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
_#_Exports: $62.1 billion (f.o.b., 1990);
commodities—textiles, garments, telecommunications and recording equipment, petroleum, minerals;
partners—Hong Kong, US, Japan, USSR, Singapore, FRG (1989)
_#_Imports: $53.4 billion (c.i.f., 1990);
commodities—specialized industrial machinery, chemicals, manufactured goods, steel, textile yarn, fertilizer;
partners—Hong Kong, Japan, US, FRG, USSR (1989)
_#_External debt: $51 billion (1990 est.)
_#_Industrial production: growth rate 7.6% (1990); accounts for 45% of GNP
_#_Electricity: 117,580,000 kW capacity; 585,000 million kWh produced, 520 kWh per capita (1990)
_#_Industries: iron, steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, consumer durables, food processing
_#_Agriculture: 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 8 million metric tons in 1986
_#_Economic aid: donor—to less developed countries (1970–89) $7.0 billion; US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70–87), $220.7 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970–87), $13.5 billion
_#_Currency: yuan (plural—yuan); 1 yuan (3) = 10 jiao
_#_Exchange rates: yuan (3) per US$1—5.31 (April 1991), 4.7832 (1990), 3.7651 (1989), 3.7221 (1988), 3.7221 (1987), 3.4528 (1986), 2.9367 (1985)
_#_Fiscal year: calendar year
_*Communications #_Railroads: total about 54,000 km common carrier
