Business Photo Slideshows

The New Chinese Revolution

Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times/Redux

Watching China is a bit like fast-forwarding through the Industrial Revolution. Fortunes are being made, living standards are rising, and fundamental societal changes are unfolding. At the same time, social costs are mounting: Here, toxic cyanobacteria forms beautiful patterns even as it chokes Lake Tai in Wuxi. Following are examples of China's recent successes—and shortcomings.

Contemporary Art Boom

Photo by Michael Wolf

Ai Weiwei, here in his studio near Beijng, has been among the beneficiaries of soaring interest in contemporary Chinese art. Some skeptics, however, wonder if rapidly rising prices suggest a bubble instead of a boom.

Olympics: Seal of Approval

Photo by Michael Wolf

Hosting the Summer Games this August will—in the eyes of China's leaders, at least—affirm the country's ascendance and acceptance by the world community. That may explain why Chinese leaders have been willing to spend an estimated $40 billion to prepare. The main Olympic stadium is nicknamed the Birds Nest.

Juggernaut of Growth

Photo by Reuters

Already the world's workshop, China expanded its exports at a breathtaking pace in 2007 and is poised to ship even more goods abroad in 2008. China's global trade surplus reached $238.9 billion in the first 11 months of last year, 53 percent more than the same period a year earlier. At the same time, imports rose 25 percent, to $91.34 billion. Here, a worker makes furniture for export.

An Economic Superpower

Photo by Reuters

While its per capita production remains low and millions still live in relative poverty, China's overall economy exceeded Germany's for the first time in 2007. That puts China behind only the United States and Japan in total economic output. It's growing wealth is evident in infrastructure projects now underway, including this hydroelectric plant near Yichang.

Not for the Timid

Photo by Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images

A rapidly growing economy was reflected in China's stock market—for better and worse. Shanghai's stock exchange soared to a record high in October on news of booming exports and zooming domestic demand. But the market has been especially volatile amid concern that such breathless expansion may signal a bubble or trigger inflation. Here, traders in Hong Kong swap shares.

Thinking Big, Aiming High

Photo by Liu Jin/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

Noting establishes a country's bona fides more emphatically than nuclear weapons and rockets. China developed the former 40 years ago, and added the latter in 2007. It started by demonstrating the ability to attack satellites in high earth orbit and in October followed up by launching this lunar probe.

The Cost of Growth

Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images

China is fueling much of its economic expansion with sulfurous coal, unabated by much in the way of pollution controls. As a result, it has surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest source of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas. As smog has come to cloak even the Forbidden City in Beijing, above, China has begun weighing antipollution measures.

Deadly Exports

Photo by David Gray/Reuters/Landov

A string of pet deaths in the U.S. were traced back to tainted ingredients from Chinese factories. That touched off a series of recalls and export bans of both pet and human food. The government tried to address concerns by inviting foreigners to visit China's food-production plants, including a chicken-processing facility near Beijing, above.

Tainted Toothpaste

Photo by Miguel Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

Export concerns multiplied when toxic diethylene glycol was found in toothpaste made in China. Much of the poisonous product found its way to Latin America, including these tubes that the authorities confiscated in Managua, Nicaragua. After a leukemia drug was also found to be adulterated, Chinese officials agreed to set up a recall system for tainted healthcare products, but shifted responsibility to manufacturers.

Toxic Toys

Photo by Ryan Pyle/The New York Times

Most damaging to China's reputation were the wave after wave of warnings about lead-laced toys from factories like this one in Dongguan. While U.S. authorities didn't blame any deaths on the toxic exports, the scandal did claim at least one life when the manager of a Chinese toy factory committed suicide after his plant was identified as one source of trouble.

Expendable Employees

Photo by Xinhua/Landov

Weak workplace safety laws, lax enforcement by regulators, and managers' indifference led to a string of deadly mine explosions and fires. In the deadliest disaster, a rescuer scrambled to help after more than 100 miners died in a gas explosion in December.

A Growing Hunger

Photo by Pascal Parrot/Getty Images

As China's economy grows, so does its appetite for the oil, iron ore, and other raw materials. With many of the world's riches already tapped by Western companies, China has been actively wooing many resource-rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, Chinese workers at a construction site in Algeria.

Recycling Greenbacks

Photo by Graham Barclay/Bloomberg News/Landov

The United States has also benefited from China's growing wealth. Flush with dollars, China has been shopping for investments in the U.S. Among its more high-profile investments last year were big stakes in the profitable private-equity firm Blackstone Group, run by Stephen Schwarzman, and in the troubled investment bank Bear Stearns.

Give My Regards to Beijing

Photo by China Photos/Getty Images

A growing middle class has created a tremendous new market for American entertainment, whether professional basketball or Broadway shows. Here, dancers perform the musical 42nd Street in Wuhan.

Stopping at Nothing

Photo by Reuters

A measure of China's determination to modernize and take its place among the world's leading nations can be found at its massive Three Gorges Dam project. To complete the project, which will divert water to the arid north of the country and generate clean electrical energy, China was willing to relocate millions of its own citizens—many against their will—and risk widespread pollution and landslides.