti this is not the way these things should operate. we do not impeach presidents because certain people who don't like him and voted against him hate m. hate is not a high crime and

misdemeanor. a phnone call with a foreign leader in which most of theti conver is congratulatory, it's about helping more than france and germany, ito's abut the ukrainian president actually crediting president trump for enforcing sanctions against russia whereas germany and franceoon't. atime did the president mention the 2020 election, yet you have the chairman of th intelligence committee and many others lying to say theen presis diggingp dirt. we don't seet it in this phone call and it's not fair for it to be said. >> woodruff: i think many people bynt meioning joe biden the inference is clear he's thinking about2020. >> no, i need to say that the "new yortimes" had an article in ewhly may aboutat hunter biden was doing hin ukrainere it had the whole transcript of joe bidenen, january 23, 20a year after leaving the u.s. presiden bragging about

withholding $1 million in loan so people were talking about that. >> woodruff: the reporting on that is he was referring to an international effort to get ukraine to clean up corruption, and he was saying if that corruption isn't clned up there won't be aid forthcoming. but what i also want soto ask you aboyou ut kellyanne conway,s democrats and others are saying equally more troubling than the phone call is the allegation t president went to such great ongths to restrict all access to recorthis call, to lock them down.ad i'm going to rfrom the whistleblower complaint. he said white house officials dolled me they were directed by white house lawyers to reme the electronic transcript from the computer system in which suchdocuments are normally ored. he went on to say, instead, thei tran was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store classified information. he said, even though it didn't contain anymthing otely classified. >> well, first of al he's incorrect. any conversation with a foreign

ssified.s cla this very document had to be declassified for the presidvt to released it, and he has. all want to talt how ithot they was handled. this document now?s access t everyone. this president who has led to the demock raytyization of ainformation, social medi people likme speak and me this case release ago full transcript, a full memo asis the custom here of a call he had with the ukrainian president, hd releit. so they want to talk about how it was handled yt we all have access to it and can read it. i think the document is remarkable for what's not the. what's not there is a president worried about joe biden who'ses selfucting on the campaign trail. what's not there is the president saying i'm goi too withhold said until you do these certain things. none of that is there. the ukrainian predent is talking about draining the swarched they're talking about e biden when they're talking

about draining the swamp. ab>> woodruff: again, it' implied because of the timing of the withholding of funds. but i want to k you what t president said just this morning to the staff of the u.s. mission to the united nations about people who talked to the whistleblower being spice and how tr is country handled spice. does the president believe anyone who talked to this whistleblower is, in effec not loyal to this country? >> well, he hasn't said that to me, and i think theresident is always astonished when conversations like this leak early on in our -- in his presidency. conversations with the president of mexico, the president ofli aust i believe it was, different than the predisidentsf those two countries now, those conversations leaked, some coersations he had with the russian ambassador leaked. he's always surprised people who are entrusted with these tremendous responsibilities and have aess to top information,fom secret information, classified information in our nation takee on positions where you are a public servant entrusted with

information to protect the public, not harm the public, eech that trust. so there may be frustration and consternation theag. bun i think we should also s te people are inclined to listen to thiwhistleblower. the l.o.c. actually said this was routine diplomacy not intelligence activity by the president and this whistleblower did not have diacect cess, they're getting it from other people. so we need to find out morou that. >> woodruff: kellyanne conway at the the white house, thank you very much. >> thank you, judnky. >> woodruff: now, to some of the ongoing questions of nationalecurity, and law, raised by the whistleblower mplaint, and the trumpst admition's handling of it. john carlin served as the top national security official in the u.s. justice department from 2013 to 2016, and as chief of staff to robert mueller when he s f.b.i. director. john carlin, welcome back to the "nn, wour". you listened, i believe, to much of what the whistleblower comment -- or thhead of the

director of national intelligence, acting director, had to y today abut what the whistleblower did and how this complaint was handled. was it handled in the prper way? >> well, i think really the important issue is that the complaint did reagrch cons and, so -- and only because of that we are now aware of what the president of the united states said to a foreign leader. and what he actually said is quite troubling, as one of the republican congressmen said today, this is not okay, and you can see why a career member of the intelligence communityncs so shocked because what you saw is the president of the united states in his official capacity talking to a foreign leader and the favor he asked for,e, reportedly, onlf of the united states was a personal favor, it was something to help his own polical intests, because he only asked for two things, both of which he connected to hisersonal

attorney, rudy giuliani. numbey one, he asked that theyo help him lk into the 2016 election in order to really contradict the mueller report that russia was responsible forw and, numbe, e asked him to look into the son ofs 1:00 ofca his polirivals. that's all he asked for with the favor, so that's, to use a prosecutor's word, corrupt. his intent in the call was not b alf of the unid states, but was to further his personal interest. >> woodruff: and once that conversation took place, i mean to get to what happened to this after it happened, the memorandum that was put together escribing what was said on th phone call, ani just asked kellyanne conway about this, was put into a mpletely different electronic system, a more secur systeme white house. and then you had others in the administration moving to defy congress access to this. what does this tell you? >> if it's true, then what that

would say is there were multiple people who knew that there waswr someing about this conversation, and we're trying to take acts, some of which may be illegitimate or unlawful, to hide that conversation from congress or from proper oversight. but, again, jud's letolose track of the fact that it didn't work, because we do have access to the conversation and we can't get so disacted by all the other atmospheris to forget that what happened in this wrong.sation is f tndamentally the president of the united states should not be using a foreign contry's prosecuted services to go after ala riv that should not invoke the attorney general of the united plan, and part of tha they should not beutting personal attornerder toheir make that plan going forward when they're in their off capacity. >> woodruff: ebl you just heard kellyanne conway say that , ere was no quid pro o in the conversatiat the president never mentioned the 2020

election. she's sang that people who are listening to this from the outside are reading something into it that doesn'txist. >> i go bacto y the republican congressman at the hearing today said correctly that this is not okay. they're not reading anything into it. it's -- in the conversation, he only asks for two things from this foreign leader, and they both benef him personally, and then he asks them to talk to his personal attorney. rudy giuliani, th the ethics ofn attorney defending the president, are that he can only eake into account th president's personal interests, not the interest of the united states, not the interest of the americ interest of the ukrainian people, you know, a country of 40 million people that's been invaded by russia and has anst over 10,000 people, according to u.n. estimates, have been lled. they're asking for military assistance. you need reciprocity, you need to do us a favor, and then the favorsk he asfor are personal.

that should not be oky, no matter what yor party is and no matter which president does it, and there's no way to polthice conduct other than congress. >> woodruff: john carlin, thank you very much. y>> tha. >> woodruff: and our white housd correst yamiche alcindor has been following the day's events. ya thank you so much. a few minutes ago, as you know, i was talking with kellyanne conway. it's clear that she and theitpr president aretty defiant in the face of all this publicly. how are they ocessing it internally? s beinge the president defiant and saying there was really nothing wrong when it came to thecamell between him ad the president of uy aine, privat is lashing out and saying he wants to know the entity of this whistleblower. y tonight the "nk times" is reporting that a whistleblower was a man, a c.i.a. officer who was deailed this white house ome time.ere for they also say th person is now working back at the c.i.a. there's little else known about the person. but when it comes to how the white house is processing is,

the white house is trying to unterprogram. today ere was the director of immigration and custom informant who was doina briefing at the so-called sanccities atut the very moment the director of national intelligence was saying that te greatest challeat the u.s. faces is election interference. the director of i.c.e. was talking about migration and illegal immigration. it's also important to know the white house is still formulating its plan on how to puh back on the impeachment inquiry. i'm told the white house does not have a plan at this time. i talked to a trump thought the researchers supposed to be dealing with the reelection b a capable of messaging the impeachment but a lot of people thinknhat 't be enough. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about the i want pensalty isue, yamiche. we know from lisa desjardins' report from the hill about what congress can doirntion but you've also been loking at public opinion polls. what are you seeing from the american people about this whole

impeachment process? >> we conducted a poll yesterday, and people are really split on whether or not the house should be cusing on this impeachment inquiry. i want to talk through numbers. 49% sad they app troved e house starting an impmeea inquiry. we believe that's a 10-point jump from something from the past because e asked a ilar question in april after the mueller report waseleased. we also found that 46% of people found they disapproved of the house focusing on this impeachment inquiry. i also want to say ouroll found that voters think the impeachment inquiry won't impt who they vote for president. when we asked will impeachment 25uiry influence your vote, 25% said a major factor, 40% said a minor factor and 48% said not a factor at all. pretty striking given what's happening. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor,> a lot to follow from the white

house, as usual. thank yo, yamiche. >> thanks. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo said syrian government forces used chlorine as a chemical weapon back in y. he said the attack happened during a battle with insurgents in idlib province.po pompeo to reporters along the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly in new york.he >>ssad regime is responsible for innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.un today, i am anng that the united states has concluded that the assad regime ud chlorine in latakia province, syria. 19 >> woodruff: pompeo also said the u.s. will provide $4.5 million in additional aid to investigate other suspected w chemicpons attacks. the death toll from a severess lung illied to vaping has now risen to 12 people.

the centers for disentrol and prevention also reported th number of confirmeseand probable surged to 805. that is a 52% increase over the 530 illnesses reported just last week. a new pentagon report has found the suicide rate among members of the military rose significantly in 2018. the rate has increased from 18.5 per 100,000 service members in 2013, to 24.8 in 2018.e most wlisted men under 30 president trump issued an ive order that drastical cuts the number of refugees admitted in the united states. lo18,000 refugees will be d to resettle in the u.s. in fiscal year 2020. thatthe lowest number in t history of the modern refugee program. the senate today overwhelmingly

approved aemporary government funding bill to avoid a shutdown.l it wnd the federal government through november 21. that gives lawmakers more time to negotiate money for more controversial items, like president trump's border wall. the bill now heads to the president's desk, where he'sed expeo sign it into law. the u.n.'s nuclear watchdogto announcey that iran has committed another breach of its 2015 nuclear deal commitments. it reported that tehran is enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges, and plans to install more of those machines than previously announced. iranas maintained that its uranium enrichment is solely for civilian purposes. at a press conference in new york, president hassan rouhaniou insisted hisry has been transparent. >> ( translated ): thed supervision e inspections of the international atomic energy agency have not been limited decreased.th i.a.e.a.-- in the sa fashion since the beginning of

the nuclear deal in 2015-- wasis supeg and inspecting and carrying forward its activities in the same fashion as in iran today. >> woodruff:oday's revelation comes as iran is grappling with u.s. sanctions imposed after president trump pulledut of the nuclear agreement last year. the leading challenger in afghanistan's upcoming presidential election, abdullah abdullah, is accusing the incumbent of election fraude days before head to the polls. he lost to current president ashraf ghani five years o, in an election that was largely dismissed as flawed. abdullah told the associated press, he's worried about ghani abusing his power. >> massively fraudulent elections will have an impact, will have serious consequences. and that is why it might be too idealistic, calling on everybody to act responsibly.be use it is not only the number of votes. it will have an impact on the

mentality of the people, on the views of the people, on theof democratic process. >> woodrf: there was no immediate response from president ghani. meanwhile, the taliban renewed its threats today to attack polling stations during saturday's election. back in this country, the gap between the nation rich and poor grew last year.th u.s. census bureau reported that income inequality reachedgh its t level in 50 years. it attributed the expansion to an increase in median householdn mes. but that income rise was not distributed evenly across the country. stocks fell on wall street today, over uncertainty about thveimpeachment inquiry and new data showing a slowdown in u.s. economic growth. the dow jones industrial average lost 79 points to close at 26,891. the nasdaq fell more than 46 points, the s&p 500 slipped seven. and, a passing to note.pr

former frencident jacques chirac died today in paris. he politics for decades, serving 18 years as the mayor of paris, and two terms as prime minister. chirac became president in 1995, and remained in office until 2007. he was the first french leader to acknowledge his country's role in the holocaust, and vehemently opposed the 2003 invasion of iraq. jacques chirac was 86 years old. still toome on the newshour: chine president xi jinping's full-throttle quest to make his country a superpower. and, the south korean foreign minister on how best to navigate kim jong-un's nuclear threat our series, "chinar ande launch prosperity." with the support of the

pulitzer center, correspondents nick schifrin and katrina yu, and producers dan sagalyn and inic o'connor, conducted more than 70 on-camerrviews, traveled to eight chinese esties, and reported from, or collabored with, producers in eight countries, to cover everything from trade, to technology, to the lifestyles of the young and rich. we bin our series at the top chinese president xi jinping's philosophy has been writteinto the country's constitution. he has sought to raise the standard of living at home, and china's power and influence around the world. critics accuse him of consolidating power, and creating a campaign of ckoppression. chifrin reports from beijing on the strongest chinese leader in more than 50 years. ♪ ♪ >> schifrin: in beijing's great hall of the people, the people cl in unison for one man. xi jinping, communist party general secretary,ommander in chief, president of the people's republic of china, says he's

maki china great again. >> ( translated ): the chinese nation has achieved a tremendou. transformati it has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong. it has come to embrace the brilliant prospects of rejuvenation.. >> schifrin: 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. >> ( translated ): the banner of socialism with chinese characteristics is now flying high and proud. it offers chinese wisdom a chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind. >> schifrin: not since mao foun 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 sayis e bible, the scholars wh decipherhet study here. the national communist party school flies the party flag and china: united across 55 minority

groups, and the torch bearers of the communist flame.ng professor han ang says xi inherits that legacy, and is now china's indispensable leader. >> ( translated ): the country's development needs xi jinping, and people's happiness needs xi jinping. bif china wants to become strong country, it will need xi jinping. >> schifrin: xi says his work starts at home. his goal is to double china's g.d.p. and per capita income by he says he wants to crease the prosperity many chinese already enjoy, and now expect, and. reduce pover >> ( translated ): now in the xi jinping era, china has developed. xi is dealing with mchina great and rong. >> schifrin: a that strength is also the military. ta calls for china to "stand

in the east." he evokes memories of the middle kingdom, a term to describe china's centuries-loe as an international power. xi has dramatically modernizedin s army, navy and air force, and opened up china's first overseas base.mo an controversially: china claims almost all of the south china sea, and has created military outposts, flouting u.s. objections and international law. ( leng feng roars ) xi jinping's china f xes that muscular foreign po on the world stage, and the silver screen. "wolf warrior ii" is china's highest-grossing film of all time. star and director wu jing playss leng feng,cial operations forces soldier who wins the day for the inese military. when he's no longer a soldier, trouble comes to him. he becomes a rogue hero, launching a seemg 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

ride in a tank sounds familiar-- ( rambo yelling ) --that's because it is. at the heit of the cold war, the u.s. had john rambo. wu jing asks, why can't the chinese have their own heroes? >> ( translated ): i think for leng feng, i want him to be a hero for ordinary people.in i think human need heroes. there are many qualities in a hero, like bravery, selflessness, dedication. >> schifrin: it's more than dedication to china. the gooduys are the chinese military. ( launching missiles ) the bad guy-- >> welcome to africa, son. >> schifrin: --is a olence- loving colonialist america >> people like you will always be ierior to people like me! that's ( bleep ) histor >> schifrin: 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. >> ( translated ): in chinese modern history, china has been bullied for a long time.

wh we are rich, our countr can protect us. when we feel like when we are in dangerwe will be protectedy our countr not like before. >> schifrin:ut xi jinping isn't only about protecting the people. he protects and restores the prominence of the communist party. xi has reasserted e rty into people's lives and private businesses. so, can you show me your awards? hong cheng works for the mical and high-tech company, tidal star, but her main job is to lead the company's communist party committee. she ows off her party awards. >> ( translat): this is for one of the service brands we acquired being in the top ten of all service brands. >> schifrin: employees meet in tidal star's party room, wherear xi jinping thought iten on the wall, and hong ensures this private company adheres to party teaching. n ( translated ): today we're going to study aticle. please open the app, "study xi, strengthen china." u >> schifrier 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 leade, and ke quizzes. and hong ensures the company'svi on aligns with the party's. >> ( translated ): it not only leads our company in long-termpm devet, the app offers our company inspiration. >> schifrin: for a while, that inspiration came from xi himself. last year, there was a primetime tv show "studyg xi in the new a." a robot from a future, rejuvenated china chal alntestants on how much xi jinping thought they can memorize. ( quiz show in mandarin ) the cult of xi has included in cityda poste streets, suburban villages andub rural roads. and, state media has called him 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.

xi's travels recreate mao's countryside visits. blis year, the cult of xi has become less visi bookstore, "xi jinhought," the book, has pride of place. despite nearby, bookstore manager qin hui says xi's books are best- sellers. >> ( translated ): because we're entering thinew era of development, general secretary xi's thought points a direction for our fure. so we have to seriously study the spirit of general secretary xi's speeches. >> schifrin: but fly 1,200 mil south of beijing, and hundreds of thousands of people reject xi jinping 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 ho kong, where these protrs say, they feel like the city's independence is being eroded. on andff for months, hong kong

police have clashed with protestors, and many of the protestors connect the crackdown in hong kong to the restriction of rights in mainland china. >> ( translated ): how can we expect that we will have party is trying to ban all human rights and freed in china? chanting in cantonese ) >> schifrin: lee cheuk yan is a former hong kong legislatoren who's ighting for democracy for decades. he's proteed 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 univer professor from teaching about human rights, universal values,a you know, and he is trying to, yoknow, build up his own chinese dream, which is a total e.ntrol of peo >> schifrin: under xi, more than a million muslim uyghurs have been detained in cam.amps xi's china has created a network of more than 200 million surveillance cameras.

and beijing posters on the streets of beijing warn the public to protect national secrets.at he party says is that this is for the strength of china, that if the party were to , the country would weak >> yeah, they are chaos. brainwashing the people that, party, there wouldaos.mmunist 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.ion. >> schifrin: inside mainland lingch few critics are w tothat language in public. zhang lifan is a historian who's made public appearances, bute says surveillance has increased. so, we met him in the only place ourfelt comfortable: insid hotel room. he wouldn't usxi jinping's name. >> ( translated ): because the communist party of china is unchecked, cruption is widespread within the system. so if he wants to get rid of opponents, he casily do so

by finding evidence of their corruption. therefore, he was able to purge many political opponents with an unstopble force. >> schifrin: lifan says xi's eyes are everywhere. lawyers o have represented activists have been disbarred. journalists who write critically have been thrown out of the countr and, as part of an anti- corruption campaign, two million party members have been investigated for corruption. xi has replaced collectivece leadership witralized authority. >> ( translated ): the current leader has changed everything. he first canceled the term limit ofndhe country's presidency,re then re-raised the idea that the party leads everything. as a result, some of t achievements of the political reforms of the 1980s no longer exist. >> schifrin: xi's reversing those reforms, launched by predecessor deng xiopiang, is a topic eveni's allies avoid. deng talked about that there shouldn't excessive concentration of leadership by

one person. xi has removed term limits. why has he done that? problem yet.ted ): this is not a not the right time to talk about >> schifrin: why are the country's need is so great that xi jinping needs more time?tr >> ( slated ): it's not the time to answer this question. >> schifrin: and then, he says minder:off-camera government >> ( translated ): this is a very sensitive issue. >> schifrin: xi and china face aheadwinds,oth home andoad. 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..s and as the u.s. puts america believes the future of the world has china at the center.r the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin in beijing.fr

>> woodruff: all this week, world leaders are gathered in new york for the annual united nations general assembly. at his speech this week, president trump reiterated his position that north korea could achieve economic greatness, if it'ins wito give up itsiv nuclear weapons program. william brangham gets a view of what progress-- if any-- is being made on that front, from south korea's foreign minister. kim jong-un have had two summits and one historic hanhake-- but not much else. the north koreans spent themm testing short range missiles, while nuclear talks appeared shelved. but, in recent days, u.s. anis so how does ook from south korea? for that, i'm joined by foreign minister kang kyung-wha. she joins me from new york.ni foreign er, thank you so much for being here. president trump has continued tt try to broker this grand deal

with north korea. they've had three mee tings thus fats of pageantry but not very much substance. do you think the north koreans do wantht to sign a nuclear dea? >> well, i think -- first of all, tmenk you for havin -- but the summits, i think, beyond the pageantry, there's the course, that it builds andf maintains the trust between the top leaders of the two countries. i think the north korean commitment to continue the deal is to reach a there. their rent public messagings have confirmed that, so we very much expect the working level discussions to resume from wherh gs were left off in hanoi at the end of fareb so i think president trump's messaging also confirm the readiness on the side of the

united states to pick up whre things werleft off in hanoi, and we expect, because hanoi didn't end in agreement, but i think the g lver linto that was the two sides came out of it with a much better understanding on the exec takes on the othere side of aisle, so that whenth negotiations resume, there quick progress on all three, four tracks of the agreement that was reached in mieir first summeeting in singapore in june last year. >> reporter: i hear the optimism that you're conveying there, buinthe north koreans have been quite firthat they want economic sanctions off, then they will be willing to make moves on their nuclear weapons program. the united states wants thatnts order reversed. weapons programs, thenon the sanctions. do you see a way that those two

competing threads can be married tother? >> i think that's the key and i think, therefore, things have to move in parallel simultaneously, and that's also ebas agreement of singapore, you know, tostart building -- improve relnsatetween the two sides, to start working towards a peace regime on the korean peninsula and the north koan commitment nuclearization, and i think the u.s. side is committed t moving simultaneously on all three tracks, the fourh track having been the excavation of e remains -- m.i.a. remains in -- that are in the hands of nort korea, that hasken place. we expect that to continue to take place, as well. so the fourth pillar beirtng the confidence-building measures. but we, of course, work in verys

consultations with the u.s., and our discussions with our u.s. colleagues indicate that th readiness to move on all four acks. >> reporter: is it your sense that there ioammonly understood definition of what ns?uclearization actually mea because it seems like we've had multiple different iterations of what that means. does it mean that north korea gives up apr weaponram but still might be able to have nuclear power for electricity? would that be acctae, do you think? >> well, i think thele concepts, the goal is very ear, for us, r the global community, for korea, the concept of denuclearization is spelled out in a joint agreement betweend south korea orth korea dated back into 1993.

we've lived up t our point. that goal, how to reach thato objective, and i think north korea clearly has a different idea of how to -- how i want to reach that al, but it has committed repeatedly from the top leader himself to that goal of complete denuclearizati, and, so, the task is then to spell out aoad map whereby we could reach that goal. >> reporter: i wouldlike to turn to the issue of the seemingly worsening relationship between south korea and japan we've seen that this is over several issues, one about the forced labor that occurred during world war ii, another has moved towards the debate over export controls. do you think that this rift can be healed? it see it's geing worse every day. >> well, history casts a long shadow, as i always say, and --

but we are also very close neigors tat have built very interdependent relations over the past seven decades. being an optimist, as you note, but also being th foreign minister of my country, you know, we remain committed to resolving the issues through dialogue, good faith, hon dialogue. i had my first meeting wi the new foreign minister of jaan, and my commitment to continue to work with him and his team on all ofthse difficult tracks remains very strong. i think the issuef the forced labor is clarified in our court judgmenof late last year, our supreme court judgment on the surced labor isand, yes, ause weue bec have different recollections,

different ways in which we want to approach the past.de but the tr restrictionme ures were for us clearly unacceptable and retaliatory. t we are committed to finding a way through this very difficult situation throu continued diplomatic engagement. >> reporter: forei ministerei kang kyung-wha, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and thank you, william. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> finanal services firmme raymond

to a qioa. here's what's coming up. >> the president must be held accountable. none is above the law. >> a moment of truth for the will it be a moment of reckoning for the president? we discuss the push towar impeachment amid the ukraine scandal. then -- >> a little bit of a mea>> culp think it should sound a lot like a mea culpa. >> in an exclusive interview i speak to uber owes embattled ceo dara khosrowshahi who insists the model still works after the company blows through 3 bilghon in three months. >> making this film is thet hardes thing i've ever done. >> the