THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 9,956,960 sq km (3.7m sq mi)
Population: 1.29 bn (March 2001)
Capital City: Beijing
People: Han Chinese are the majority
people group. There are 55 minority
ethnic groups.
Official Language: Mandarin
(Putonghua) with many local dialects.
Religion(s): China is officially atheistic,
but there are five State-Registered
Religions: Daoism, Buddhism, Islam,
Catholic and Protestant Christianity.
Currency: Yuan or Renminbi (RMB) 11.
8 RMB = ú1
Major political parties: Chinese
Communist Party
Government: There are three major
hierarchies in China: the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP), the
government and the military. The
supreme decision-making body in China
is the CCP Politburo and its 9-member
Standing Committee, which acts as a
kind of 'inner cabinet', and is headed by
the General Secretary of the Chinese
Communist Party. The National People's
Congress (NPC) is China's legislative
body. It has a five-year membership
and meets once a year in plenary
session. However, in practice it is the
CCP who takes all key decisions.
GEOGRAPHY
With an area of 3,705,408 square miles
(9,956,961 square km) China is twice
the size of Western Europe and the
third largest country in the world,
after Russia and Canada. It has 31
provinces, including five 'autonomous
regions' and four city municipalities.
China is a highly diverse country and its
terrain varies from plains, deltas and
hills in the east to mountains, high
plateaux and deserts in the west. To
the south its climate is tropical, whilst
to the north it is sub-arctic. Less than
one-sixth of China is suitable for
agriculture and the most fertile areas
lie in the eastern third of the country,
which is economically the most
developed region.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
Longer Historical Perspective
The Chinese imperial system came to
an end in 1911, when the Qing (Manchu)
dynasty was overthrown and China
was proclaimed a republic, partly
through the efforts of revolutionaries
such as Sun Yat-sen. The country then
entered a period of warlordism until in
1927 the Nationalist Party or
'Kuomintang' (KMT), under its leader
Chiang Kai-shek, established a central
government in Nanjing. The Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) was founded
in 1921 but broke with the KMT and
was forced to flee into the interior in
the Long March in 1934/35. Both KMT
and CCP forces opposed Japan during
World War Two but a civil war broke
out from 1945-1949. CCP forces under
Mao Zedong routed their KMT
opponents and in 1949 Mao announced
the establishment of the People's
Republic of China. KMT elements fled
to the island of Taiwan.
The period between 1949 and Mao's
death in 1976 was characterised by an
ambitious political and economic
restructuring programme which
involved the collectivisation of industry,
the establishment of communes and the
redistribution of land. The Cultural
Revolution from 1966-1976 brought
enormous upheaval in the political
system and Mao had to rely on the
armed forces to maintain order and
exercise control.
Recent History
In December 1978 the CCP, inspired by
Deng Xiaoping, launched a wide-ranging
programme of economic and social
reform which sought to modernise the
economy, develop China's external
relations (the 'open door policy') -
especially with the West, and implement
a gradual and limited liberalisation of
Chinese society.
Political opposition to the more liberal
reforms forced periods of
retrenchment and in June1989,
following the brutal suppression of
pro-democracy demonstrators in
Beijing, political control swung firmly
into the hands of conservative
elements within the CCP. The Chinese
government labelled the
demonstrations a
'counter-revolutionary rebellion' and
clamped down on dissent. Prominent
dissidents fled the country or went
into hiding. Many activists were
arrested. Party General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang was replaced by Jiang
Zemin, former Mayor and later Party
Secretary of Shanghai. Jiang was
appointed to the additional post of State
President in March 1993. Since then,
the Party leadership has continued the
economic reform programme, while
also seeking to improve China's
standing in the international community.
Jiang retired as President in March
2003 and was replaced by
Vice-President Hu Jintao
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
Economic indicators:
GDP: US$1.19 trillion (2001 provisional)
GDP per head: US$908 (2001
provisional)
Annual Growth: 7.3% (2001)
Inflation: 0.7% (2001)
Exchange rate: 12.9 Renminbi = ú1
Trade Partners UK Country Profile:
China
China has been one of the world's
economic success stories since
reforms began in 1978 and has recently
overtaken Italy to become the sixth
largest economy in the world (in
purchasing power parity terms, China
is the world's second biggest economy)
Official figures show that GDP grew
on average by well over 10% per annum
until the mid-90s and currently stands
at around 7-8% a year.
A growing share of China's economic
growth has been generated in the
private sector as the government has
opened up industries to domestic and
foreign competition, though the role of
the state in ownership and planning
remains extensive. Foreign Direct
Investment reached $ 52 billion in
2002, overtaking the US to become the
largest recipient of FDI in the world.
China is the world's 6th largest trading
nation. Its exports and imports of
goods were valued at ($ 326bn and
$295bn respectively in 2002.
China's economic and social
development challenges remain huge.
These include reforming ailing
state-owned industries, overhauling
the financial sector and raising the
incomes of China's rural population.
China's leaders have launched a
campaign to develop China's western
regions in an effort to slow down the
widening income gap between China's
more developed eastern and coastal
areas and the interior. China's entry
into the World Trade Organisation in
December 2001 is further integrating
China into the global economy.
TAIWAN
The reunification of Taiwan with the
rest of China remains one of the
Chinese government's key objectives.
Taiwan was under Japanese rule from
1895 and was reoccupied by Chinese
troops after the Japanese surrender
in 1945. At the end of the Civil War in
China remnants of the KMT
government fled to Taiwan and
established themselves there as the
'Republic of China'. For many years
China remained determined to 'liberate'
Taiwan by force, and although it has
not renounced the use of force under
specified exceptional circumstances, it
has now committed itself to a policy of
peaceful reunification under the
condition of 'one China'.
China and Taiwan are now major
economic partners, although some
restrictions still remain. A process of
dialogue on political questions started in
the early 1990s but has been halted
since 1998. In 2000 Chen Shui-bian,
from the opposition Democratic
Progressive Party, won the
Presidential election and formed the
first government on Taiwan that was
not controlled by the KMT.
Britain recognised the People's Republic
of China in 1950. In 1972, Britain and
China upgraded relations to
Ambassadorial level and signed a joint
communique in which Britain
acknowledged the position of the
Government of the People's Republic of
China that Taiwan was a province of
China and recognised the Government
of the People's Republic of China as the
sole legal government of China.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CHINA'S RELATIONS WITH THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The PRC took over the China seat at
the United Nations from Taiwan in 1971.
Since the launch of its æopen door
policy' in 1978 China has begun to take
a more active role in international
organisations. The repression of the
democracy movement in 1989,
however, led to a chill in relations
between the West and China. In recent
years, China has generally pursued
amicable relations with its neighbours
and with the West. Diplomatic relations
were restored or 'normalised' in the
early 1990s with countries in South
East Asia such as Indonesia and
Vietnam.
China's international political and
economic weight has continued to
grow. It hosted summits of APEC
(Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation)
and ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) in
2001, and is active within the ASEAN
Plus Three (ASEAN countries plus
China, South Korea and Japan)
grouping. It joined the World Trade
Organisation in 2001, and is increasingly
active in the United Nations Security
Council, where it holds one of the five
Permanent Seats. China supported
Security Council Resolution 1441 on
Iraq. It later called for the situation to
be resolved by peaceful means within
the UN framework.
Flags Of The World: China
privacy policy
disclaimer
credits
