John Pomfret, The Washington Post bureau chief in Beijing, discusses the staggering social changes in China that are transforming the lives of one-quarter of humanity.

He discusses the transformation of the Internet, to the nouveau riche of Beijing and Shanghai, to NGOs and the sexual revolution. Pomfret also talks about his investigation into the mainland’s tangled relations with Taiwan and the transfer of power from the generation of Jiang Zemin to that of current Communist Party boss Hu Jintao. His efforts earned him the Asia Society's highly coveted Osborne Elliot Prize for Journalism.

Pomfret is now a visiting fellow at USC, writing a book on modern China’s journey from a closed Communist backwater to a society of ferocious energy heading toward an uncertain future.