independents 2,976 (indirectly elected at county or xian level)President:
last held 8 April 1988 (next to be held March 1993); results - YANG Shangkun
was nominally elected by the Seventh National People's Congress
:China Government
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, APEC, 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, UNTSO, UN Trusteeship
Council, UPU, 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 J. Stapleton ROY; Embassy at Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, Beijing (mailing
address is 100600, PSC 461, Box 50, Beijing or FPO AP 96521-0002); telephone
[86] (1) 532-3831; FAX [86] (1) 532-3178; 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
:China 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. Industry also has posted major gains, especially in coastal
areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment and
modern production methods have helped spur production of both domestic and
export goods. Aggregate output has more than doubled since 1978. On the
darker side, 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 lessening the credibility of the reform process. In 1991 output rose
substantially, particularly in the favored coastal areas. Popular
resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority by rural cadres
have weakened China's population control program, which is essential to the
nation's long-term economic viability.
GNP:
$NA, per capita $NA; real growth rate 6% (1991)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
2.1% (1991)
Unemployment rate:
4.0% in urban areas (1991)
Budget:
deficit $9.5 billion (1990)
Exports:
$71.9 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities:
textiles, garments, telecommunications and recording equipment, petroleum,
minerals
partners:
Hong Kong, Japan, US, USSR, Singapore (1990)
Imports:
$63.8 billion (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities:
specialized industrial machinery, chemicals, manufactured goods, steel,
textile yarn, fertilizer
partners:
Hong Kong, Japan, US, Germany, Taiwan (1990)
External debt:
$51 billion (1990 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 14.0% (1991); accounts for 45% of GNP
Electricity:
138,000,000 kW capacity (1990); 670,000 million kWh produced (1991), 582 kWh
per capita (1991)
Industries:
iron, steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles, petroleum, cement,
chemical fertilizers, consumer durables, food processing
:China Economy
Agriculture:
