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China |
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| Background: |
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest
of the world in the arts and sciences. But in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, China was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military
defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists
under MAO Zedong established a dictatorship that, while ensuring China's
sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the
lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG
Xiaoping gradually introduced market-oriented reforms and decentralized
economic decision-making. Output quadrupled by 2000. Political controls
remain tight while economic controls continue to be relaxed. |
| Location: |
Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and
South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam |
| Geographic
coordinates: |
35 00 N, 105 00 E |
| Map
references: |
Asia |
| Area: |
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km |
| Area
- comparative: |
slightly smaller than the US |
| Land
boundaries: |
total: 22,147.34 km
border countries: Afghanistan
76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km,
Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423
km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km,
Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414
km, Vietnam 1,281 km |
| Coastline: |
14,500 km |
| Maritime
claims: |
contiguous zone: 24 NM
exclusive economic zone:
200 NM
continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental
margin
territorial sea: 12 NM |
| Climate: |
extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north |
| Terrain: |
mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and
hills in east |
| Elevation
extremes: |
lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
highest point:
Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) |
| Natural
resources: |
coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony,
manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium,
hydropower potential (world's largest) |
| Land
use: |
arable land: 13.31%
permanent crops: 1.2%
other: 85.49% (1998 est.) |
| Irrigated
land: |
525,800 sq km (1998 est.) |
| Natural
hazards: |
frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts);
damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence |
| Environment
- current issues: |
air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance
on coal produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north;
water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss
of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic
development; desertification; trade in endangered species |
| Environment
- international agreements: |
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous
Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol |
| Geography
- note: |
world's fourth-largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount
Everest on the border with Nepal is the world's tallest peak;
|
| Population: |
1,286,975,468 (July 2003 est.) |
| Age
structure: |
0-14 years: 23.1% (male 155,473,656; female 141,737,406)
15-64 years: 69.5% (male 461,223,219; female 433,154,970)
65 years and over: 7.4% (male 44,954,643; female 50,431,574)
(2003 est.) |
| Median
age: |
total: 31.5 years
male: 31.2 years
female:
31.7 years (2002) |
| Population
growth rate: |
0.6% (2003 est.) |
| Birth
rate: |
12.96 births/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
| Death
rate: |
6.74 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
| Net
migration rate: |
-0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
| Sex
ratio: |
at birth: 1.09 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.1 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
total population:
1.06 male(s)/female (2003 est.) |
| Infant
mortality rate: |
total: 25.26 deaths/1,000 live births
female:
25.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 24.91 deaths/1,000
live births |
| Life
expectancy at birth: |
total population: 72.22 years
male: 70.33 years
female: 74.28 years (2003 est.) |
| Total
fertility rate: |
1.7 children born/woman (2003 est.) |
| Nationality: |
noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
adjective:
Chinese |
| Ethnic
groups: |
Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol,
Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1% |
| Religions: |
Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 1%-2%, Christian 3%-4%
note:
officially atheist (2002 est.) |
| Languages: |
Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect),
Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese),
Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages (see Ethnic groups entry)
|
| Literacy: |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total
population: 86%
male: 92.9%
female: 78.8%
(2003 est.)
|
| Economy
- overview: |
In late 1978 the Chinese leadership began moving the economy from a
sluggish, Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented
system. Whereas the system operates within a political framework of
strict Communist control, the economic influence of non-state organizations
and individual citizens has been steadily increasing. The authorities
switched to a system of household and village responsibility in agriculture
in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local
officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of
small-scale enterprises in services and light manufacturing, and opened
the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. The result has
been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. In 2002, with its 1.3 billion
people but a GDP of just $4,400 per capita, China stood as the second-largest
economy in the world after the US (measured on a purchasing power parity
basis). Agriculture and industry have posted major gains, especially
in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment
has helped spur output of both domestic and export goods. The leadership,
however, often has experienced - as a result of its hybrid system -
the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy and lassitude) and of capitalism
(windfall gains and growing income disparities). China thus has periodically
backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals. The government
has struggled to (a) collect revenues due from provinces, businesses,
and individuals; (b) reduce corruption and other economic crimes; and
(c) keep afloat the large state-owned enterprises, many of which had
been shielded from competition by subsidies and had been losing the
ability to pay full wages and pensions. From 80 to 120 million surplus
rural workers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting
through part-time low-paying jobs. Popular resistance, changes in central
policy, and loss of authority by rural cadres have weakened China's
population control program, which is essential to maintaining long-term
growth in living standards. Another long-term threat to growth is the
deterioration in the environment, notably air pollution, soil erosion,
and the steady fall of the water table especially in the north. China
continues to lose arable land because of erosion and economic development.
Beijing says it will intensify efforts to stimulate growth through spending
on infrastructure - such as water control and power grids - and poverty
relief and through rural tax reform aimed at eliminating arbitrary local
levies on farmers. Accession to the World Trade Organization helps strengthen
China's ability to maintain strong growth rates but at the same time
puts additional pressure on the hybrid system of strong political controls
and growing market influences. Beijing has claimed 7%-8% annual growth
in recent years, and while many observers believe the official figures
over the past two decades overstated China's real economic growth by
2 to 3 percentage points, China's official national growth rates of
the past two years are fairly close to actual GDP growth. |
| GDP: |
purchasing power parity - $5.7 trillion (2002 est.) |
| GDP
- real growth rate: |
8% (official data) (2002 est.) |
| GDP
- per capita: |
purchasing power parity - $4,400 (2002 est.) |
| GDP
- composition by sector: |
agriculture: 15.2%
industry and construction:
51.2%
services: 33.6% (2001) |
| Population
below poverty line: |
10% (2001 est.) |
| Household
income or consumption by percentage share: |
lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 30.4% (1998) |
| Distribution
of family income - Gini index: |
40 (2001) |
| Inflation
rate (consumer prices): |
-0.8% (2002 est.) |
| Labor
force: |
744 million (2001 est.) |
| Labor
force - by occupation: |
agriculture 50%, industry 22%, services 28% (2001 est.) |
| Unemployment
rate: |
urban unemployment roughly 10%; substantial unemployment and underemployment
in rural areas (2002 est.) |
| Budget: |
revenues: $224.8 billion
expenditures: $267.1
billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2002 est.) |
| Industries: |
iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles and apparel,
petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, footwear, toys, food processing,
automobiles, consumer electronics, telecommunications |
| Industrial
production growth rate: |
12.6% (2002 est.) |
| Electricity
- production: |
1.42 trillion kWh (2001) |
| Electricity
- production by source: |
fossil fuel: 80.2%
hydro: 18.5%
other:
0.1% (2001)
nuclear: 1.2% |
| Electricity
- consumption: |
1.312 trillion kWh (2001) |
| Electricity
- exports: |
10.3 billion kWh (2001) |
| Electricity
- imports: |
1.55 billion kWh (2001) |
| Oil
- production: |
3.3 million bbl/day (2001 est.) |
| Oil
- consumption: |
4.975 million bbl/day (2001 est.) |
| Oil
- exports: |
NA |
| Oil
- imports: |
NA |
| Oil
- proved reserves: |
26.75 billion bbl (January 2002 est.) |
| Natural
gas - proved reserves: |
1.29 trillion cu m (January 2002 est.) |
| Agriculture
- products: |
rice, wheat, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton,
oilseed; pork; fish |
| Exports: |
$325.6 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.) |
| Exports
- commodities: |
machinery and equipment; textiles and clothing, footwear, toys and sporting
goods; mineral fuels |
| Exports
- partners: |
US 22.5%, Hong Kong 18.0%, Japan 14.9%, South Korea 4.8%, Germany 3.5%,
Netherlands 2.8%, UK 2.5%, Singapore 2.1%, Taiwan 2.0% (2002) |
| Imports: |
$295.3 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.) |
| Imports
- commodities: |
machinery and equipment, mineral fuels, plastics, iron and steel, chemicals
|
| Imports
- partners: |
Japan 18.1%, Taiwan 12.9%, South Korea 9.7%, US 9.2%, Germany 5.6%,
Hong Kong 3.6%, Malaysia 3.1%, Russia 2.8% (2002) |
| Debt
- external: |
$149.4 billion (2002 est.) |
| Economic
aid - recipient: |
$NA |
| Currency: |
yuan (CNY) |
| Currency
code: |
CNY |
| Exchange
rates: |
yuan per US dollar - 8.277 (2002), 8.2771 (2001), 8.2785 (2000), 8.2783
(1999), 8.279 (1998) |
| Fiscal
year: |
calendar year
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