arable land: 11.3%
permanent crops: 1.6%
permanent pasture: 41.8%

urban: 97.5% of population
rural: 93% of population
total: 95.5% of population
urban: 2.5% of population
rural: 7% of population
total: 4.5% of population (2015 est.)

urban: 86.6% of population
rural: 63.7% of population
total: 76.5% of population
urban: 13.4% of population
rural: 36.3% of population
total: 23.5% of population (2015 est.)

Since the late 1970s China has moved from a closed centrally planned system to a more market-oriented one that plays a major global role; in 2010 China became the world's largest exporter. Reforms began with the phaseout of collectivized agriculture and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices fiscal decentralization increased autonomy for state enterprises growth of the private sector development of stock markets and a modern banking system and opening to foreign trade and investment. China has implemented reforms in a gradualist fashion. In recent years China has renewed its support for state-owned enterprises in sectors considered important to 'economic security' explicitly looking to foster globally competitive industries. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for price differences China in 2015 stood as the largest economy in the world surpassing the US in 2014 for the first time in modern history. Still China's per capita income is below the world average.
After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years China in July 2005 moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. From mid-2005 to late 2008 cumulative appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar was more than 20% but the exchange rate remained virtually pegged to the dollar from the onset of the global financial crisis until June 2010 when Beijing allowed resumption of a gradual appreciation. In 2015 the People’s Bank of China announced it would continue to carefully push for full convertibility of the renminbi after the currency was accepted as part of the IMF’s special drawing rights basket.
The Chinese Government faces numerous economic challenges including: (a) reducing its high domestic savings rate and correspondingly low domestic consumption; (b) facilitating higher-wage job opportunities for the aspiring middle class including rural migrants and increasing numbers of college graduates; (c) reducing corruption and other economic crimes; and (d) containing environmental damage and social strife related to the economy's rapid transformation. Economic development has progressed further in coastal provinces than in the interior and by 2014 more than 274 million migrant workers and their dependents had relocated to urban areas to find work. One consequence of population control policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world. Deterioration in the environment - notably air pollution soil erosion and the steady fall of the water table especially in the North - is another long-term problem. China continues to lose arable land: because of erosion and economic development. The Chinese government is seeking to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil focusing on nuclear and alternative energy development.
Several factors are converging to slow China's growth including debt overhang from its credit-fueled stimulus program industrial overcapacity inefficient allocation of capital by state-owned banks and the slow recovery of China's trading partners. The government's 13th Five-Year Plan unveiled in November 2015 emphasizes continued economic reforms and the need to increase innovation and domestic consumption in order to make the economy less dependent in the future on fixed investments exports and heavy industry. However China has made only marginal progress toward these rebalancing goals. The new government of President XI Jinping has signaled a greater willingness to undertake reforms that focus on China's long-term economic health including giving the market a more decisive role in allocating resources. In 2014 China agreed to begin limiting carbon dioxide emissions by 2,030

$19.39 trillion (2015 est.)
$18.14 trillion (2014 est.)
$16.91 trillion (2013 est.)

6.9% (2015 est.)
7.3% (2014 est.)
7.7% (2013 est.)

$14,100 (2015 est.)
$13,300 (2014 est.)
$12,400 (2013 est.)

47.9% of GDP (2015 est.)
49.3% of GDP (2014 est.)
48.8% of GDP (2013 est.)

4% (2015 est.)
4.1% (2014 est.)

46.9 (2014 est.)
47.3 (2013 est.)

15.3% of GDP (2015 est.)
14.8% of GDP (2014 est.)

1.5% (2015 est.)
2.1% (2014 est.)

2.25% (31 December 2014 est.)
2.25% (31 December 2013 est.)

4.35% (31 December 2015 est.)
5.6% (31 December 2014 est.)

$6.176 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$5.688 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$20.93 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$20.07 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$20.53 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$17.6 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$6.065 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$6.499 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)
$5.753 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)

$293.2 billion (2015 est.)
$219.7 billion (2014 est.)

$2.143 trillion (2015 est.)
$2.244 trillion (2014 est.)

$1.576 trillion (2015 est.)
$1.809 trillion (2014 est.)

$3.406 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$3.869 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$958.3 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
$959.5 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$1.221 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$1.085 trillion (31 December 2014 est.)

$1.01 trillion (31 December 2015 est.)
$888.6 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

Renminbi yuan (RMB) per US dollar -
6.2275 (2015 est.)
6.1434 (2014 est.)
6.1958 (2013 est.)
6.3123 (2012 est.)
6.4615 (2011 est.)

1.99% of GDP (2012)
2% of GDP (2011)
1.99% of GDP (2010)

continuing talks and confidence-building measures work toward reducing tensions over Kashmir that nonetheless remains militarized with portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin) India (Jammu and Kashmir) and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964; China and India continue their security and foreign policy dialogue started in 2005 related to the dispute over most of their rugged militarized boundary regional nuclear proliferation and other matters; China claims most of India's Arunachal Pradesh to the base of the Himalayas; lacking any treaty describing the boundary Bhutan and China continue negotiations to establish a common boundary alignment to resolve territorial disputes arising from substantial cartographic discrepancies the largest of which lie in Bhutan's northwest and along the Chumbi salient; Burmese forces attempting to dig in to the largely autonomous Shan State to rout local militias tied to the drug trade prompts local residents to periodically flee into neighboring Yunnan Province in China; Chinese maps show an international boundary symbol off the coasts of the littoral states of the South China Seas where China has interrupted Vietnamese hydrocarbon exploration; China asserts sovereignty over Scarborough Reef along with the Philippines and Taiwan and over the Spratly Islands together with Malaysia the Philippines Taiwan Vietnam and Brunei; the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea eased tensions in the Spratlys but is not the legally binding code of conduct sought by some parties; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction of facilities in the Spratlys and in March 2005 the national oil companies of China the Philippines and Vietnam signed a joint accord on marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands;
China occupies some of the Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands are also claimed by China and Taiwan; certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen Rivers are in dispute with North Korea; North Korea and China seek to stem illegal migration to China by North Koreans fleeing privations and oppression by building a fence along portions of the border and imprisoning North Koreans deported by China; China and Russia have demarcated the once disputed islands at the Amur and Ussuri confluence and in the Argun River in accordance with their 2004 Agreement; China and Tajikistan have begun demarcating the revised boundary agreed to in the delimitation of 2002; the decade-long demarcation of the China-Vietnam land boundary was completed in 2009; citing environmental cultural and social concerns China has reconsidered construction of 13 dams on the Salween River but energy-starved Burma with backing from Thailand remains intent on building five hydro-electric dams downstream despite regional and international protests
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities met in March 2008 to resolve ownership and use of lands recovered in Shenzhen River channelization including 96-hectare Lok Ma Chau Loop