China

• frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts);
• damaging floods;
• tsunamis;
• earthquakes;
• droughts;
• land subsidence

• air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal produces acid rain;
• water shortages, particularly in the north;
• water pollution from untreated wastes;
• deforestation;
• estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development;
• desertification;
• trade in endangered species

party to:

Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

at birth:

1.12 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.13 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.91 male(s)/female

total population:

1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

noun:

Chinese (singular and plural)

adjective:

Chinese

conventional long form:

People's Republic of China

conventional short form:

China

local long form:

Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo

local short form:

Zhongguo

abbreviation:

PRC

name:

Beijing

geographic coordinates:

39 56 N, 116 24 E

time difference:

UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)

note: despite its size, all of China falls within one time zone

• 221 BC (unification under the Qin or Ch'in Dynasty);
• 1 January 1912 (Manchu Dynasty replaced by a Republic);
• 1 October 1949 (People's Republic established)

• based on civil law system;
• derived from Soviet and continental civil code legal principles;
• legislature retains power to interpret statutes;
• constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislation;
• has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

chief of state:

President HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003) and Vice President ZENG Qinghong (since 15 March 2003)

head of government:

• Premier WEN Jiabao (since 16 March 2003);
• Executive Vice Premier HUANG Ju (since 17 March 2003), Vice Premiers WU Yi (17 March 2003), ZENG Peiyan (since 17 March 2003), and HUI Liangyu (since 17 March 2003)

cabinet:

State Council appointed by the National People's Congress (NPC)

elections:

• president and vice president elected by the National People's Congress for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
• elections last held 15-17 March 2003 (next to be held mid-March 2008);
• premier nominated by the president, confirmed by the National People's Congress

election results:

• HU Jintao elected president by the 10th National People's Congress with a total of 2,937 votes (four delegates voted against him, four abstained, and 38 did not vote);
• ZENG Qinghong elected vice president by the 10th National People's Congress with a total of 2,578 votes (177 delegates voted against him, 190 abstained, and 38 did not vote);
• two seats were vacant

• Supreme People's Court (judges appointed by the National People's Congress);
• Local Peoples Courts (comprise higher, intermediate, and local courts);
• Special Peoples Courts (primarily military, maritime, and railway transport courts)

chief of mission:

Ambassador ZHOU Wenzhong

chancery:

2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 328-2500

FAX:

[1] (202) 328-2582

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco

chief of mission:

Ambassador Clark T. RANDT, Jr.

embassy:

Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, 100600 Beijing

mailing address:

PSC 461, Box 50, FPO AP 96521-0002

telephone:

[86] (10) 6532-3831

FAX:

[86] (10) 6532-3178

consulate(s) general:

Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, Shanghai, Shenyang

agriculture:

49%

industry:

22%

services:

29% (2003 est.)

• 9% official registered unemployment in urban areas in 2004;
• substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas;
• an official Chinese journal estimated overall unemployment (including rural areas) for 2003 at 20% (2005 est.)

lowest 10%:

2.4%

highest 10%:

30.4% (1998)

• rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oilseed;
• pork;
• fish

• mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, coal;
• machine building;
• armaments;
• textiles and apparel;
• petroleum;
• cement;
• chemicals;
• fertilizers;
• consumer products, including footwear, toys, and electronics;
• food processing;
• transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft;
• telecommunications equipment, commercial space launch vehicles, satellites

general assessment:

• domestic and international services are increasingly available for private use;
• unevenly distributed domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and many towns

domestic:

interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular telephone systems have been installed; a domestic satellite system with 55 earth stations is in place

international:

• country code - 86;
• satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region) and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean regions);
• several international fiber-optic links to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany (2000)

total:

74,408 km

standard gauge:

74,408 km 1.435-m gauge (19,303 km electrified) (2004)

total:

1,809,829 km

paved:

1,447,682 km (with at least 29,745 km of expressways)

unpaved:

362,147 km (2003)

People's Liberation Army (PLA):

• Ground Forces, Navy (includes marines and naval aviation), Air Force (includes airborne forces), and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force);
• People's Armed Police (PAP);
• Reserve and Militia Forces (2006)

• 18-22 years of age for compulsory military service, with 24-month service obligation;
• no minimum age for voluntary service (all officers are volunteers);
• 18-22 years of age for women who meet requirements for specific military jobs (2006)

males age 18-49:

342,956,265

females age 18-49:

324,701,244 (2005 est.)

males age 18-49:

281,240,272

females age 18-49:

269,025,517 (2005 est.)

males age 18-49:

13,186,433

females age 18-49:

12,298,149 (2005 est.)

current situation:

• China is a source, transit, and destination country for women, men, and children trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor;
• the majority of trafficking in China is internal, but there is also international trafficking of Chinese citizens;
• women are lured through false promises of legitimate employment into commercial sexual exploitation in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan;
• Chinese men and women are smuggled to countries throughout the world at enormous personal expense and then forced into commercial sexual exploitation or exploitative labor to repay debts to traffickers;
• women and children are trafficked into China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam for forced labor, marriage, and sexual slavery;
• most North Koreans enter northeastern China voluntarily, but others reportedly are trafficked into China from North Korea;
• domestic trafficking remains the most significant problem in China, with an estimated minimum of 10,000-20,000 victims trafficked each year;
• the actual number of victims could be much greater;
• some experts believe that the serious and prolonged imbalance in the male-female birth ratio may now be contributing to Chinese and foreign girls and women being trafficked as potential brides

tier rating:

• Tier 2 Watch List - China failed to show evidence of increasing efforts to address transnational trafficking;
• while the government provides reasonable protection to internal victims of trafficking, protection for Chinese and foreign victims of transnational trafficking remain inadequate

• major transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle;
• growing domestic drug abuse problem;
• source country for chemical precursors and methamphetamine