Map of China | Geography | People | Government | Economy | Energy | Communication
Military | Transportation | Transnational Issues | Year: Guide198919901991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024 | More stats

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Background: For most of its 3,500 years of history, China led the world in agriculture, crafts, and science, then fell behind in the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution gave the West clear superiority in military and economic affairs. In the first half of the 20th century, China continued to suffer from major famines, civil unrest, military defeat, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established a dictatorship that, while ensuring China's autonomy, imposed strict controls over all aspects of life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping decentralized economic decision making; output quickly doubled. Political controls remain tight at the same time economic controls have been weakening. Present issues are: closing down inefficient state-owned enterprises; modernizing the military; fighting corruption; and providing support to tens of millions of displaced workers.


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Location

Geographic coordinates

Map reference

Area

Land boundaries:

Coastline: 14,500 km

Maritime claims
Continental shelf: claim to shallow areas of East China Sea and Yellow Sea
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

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, crude oil, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, world's largest hydropower potential

Land use: arable land: 10%; permanent crops: NEGL%; meadows and pastures 31%; forest and woodland 14%; other 45%; includes irrigated 5%

Irrigated land

Major rivers

Major watersheds area km²

Total water withdrawal

Total renewable water resources

Natural hazards

Geography
Note: world's third-largest country (after USSR and Canada) geoad2


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Population: 1,151,486,981 (July 1991), growth rate 1.6% (1991)

Nationality: noun--Chinese (sing., pl.; adjective--Chinese

Ethnic groups: Han Chinese 93.3%; Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 6.7%

Languages: Standard Chinese (Putonghua) or Mandarin (based on the Beijing dialect; also Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and minority languages (see ethnic divisions)

Religions: officially atheist, but traditionally pragmatic and eclectic; most important elements of religion are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; Muslim 2-3%, Christian 1% (est.)

Demographic profile

Age structure

Dependency ratios

Median age

Population growth rate

Birth rate: 22 births/1000 population (1991)

Death rate: 7 deaths/1000 population (1991)

Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1000 population (1991)

Population distribution

Urbanization

Major urban areas

Environment
Current issues: frequent typhoons (about five times per year along southern and eastern coasts), damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes; deforestation; soil erosion; industrial pollution; water pollution; air pollution; desertification

Air pollutants

Sex ratio

Mothers mean age at first birth

Maternal mortality ratio

Infant mortality rate: 33 deaths/1000 live births (1991)

Life expectancy at birth: 68 years male, 72 years female (1991)

Total fertility rate: 2.3 children born/woman (1991)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Drinking water source

Current health expenditure

Physicians density

Hospital bed density

Sanitation facility access

Hiv/Aids

Major infectious diseases

Obesity adult prevalence rate

Alcohol consumption

Tobacco use

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

Education expenditures

Literacy: 73% (male 84%, female 62%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)

School life expectancy primary to tertiary education

Youth unemployment


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Country name: conventional long form: People's Republic of China; abbreviated PRC

Government type: Communist Party-led state

Capital: Beijing

Administrative divisions: 23 provinces (sheng, singular and plural), 5 autonomous regions* (zizhiqu, singular and plural), and 3 municipalities** (shi, singular and plural; Anhui, Beijing**, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi*, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol*, Ningxia*, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai**, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin**, Xinjiang*, Xizang*, Yunnan, Zhejiang; note--China considers Taiwan its 23rd province

Dependent areas

Independence: unification under the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty 221 BC, Qing (Ch'ing or Manchu) Dynasty replaced by the Republic on 12 February 1912, People's Republic established 1 October 1949

National holiday: National Day, 1 October (1949)

Constitution: 4 December 1982

Legal system: a complex amalgam of custom and statute, largely criminal law; rudimentary civil code in effect since 1 January 1987; new legal codes in effect since 1 January 1980; continuing efforts are being made to improve civil, administrative, criminal, and commercial law

International law organization participation

Citizenship

Suffrage: universal at age 18

Executive branch: Chief of State and Head of Government (de facto)--DENG Xiaoping (since mid-1977; Chief of State--President YANG Shangkun (since 8 April 1988; Vice President WANG Zhen (since 8 April 1988; Head of Government--Premier LI Peng (Acting Premier since 24 November 1987, Premier since 9 April 1988; Vice Premier YAO Yilin (since 2 July 1979; Vice Premier TIAN Jiyun (since 20 June 1983; Vice Premier WU Xueqian (since 12 April 1988; Vice Premier ZOU Jiahua (since 8 April 1991; Vice Premier ZHU Rongji (since 8 April 1991)

Legislative branch: Chinese People's Liberation Army (CPLA), CPLA Navy (including Marines), CPLA Air Force, Chinese People's Armed Police

Judicial branch: Supreme People's Court

Political parties and leaders

International organization participation: AfDB, AsDB, CCC, ESCAP, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, ISO, ITU, LORCS, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UN Security Council, UN Trusteeship Council, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation
In the us: Ambassador ZHU Qizhen; Chancery at 2,300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20,008; telephone (202) 328-2,500 through 2,502; there are Chinese Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco; US--Ambassador James R. LILLEY; Embassy at Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, Beijing (mailing address is 100,600, PRC Box 50, Beijing or FPO San Francisco 96,655-0001; telephone [86] (1) 532-3,831; there are US Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang

Flag description: red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner China ChinaChina

National symbols

National anthem

National heritage


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Economy overview: Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been trying to move the economy from the sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more productive and flexible economy with market elements--but still within the framework of monolithic Communist control. To this end the authorities have switched to a system of household 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 enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the foreign economic sector to increased trade and joint ventures. The most gratifying result has been a strong spurt in production, particularly in agriculture in the early 1980s. Otherwise, the leadership has often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption) and of capitalism (windfall gains and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals and thereby undermining the credibility of the reform process. Popular resistance and changes in central policy have weakened China's population control program, which is essential to the nation's long-term economic viability.

Real gdp purchasing power parity

Real gdp growth rate

Real gdp per capita

Gross national saving

Gdp composition by end use

Gdp composition by sector of origin

Agriculture products: accounts for 26% of GNP; among the world's largest producers of rice, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, and pork; commercial crops include cotton, other fibers, and oilseeds; produces variety of livestock products; basically self-sufficient in food; fish catch of 8 million metric tons in 1986

Industries: iron, steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, consumer durables, food processing

Industrial production growth rate: 7.6% (1990; accounts for 45% of GNP

Labor force: 553,000,000; agriculture and forestry 60%, industry and commerce 25%, construction and mining 5%, social services 5%, other 5% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: 2.6% in urban areas (1990)

Youth unemployment

Population below poverty line

Gini index

Household income or consumption by percentage share

Distribution of family income gini index

Budget: revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Taxes and other revenues

Public debt

Revenue

Fiscal year: calendar year

Inflation rate consumer prices

Central bank discount rate

Commercial bank prime lending rate

Stock of narrow money

Stock of broad money

Stock of domestic credit

Market value of publicly traded shares

Current account balance

Exports: $62.1 billion (f.o.b., 1990)
Commodities: textiles, garments, telecommunications and recording equipment, petroleum, minerals
Partners: Hong Kong, US, Japan, USSR, Singapore, FRG (1989)

Imports: $53.4 billion (c.i.f., 1990)
Commodities: specialized industrial machinery, chemicals, manufactured goods, steel, textile yarn, fertilizer
Partners: Hong Kong, Japan, US, FRG, USSR (1989)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

Debt external: $51 billion (1990 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment at home

Stock of direct foreign investment abroad

Exchange rates: yuan (3) per US$1--5.31 (April 1991), 4.7832 (1990), 3.7651 (1989), 3.7221 (1988), 3.7221 (1987), 3.4528 (1986), 2.9367 (1985)


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Electricity
Capacity: 117,580,000 kW capacity; 585,000 million kWh produced, 520 kWh per capita (1990)

Coal

Petroleum

Crude oil

Refined petroleum

Natural gas

Carbon dioxide emissions

Energy consumption per capita


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Telephones

Telephone system

Broadcast media

Internet

Broadband fixed subscriptions


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Military expenditures
Percent of gdp: $NA, NA% of GNP

Military and security forces

Military service age and obligation

Space program

Terrorist groups


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National air transport system

Civil aircraft registration country code prefix

Airports: 330 total, 330 usable; 260 with permanent-surface runways; fewer than 10 with runways over 3,500 m; 90 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 200 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Heliports

Pipelines: crude, 6,500 km; refined products, 1,100 km; natural gas, 6,200 km

Railways

Roadways

Waterways: 138,600 km; about 109,800 km navigable

Merchant marine: 1,421 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 14,010,317 GRT/21,223,170 DWT; includes 24 passenger, 42 short-sea passenger, 19 passenger-cargo, 7 cargo/training, 776 cargo, 11 refrigerated cargo, 70 container, 17 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 2 multifunction barge carrier, 181 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 9 chemical tanker, 250 bulk, 2 liquefied gas, 2 vehicle carrier, 9 combination bulk; note--China beneficially owns an additional 183 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling approximately 5,921,000 DWT that operate under Maltese and Liberian registry

Ports and terminals


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Disputes international: boundary with India; bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve disputed sections of the boundary with the USSR; a short section of the boundary with North Korea is indefinite; sporadic border clashes with Vietnam; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam; maritime boundary dispute with Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin; Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; claims Japanese-administered Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands)

Refugees and internally displaced persons

Illicit drugs