Map of China | Geography | People | Government | Economy | Energy | Communication
Military | Transportation | Transnational Issues | Year: Guide19891990199119921993199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023 | 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 soured. 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: East Asia, between India and Mongolia

Geographic coordinates

Map reference: Asia, Southeast Asia, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area
Total: 9,596,960 km²
Land: 9,326,410 km²

Land boundaries:

Coastline: 14,500 km
Continental shelf: claim to shallow areas of East China Sea and Yellow Sea
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Maritime claims

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, petroleum, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, world's largest hydropower potential

Land use
Arable land: 10%
Permanent crops: 0%
Meadows and pastures: 31%
Forest and woodland: 14%
Other: 45%

Irrigated land: 478,220 km² (1991 - Chinese statistic)

Major rivers

Major watersheds area km²

Total water withdrawal

Total renewable water resources

Natural hazards

Geography


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Population: 1,177,584,537 (July 1993 est.)
Growth rate: 1.1% (1993 est.)

Nationality
Noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
Adjective: Chinese

Ethnic groups:

Languages:

Religions: Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, Muslim 2-3%, Christian 1% (est.)

Demographic profile

Age structure

Dependency ratios

Median age

Population growth rate: 1.1% (1993 est.)

Birth rate: 18.29 births/1000 population (1993 est.)

Death rate: 7.34 deaths/1000 population (1993 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1000 population (1993 est.)

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
Current issues note: world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada)

Air pollutants

Sex ratio

Mothers mean age at first birth

Maternal mortality ratio

Infant mortality rate: 52.1 deaths/1000 live births (1993 est.)
Total population: 67.74 years
Male: 66.78 years
Female: 68.8 years (1993 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

Total fertility rate: 1.85 children born/woman (1993 est.)

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: age 15 and over can read and write (1990)
Total population: 73%
Male: 84%
Female: 62%

School life expectancy primary to tertiary education

Youth unemployment


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Country name
Conventional long form: People's Republic of China
Conventional short form: China
Local long form: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
Local short form: Zhong Guo
Abbreviation: PRC

Government type: Communist state

Capital:

Administrative divisions

Dependent areas

Independence:

National holiday: National Day, 1 October (1949)

Constitution: most recent promulgated 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: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch: president, vice president, premier, four vice premiers, State Council

Legislative branch: unicameral National People's Congress (Quanguo Renmin Daibiao Dahui)

Judicial branch: Supreme People's Court

Political parties and leaders

International organization participation:

Diplomatic representation
In the us chief of mission: Ambassador LI Daoyu
In the us chancery: 2,300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20,008
In the us telephone: (202) 328-2,500 through 2,502
In the us consulates general:
From the us chief of mission: Ambassador J. Stapleton ROY
From the us embassy: Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, Beijing
From the us mailing address: 100,600, PSC 461, Box 50, Beijing or FPO AP 96,521-0002
From the us telephone: 86 (1) 532-3,831
From the us fax: 86 (1) 532-3,178
From the us consulates general: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, 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

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. Industry also has posted major gains, especially in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment and modern production methods have helped spur production of both domestic and export goods. Aggregate output has more than doubled since 1978. On the darker side, 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 lessening the credibility of the reform process. In 1991, and again in 1992, output rose substantially, particularly in the favored coastal areas. Popular resistance, long-term economic viability.

Real gdp purchasing power parity

Real gdp growth rate: 12.8% (1992 est.)

Real gdp per capita ppp

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 13.35 million metric tons (including fresh water and pond raised) (1991)

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

Industrial production growth rate: growth rate 20.8% (1992)

Labor force: 567.4 million
By occupation agriculture and forestry: 60%
By occupation industry and commerce: 25%
By occupation constructionandmining: 5%
By occupation socialservices: 5%
By occupation other: 5% (1990 est.)

Unemployment rate: 2.3% in urban areas (1992)

Youth unemployment

Population below poverty line

Gini index

Household income or consumption by percentage share

Distribution of family income gini index

Budget: deficit $16.3 billion (1992)

Public debt

Taxes and other revenues

Revenue

Fiscal year

Current account balance

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: $85.0 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
Commodoties: textiles, garments, telecommunications and recording equipment, petroleum, minerals
Partners: Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, US, Germany, South Korea, Russia (1992)

Imports: $80.6 billion (c.i.f., 1992)
Commodoties: specialized industrial machinery, chemicals, manufactured goods, steel, textile yarn, fertilizer
Partners: Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, US, Taiwan, Germany, Russia (1992)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

Debt external

Stock of direct foreign investment at home

Stock of direct foreign investment abroad

Exchange rates: yuan (Y) per US$1 - 5.7640 (January 1993), 5.5146 (1992), 5.3234 (1991), 4.7832 (1990), 3.7651 (1989), 3.7221 (1988)


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Electricity access

Electricity production: 158,690,000 kW capacity; 740,000 million kWh produced, 630 kWh per capita (1992)

Electricity consumption

Electricity exports

Electricity imports

Electricity installed generating capacity

Electricity transmission distribution losses

Electricity generation sources

Petroleum

Refined petroleum

Natural gas

Carbon dioxide emissions

Energy consumption per capita


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Telephones fixed lines

Telephones mobile cellular

Telephone system

Broadcast media

Internet country code

Internet users

Broadband fixed subscriptions


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Military expenditures

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
Usable: 330
With permanentsurface runways: 260
With runways over 3500 m: fewer than 10
With runways 2440-3659 m: 90
With runways 1220-2439 m: 200

Airports with paved runways

Airports with unpaved runways

Heliports

Pipelines: crude oil 9,700 km (1990; petroleum products 1,100 km; natural gas 6,200 km

Railways

Roadways

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

Merchant marine:

Ports and terminals


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Disputes international:

Refugees and internally displaced persons

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of opium in at least 18 provinces and administrative regions; bulk of production is in Yunnan Province; transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle