The 1991 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
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
_#_Note: world's third-largest country (after USSR and Canada)
_*People #_Population: 1,151,486,981 (July 1991), growth rate 1.6% (1991)
_#_Birth rate: 22 births/1,000 population (1991)
_#_Death rate: 7 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
_#_Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
_#_Infant mortality rate: 33 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
_#_Life expectancy at birth: 68 years male, 72 years female (1991)
_#_Total fertility rate: 2.3 children born/woman (1991)
_#_Nationality: noun—Chinese (sing., pl.); adjective—Chinese
_#_Ethnic divisions: Han Chinese 93.3%; Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 6.7%
_#_Religion: officially atheist, but traditionally pragmatic and eclectic; most important elements of religion are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; Muslim 2–3%, Christian 1% (est.)
_#_Language: 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)
_#_Literacy: 73% (male 84%, female 62%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
_#_Labor force: 553,000,000; agriculture and forestry 60%, industry and commerce 25%, construction and mining 5%, social services 5%, other 5% (1989 est.)
_#_Organized labor: All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) follows the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; membership over 80 million or about 65% of the urban work force (1985)
_*Government #_Long-form name: People's Republic of China; abbreviated PRC
_#_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
_#_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
_#_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
_#_National holiday: National Day, 1 October (1949)
_#_Executive branch: president, vice president, premier, five vice premiers, State Council
_#_Legislative branch: unicameral National People's Congress (Quanguo Renmin Daibiao Dahui)
_#_Judicial branch: Supreme People's Court
_#_Leaders:
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)
_#_Political parties and leaders: only party—Chinese Communist Party (CCP), JIANG Zemin, general secretary of the Central Committee (since NA June 1989)
_#_Suffrage: universal at age 18
_#_Elections:
President—last held 8 April 1988 (next to be held March 1993);
YANG Shangkun was nominally elected by the Seventh National People's
Congress;
National People's Congress—last held NA March 1988 (next to be held March 1993); results—CCP is the only party but there are also independents; seats—(2,976 total) CCP and independents 2,976 (indirectly elected at county or xian level)
_#_Communists: 49,000,000 party members (1990 est.)
_#_Other political or pressure groups: such meaningful opposition as exists consists of loose coalitions, usually within the party and government organization, that vary by issue
_#_Member of: 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: Ambassador ZHU Qizhen; Chancery at 2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 328–2500 through 2502; 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 100600, PRC Box 50, Beijing or FPO San
Francisco 96655–0001); telephone [86] (1) 532–3831; there are US
Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang
_#_Flag: 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
_*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.
_#_GNP: $413 billion (1989 est.), per capita $370 (World Bank est.); real growth rate 5% (1990)
_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.1% (1990)
_#_Unemployment rate: 2.6% in urban areas (1990)
_#_Budget: revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA