Land People Economy Government

• Location: Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam 
• Geographic coordinates: 35 00 N, 105 00 E
• Area:  comparative: slightly smaller than the US, world's fourth-largest country 
• total: 9,596,960 sq km 
• land: 9,326,410 sq km 

water: 270,550 sq km 
• Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in the south to subarctic in the north 
• Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east 
• Elevation extremes:  lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m; highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) 
• 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: 10%, perrmanent crops: 0%, permanent pastures: 43%, forests and woodland: 14%, other: 33% (1993 est.); Irrigated land: 498,720 sq km (1993 est.) 

People

• Population: 1,261,832,482 (July 2000 est.) 
• 0-14 years: 25% (male 168,040,006; female 152,826,953)
• 15-64 years: 68% (male 439,736,737; female 413,454,673)
• 65 years and over: 7% (male 41,200,297; female 46,573,816) 
• Growth rate: 0.9% (2000 est.) 
• Birth rate: 16.12 births/1,000 population 
• Death rate: 6.73 deaths/1,000 population 
• Migration rate: -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population 
• Sex ratio: at birth: 1.15 male(s)/female; total population: 1.06 male(s)/female
• Infant mortality rate: 28.92 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life expectancy at birth: male: 69.6 years; female: 73.33 years
• Fertility rate: 1.82 children born/woman (2000 est.)
• Ethnic groups: Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1% 
• Religions: Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 2%-3%, Christian 1% (est.); note: officially atheist 
• Languages: Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, various minority languages 
• Literacy:  (definition: age 15 and over can read and write) 
• total population: 81.5% 
• male: 89.9% 
• female: 72.7% (1995 est.) 

Government

• Executive branch:  
• chief of state: President Jiang Zemin (since 27 March 1993) and Vice President Hu Jintao (since 16 March 1998) 
• head of government: Premier Zhu Rongji (since 18 March 1998); Vice Premiers Qian Qichen (since 29 March 1993), LI Lanqing (29 March 1993), Wu Bangguo (since 17 March 1995), and Wen Jiabao (since 18 March 1998) 
• cabinet: State Council appointed by the National People's Congress (NPC)
• elections: president and vice president elected by the National People's Congress for five-year terms; elections last held 16-18 March 1998 (next to be held NA March 2003); premier nominated by the president, confirmed by the National People's Congress election 
• Legislative branch: unicameral National People's Congress or Quanguo Renmin Daibiao Dahui (2,979 seats; members elected by municipal, regional, and provincial people's congresses to serve five-year terms)                          
• Judicial branch: Supreme People's Court, judges appointed by the National People's Congress 
• Political parties and leaders: Chinese Communist Party or CCP [Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Central Committee]; eight registered small parties controlled by CCP.  No substantial political opposition groups exist, although the government has identified the Falungong sect and the China Democracy Party as potential rivals. 

Economy

• GDP: 
• purchasing power parity - $4.8 trillion (1999 est.) 
• real growth rate: 7% (1999 est.) 
• per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,800 (1999 est.) 
• composition by sector: agriculture: 15%, industry: 35%, services: 50% (1999 est.) 
• Population below poverty line: 10% (1999 est.) 
• Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.2%, highest 10%: 30.9% (1995), 
• Labor force: 700 million (1998 est.); Occupation: agriculture 50%, industry 24%, services 26% (1998); Unemployment rate: urban unemployment roughly 10%, substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas (1999 est.) 
• Industries: iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles and apparel, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, footwear, toys, food processing, automobiles, consumer electronics, telecommunications 
• Agriculture:  products: rice, wheat, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed; pork, fish 
• Exports: $194.9 billion (f.o.b., 1999): commodites, machinery and equipment, textiles and clothing, footwear, toys and sporting goods, mineral fuels, chemicals 
• Imports: $165.8 billion (c.i.f., 1999): commodities, machinery and equipment, plastics, chemicals, iron and steel, mineral fuels 
• Debt - external: $159 billion (1998 est.) 
• Currency: 1 yuan = 10 jiao; Exchange rates: 8.2793 yuan per US $1 (January 2000)