| Country Profile 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, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system 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 and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight. Disputes site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute 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; lacking any treaty describing the boundary, Bhutan and China continue negotiations to establish a boundary alignment to resolve substantial cartographic discrepancies, the largest of which lies in Bhutan's northwest; China asserts sovereignty over the Spratly Islands together with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" eased tensions in the Spratly's but is not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by some parties; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction of facilities in the Spratly's 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; China and Taiwan continue to reject both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared equidistance line in the East China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting; certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in dispute with North Korea; China seeks to stem illegal migration of North Koreans; 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; in 2006, China and Tajikistan pledged to commence demarcation of the revised boundary agreed to in the delimitation of 2002; demarcation of the China-Vietnam land boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004, implementation remains stalled; in 2004, international environmentalist and political pressure from Burma and Thailand prompted China to halt construction of 13 dams on the Salween River
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Economic Data
Economy Overview
China’s economy during the last quarter century has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy. Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment.
China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist or piecemeal fashion, including the sale of minority shares in four of China’s largest state banks to foreign investors and refinements in foreign exchange and bond markets in 2005. After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, China in July 2005 revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. Cumulative appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar since the end of the dollar peg reached 15% in January 2008.
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, China in 2007 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income. Annual inflows of foreign direct investment in 2007 rose to $75 billion. By the end of 2007, more than 5,000 domestic Chinese enterprises had established direct investments in 172 countries and regions around the world.
The Chinese government faces several economic development challenges: (a) to sustain adequate job growth for tens of millions of workers laid off from state-owned enterprises, migrants, and new entrants to the work force; (b) to reduce corruption and other economic crimes; and (c) to contain environmental damage and social strife related to the economy’s rapid transformation. Economic development has been more rapid in coastal provinces than in the interior, and approximately 200 million rural laborers have relocated to urban areas to find work. One demographic consequence of the "one child" 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. In 2007 China intensified government efforts to improve environmental conditions, tying the evaluation of local officials to environmental targets, publishing a national climate change policy, and establishing a high level leading group on climate change, headed by Premier WEN Jiabao. The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil as its double-digit economic growth increases demand.
Chinese energy officials in 2007 agreed to purchase five third generation nuclear reactors from Western companies. More power generating capacity came on line in 2006 as large scale investments - including the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River - were completed.
Debt and Aid
Debt: $363 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Aid Given: N/A
Aid Received: $1.641 billion (FY07)
Labour Force
Number in labour force: 803.3 million (2007 est.)
Sectors: agriculture: 43% industry: 25% services: 32% (2006 est.)
Unemployment: 4% unemployment in urban areas; substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas (2007 est.)
GDP Facts and Figures
Currency: Renminbi (RMB); note - also referred to by the unit yuan (CNY)
GDP: $6.991 trillion (2007 est.)
GDP Per Capita: $5,300 (2007 est.)
GDP Real Growth: 11.4% (2007 est.)
GDP Composition: agriculture: 11.3% industry: 48.6% services: 40.1% (2007 est.)
Production Growth Rate: 13.4% (2007 est.)
Industries, Land Use and Resource Consumption
Industries: mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products, including footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing; transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft; telecommunications equipment, commercial space launch vehicles, satellites
Land use: arable land: 14.86% permanent crops: 1.27% other: 83.87% (2005)
Exports: machinery, electrical products, data processing equipment, apparel, textile, steel, mobile phones
Electricity Consumption: 2.859 trillion kWh (2006)
Natural Gas Consumption: 55.6 billion cu m (2006 est.)
Oil Consumption: 6.93 million bbl/day (2007 est.)
China has a population of 1,330,044,605 (July 2008 est.) .
| Capital | Beijing |
| Main urban areas | Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan |
| Ethnic groups | Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1% |
| Languages spoken | 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) |
| Population age 0-14: 20.1% (m 142,085,665/f 125,300,391) |  | | |
| 0-14 | 15-64 | 65+ | |
| Gender ratios At birth: 1.11 m/f , 0-14: 1.13 m/f , 15-64: 1.06 m/f , 65+: 0.91 m/f | |||
Changing Population (Life expectancy, births, deaths and fertility)
The population growth rate for China is 0.629% (2008 est.) (world growth rate at 2006 is 1.14%). The country also saw migration of -0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.). The median age of the country is total: 33.6 years male: 33.1 years female: 34.2 years (2008 est.).
Note: on the graphs, world figures are represented by a red bar, figures for China are illustrated with a green bar.
| Life Expectancy: | Total population: 73.18 years Male: 71.37 years Female: 75.18 years (2008 est.) |  [73.18] [64.77][Male:, m] [63.16, m][, f][66.47, f] |
| Fertility: | 1.77 children born/woman (2008 est.) | [1.77][2.59] |
| Births: | 13.71 births/1,000 population (2008 est.) | [13.71][20.05] |
| Deaths: | 7.03 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) | [7.03][8.67] |
| Infants: | Total: 21.16 deaths/1,000 live births Male: 19.43 deaths/1,000 live births Female: 23.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.) | [21.16][48.87][19.43, m][50.98, m][23.08, f][46.65, f] |
Geographic Data
China is located in Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam, in the timezone GMT 8. The country has boundaries of 22,147.34 - Afghanistan 76, Bhutan 470, Burma 2,185, Hong Kong 30, India 3,380, Kazakhstan 1,533, North Korea 1,416, Kyrgyzstan 858, Laos 423, Macau 0.34, Mongolia 4,677, Nepal 1,236, Pakistan 523, Russia (northeast) 3,605, Russia (northwest) 40, Tajikistan 414, Vietnam 1,281 (km), and a coastline of 14,500 (km). Major urban areas: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan.
Elevations
Lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
Highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.)
Physical Features
Himalayas Mountains (Everest, 8,850 m; Lhotse, 8,500 m; Makalu 1, 8,470 m; Lhotse E Peak, 8,380 m; Cho Oyu, 8,150 m; Gosainthan, 8,010 m; Ulugh Muztagh, 7,720 m; Muz Tag Ata, 7,550 m), Gobi desert (2,330,000 km2), Takla Makan desert (270,000 km2), Dzungaria desert (142,000 km2), Ordos desert (130,000 km2), Alashan desert (116,000 km2), Yangtze (Chang Jiang) river (5,980 km), Yellow (Huang He) river (4,840 km)
Hazards
Frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence
Climate
Extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north
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: 14.86% permanent crops: 1.27% other: 83.87% (2005)
Renewable Water Resources
2,829.6 cu km (1999)
Fresh Water Withdrawal
total: 549.76 cu km/yr (7%/26%/68%) per capita: 415 cu m/yr (2000)
Environmental 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
Transport and Communications
A selection of key transport and communications information for China
Number of main telephone lines
368 million (2006)
Mobile (cellular) phones
461.1 million (2006)
Radio stations
AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)
Television stations
3,240 (of which 209 are operated by China Central Television, 31 are provincial TV stations, and nearly 3,000 are local city stations) (1997)
Internet users
162 million (2007)
Country internet code
.cn
Railways
total: 74,408 km standard gauge: 74,408 km 1.435-m gauge (19,303 km electrified) (2004)
Highways
total: 1,809,829 km paved: 1,447,682 km (with at least 29,745 km of expressways) unpaved: 362,147 km (2003)
Waterways
123,964 km (2003)
Pipelines
gas 15,890 km; oil 14,478 km; refined products 3,280 km (2004)
Ports and harbours
Dalian, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai
Airports
467 (2007)
Heliports
35 (2007)
