General View of China PDF

of China
A Reader on Human Resource Development and

Cooperation between China and other Countries/Regions
The People's Republic of China was founded on
October 1, 1949. The capital of the People's Republic of
China is Beijing.
The People's Republic of China is a socialist state
under the peoples democratic dictatorship led by the
working class and based on the alliance of workers and
peasants
General Review of China
General Review
The socialist system is the basic system of the People's

China belongs to the people.
Through designed and extensive economic
construction after the establishment of the Peoples
Republic of China, the country has become one of those
economic powers with the biggest potentials, and the
people's life there is moderately prosperous in general.
At present China is still in the primary stage of
socialism, and is the world's largest developing country.
Discovering China will be a pleasant ride, something
worth doing. Lets move on.
China Intercontinental Press
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Cooperation between China and other Countries/Regions
Republic of China. All power in the People's Republic of
Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China
General
Review
of
China
A Reader on Human Resource

Development andCooperation between
China and other Countries/Regions
Ministry of Commerce
of the Peoples Republic of China
General
Review
of
China

Cooperation between China and other
Countries/Regions
Compilation and Review Committee:

Director: Fu Ziying
Deputy-directors: Liao Jiancheng, Xu Jiaai, Jin Xu
Members: Yuan Qun, Yu Yingfu, Zhu Liugui
Contents
Preface
Geographical Environment and
Administrative Division
1. Geography and Climate..................2
Geographical Location......................................... 2
Climatic Features................................................. 4
2. Landscape and Resources...............5

Landscape............................................................ 5
Resources............................................................. 7
3. Division of Administrative Regions.... 20

4. 56 Ethnic Groups......................... 23
Chinas Ethnic Policies........................................ 23
Population and Distribution of the Ethnic Groups... 26
Diverse Cultures of the Ethnic Minorities.......... 27
Political and Administrative Systems

1. Political System........................... 33
The National Peoples Congress ......................... 33
Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation
System under the Leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party............................................... 35
Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities.......... 39
Community Level Self-governance..................... 40
3
2. Administrative System.................. 41
Position and Power of the State Council............. 41
Organizational Structure of the State Council and
the Responsibilities of the Premier...................... 42
3. Rights and Obligations of the Citizens... 44
Reform, and Opening up and

Economic Development
1. Reform and Opening up.................. 48
Domestic Reform............................................... 48
Opening up........................................................ 53
2. Economic Development................... 75
Goals of Economic Development....................... 76
Development of Industries................................. 77
Development of Regional Economies................. 98
Social and Cultural Life

1. Social life.................................... 104
Peoples life....................................................... 104
Social Security.................................................. 107
Women and the Population Policy................... 110
Youth............................................................... 115
2. Cultural Life................................. 116

Education......................................................... 116
Health.............................................................. 119
Sports............................................................... 121
Religion............................................................ 123
Mass Media...................................................... 125
Expositions and Museums................................ 126
Holidays and Vacations.................................... 130
4
Language, Literature, Arts,

Culture and Customs
1. Languages................................ 133
2. Literature................................. 135
3. Arts......................................... 136
Calligraphy and Painting.................................. 136
Music and Dance............................................. 139
Drama and Film............................................... 141
Handicraft and Architecture............................. 143
4. Culture and Custom................... 146

Food Culture.................................................... 146
Wine Culture................................................... 147
Tea Culture...................................................... 148
Folk Houses..................................................... 150
Science, Technology and

Intellectual Property
1. Science and Technology................ 153
Strategy of Scientific and Technological
Development.................................................... 153
System of Science and Technology.................... 154
Science and Technology Achievements............. 155
International Cooperation................................ 158
2. Protection of Intellectual Property

Rights............................................. 159
Harmonious China and

Harmonious World
1. Building a Harmonious Society....... 162
5
Goals and Major Tasks..................................... 162

Adherence to the Scientific Outlook on
Development.................................................... 163
The Rule of law................................................ 165
Promoting Economic Restructuring................. 167
Building an Environment-friendly Society........ 168
National Security.............................................. 170
2. Pushing forward the Construction of

Harmonious World............................ 171
Foreign Policies................................................ 171
Shouldering a Developing Nations Responsibilities
........................................................................ 174
Achieving Common Development
with Other Nations.............................................179
Preface
Dear friends from afar, we live in the same era of

development and share the same global village.
From this earth we share, China extends her
greetings to you from the far eastern Asia.
We sincerely welcome you to reach out for China
and are enthusiastic to demonstrate to you a country
on a fast track to prosperity and power.
China unveils herself from a magnificent painting
scroll characteristic of both ancient civilization and
innovation.
China is ancient, for its civilization conserved
uninterrupted for 5,000 years, making it the only ancient
civilization in the world to survive till now; China is
young, as it innovates with the socialism of Chinese
feature. China is on its way of socialism compliant with
Chinese characteristics and fundamental interest of
the people, achieving world acclaimed progress under
guidance of the theoretic system of socialism of Chinese
features.
China shows herself in a pretty and simple painting
scroll.
China is pretty, as its north is snow white in winter
and sky-high Kunlun Mountains, its south embraces
such rivers as the Yangtze River. China is simple, as it
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is pragmatic to make political policies to bring peace to

the country and welfare to its people.
China finds herself in a painting scroll that has seen
all the hardships and is youthful on the other hand.
China has experienced hardships and humiliation,
yet none of these can subdue the nation, while China
rises again purely on its own diligence and wisdom.
China is youthful as it emancipates its mind and keeps
up with time, with 1.3 billion people trying to make
their country a thriving and prosperous one on earth in
the reform and opening-up practice.
China emphasizes harmony, as it endeavors to
build and promote building of a harmonious world so
as to closely link its great rejuvenation with peace and
prosperity of the entire world.
China is hospitable and warmhearted, as it is
always happy to welcome friends from afar!
Dear friends, please come to China, a country with
splendid history, charismatic sceneries, thriving reforms
and particularly lots of opportunities for development.
Friends, welcome to China.
Chinas mountains and rivers, cities and villages
welcome you! Come to learn about the ancient culture.
Come to embrace a promising China.
Once you set your foot on this land of 9.6 million
square kilometers, you will be embraced by friendship
and passion. You will be touched by 1.3 billion happy
Chinese people and surrounded by flags of reform and
opening-up, in addition to the aspirations of the nation
and call of the time. At the foot of Mt. Everest, you
will see the snow mountain rising into the sky; by the
Yellow River, you will hear folk songs all along; on the
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ancient Silk Road, you will learn the meaning of long

history and profoundness; on top of the Great Wall,
you come to know its magnificence.
Everywhere you go, you will be accompanied by
pleasure and joy.
Discovering China will be a pleasant ride, something worthy doing. Lets move on.
China has a civilization of over 5,000 years and

was one of the 4 ancient states in the world history.
The ancestors of the Chinese lived and labored in
this vast land as early as 1 million years ago, creating
brilliant material and spiritual civilizations. China
has witnessed 5 social formations, namely primitive,
slavery, feudal, semi-colonial and semi-feudal as well as
socialist societies.
The Peoples Republic of China was founded on
October 1, 1949, with Beijing being its capital.
The Peoples Republic of China is a socialist
country led by the working Class and based on the
worker-peasant alliance.
Socialism is the fundamental system of the
republic. All its power belongs to the people.
Since its founding, China has grown to be one of
economic powers with the highest potentials thanks to
the large scale economic development. On the whole,
the people have reached a well-off standard of living.
Currently, China is in the primary stage of
socialism and is one of the largest developing countries
in the world.
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Geographical
Environment and
Administrative Division
China lies in east of Asia and west coast of
the Pacific Ocean, as its map resembles a golden
rooster with its head facing east and tail west. China
is a populous country with vast territory, and highly
complex and diversified natural and geographical
environments. Dating back 5,000 years, Chinese
ancestors began to work and multiply on this land, and
now their descendants keep developing, utilizing and
changing the surroundings year after year.
eneral Review
of China
1. Geography and Climate

Geographical Location
China rests on the east slope of Eurasia, the
largest continent in the world, facing the Pacific, the
largest ocean in the world. Its entire lay of the land
centers on the highest plateau on earth QinghaiTibet Plateau. From west to east, it descends stage
by stage, joining Chinas continental part with the
ocean basin of the Pacific Ocean through the vast
continent shelf.
China lies in the north hemisphere, in the
eastern and central part of Asia, along the west
coast of the Pacific, facing the sea to the east and
extending into the inland to the west. Its long
coastlines make it a country of seas and continent.
The land area of China amounts to 9.6 million
square kilometers, accounting for one fourth of the
Topographic Map of China
Geographical Environment and Administrative Division
land area of Asia, one fifth of that of the world. It

ranks the third largest country in the world next
to Russia and Canada. Chinas sea area covers 4.73
million square kilometers, approximately one third
of its land area.
From east to west, Chinas territory spans longitude of 60 degrees, one time zone, approximately
5,200 kilometer, while it spans about 50 degrees
altitude from north to south, about 5,500 kilometers.
China borders on 14 countries, with Vietnam,
Laos and Myanmar to the south; India, Bhutan,
and Nepal to the southwest; Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to the west;
Mongolia to the north; Russia and the Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea to the northeast; and
Japan, Republic of Korea, as well as the Philippines,
Malaysia, and Brunei across the sea.
The north-south demarcation line in China is the
Qinling Mountains-Huai River Line, the area south
of that line is referred to as South China, and the area
north of that line North China. Geographically, the
North consists of the Northeast, North China, and
Northwest China. The geographical South consists
the Southwest, Central-south and East China.
Chinas east-west demarcation line is HeiheTengchong Line, east of which is referred to as
the East China, and west of which West China.
Geographically, Chinas east consists of the Northeast,
North China, Central-south and East China. Chinas
geographical West consists the Northwest and
Southwest. East China has a bigger population and
economically more developed than West China.
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eneral Review
of China
Climatic Features
Chinas vast territories span many altitudes.
Noticeable differences in distance from the sea,
height above sea level, diversity in landforms
and mountain directions, result in diversified
combinations of climate and waterfall, and colorful
climate patterns as a result.
The most part of China lies in the north temperate zone of mild temperature and distinct seasons,
ideal for human settlement. Continental monsoons
are characteristic of the climate in China. As China
lies on the east of Eurasia, the largest continent on
earth and sits on the west coast of the Pacific and
is close to the Indian Ocean to the southwest, its
climate is significantly affected by the continent and
ocean. In winters, north wind prevails from land
in the north to the sea in the east while in summer
south wind prevails from the sea to the land. Winter
winds arise from Asias inland, carrying chilly
and dry weather to most areas in China, which is
especially true in Chinas north. In summer however,
winds bring most areas with rainfall and heat. As
Chinas monsoon climate is mostly continental, it is
also referred to as the continental monsoon climate.
From September to April of the coming year,
dry and chilly winter monsoon blow from Siberia
and Mongolian Plateau, driving the temperature in
Mohe, Heilongjing province down to under -30.
In South China, the temperature stays above 0.
In places like Sanya, Hainan Island the temperature
is above 20. The temperature difference of the
4
north and south is so striking when the north is all

snow white, flowers just begin to blossom in the
south. From April to September each year, warm
and humid summer monsoon will come from the
sea from the east and south, creating a climate of
high temperature and abundant rainfall. During
this period therefore, high temperature prevails
nationwide except for high places like QinghaiTibet Plateau, without significant temperature gap
between the south and north. In this sense, huge
south-north temperature gap, i.e., warm south and
cold north, features the temperature layout of winter
in China.
In the capital city Beijing, January temperature
averages -4, while that in July averages 26. In
freezing winter days, Beijings temperature will fall
below -10, while that in summer will exceed 40.
2. Landscape and Resources

Landscape
China boasts a vast territory with magnificent
plateaus, criss-crossed and stretching mountains,
endless deserts, as well as gigantic and rich basins,
boundary-less plains, and hilly areas. All these
landforms are intertwined and magnificent.
Among the 12 mountains higher than 8,000
meters in the world, seven reside in China. These
mountains mostly run in east-west and northeastsouthwest directions, which are Altai Mountains,
Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Karakoram
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eneral Review
of China
Mount Qomolangma (Everest)
Mountains, Himalaya Range, Yinshan Mountains,

Qinling Mountains, Nanling Mountains, Greater
Hinggan Mountains, Changbai Mountains, Taihang
Mountains, Wuyi Mountains, Taiwan mountain
range, and Hengduan Mountains. There are four
major plateaus in China, which are Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau, Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Loess Plateau,
and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. China has four major
basins, which are Qaidam Basin, Tarim Basin, Junggar
Basin and Sichuan Basin, and has three major plains
of the Northeast Plain, North China Plain, and the
Mid-Lower Yangtze River Plain.
China is a country with countless famous
mountains, each featuring magnificence, oddness,
smartness or elegance. Top mountains, however, are
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the Three Mountains and Five Peaks (mountain), each

offering unique sceneries and splendid views. Three
Mountains refer to Huangshan Mountain, Lushan
Mountain and Yandangshan Mountain whereas
the Five Peaks refer to Taishan Mountain, Huashan
Mountain, Hengshan Mountain, Heng Mountain and
Songshan Mountain. The four Buddhist Mountains
are Puduoshan Mountain, Wutaishan Mountain,
Jiuhuashan Mountain and Emei Mountain. Other
well-known mountains are Kunlun Mountain and
Wuyi Mountain, among others.
Resources
Population Resource
China is the most populous country in the
world. By the end of 2008, Chinas population totals
1.328 billion, accounting for one fifth of the world
population. China is also a country with the highest
population density, averagely 137 persons per square
kilometer.
A most distinct feature of population layout in
China is high density in the east, and low density in
the west. In the east coast areas, population density
is over 400 persons per square kilometer; in central
areas, the figure is 200 persons, while in the western
plateaus, the figure is less 10 persons.
Since 1980s when the reform and opening
started, Chinas urbanization has accelerated. In
2008, the urbanization ratio of Chinas population
hit 45.7%. However, in comparison with other
countries, this figure is rather low, as 54.3% of
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of China
its population still lives in rural areas. Chinas

urbanization falls not only behind most developed
countries, but many developing countries as well.
Land Resource
The absolute number of farmlands, forests and
grasslands in China rank among the highest in the
world, but the per capita average falls far below the
world average for its huge population base.
Farmlands in China total 122 million hectares,
accounting for 10.2% of the world. This figure
ranks the worlds second place, while its per capita
farmland is less than 57% of the world average.
Farmlands are concentrated in the eastern part,
such as the Northeast Plain, North China Plain,
the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, Pearl River Delta,
and Sichuan Basin. The Northeast Plain covering
350,000 square kilometers is characteristic of
fertile black soil, and is abundant with wheat, corn,
soybeans, sorghum, flax and sugar beet. The deep,
brown soil in the North China Plain is planted with
wheat, corn, millet and cotton. The Middle-Lower
Yangtze Plain features flat terrain and has many
lakes and rivers, which enable people to plant paddy
rice and breed freshwater fish. Hence it is called
the land of fish and rice. This area also produces
large quantities of tea and silkworms. The purplish
soil of the warm and humid Sichuan Basin is green
with crops in all four seasons, including paddy rice,
rapeseed and sugarcane. Its yield per unit area of
paddy rice ranks the first place in China. The Pearl
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River Delta abounds with paddy rice that is gathered

2-3 times every year, making it a Pearl in South
China Sea.
195.45 million hectares of forests in China
account for 20.36% of the world, ranking the fifth in
the world, yet the per capita forest area falls less than
one fourth of the world average. The forest coverage
nationwide hits 18.2%, 60% of the world average
(30.5%), and its forest storage volume is 11.27
billion cubic meters. Excluding that in Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan, the area of man-made forest
totals 46.667 million hectares in China, taking the
first place in the world. Most of the forests are found
in remote northeast and southwest areas. Among
these areas, the largest natural forests are located in
the Greater Hinggan Mountains, Lesser Hinggan
Mountains and Changbai Mountain ranges. Major
tree species found here include conifers, such
as Korean pine, larch and Olga Bay larch, and
broadleaf trees such as white birch, oak, Manchurian
ash, poplar tree, and elm. Major tree species in the
southwest natural forest include the dragon spruce,
fir and Yunnan pine, as well as teak, red sandalwood,
camphor, nanmu and padauk. Known as a kingdom
of plants, Xishuangbanna in the south of Yunnan
Province is a rare tropical broadleaf forest area in
China, playing host to more than 5,000 species.
Grasslands in China cover an area of 400 million
hectares, ranking the second place in the world and
stretching more than 3,000 km from the northeast
to the southwest. With the per capita grassland less
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of China
than 57% of the world average level, most of the

grasslands are located in the north and west areas.
They are the centers of animal husbandry. The
Inner Mongolian Prairie is Chinas largest natural
pastureland, and is home to the famous Sanhe cattle,
Sanhe horses and Mongolian sheep. The important
natural pasturelands in the north and south of
the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang are ideal for
stockbreeding. The famous Ili horses and Xinjiang
fine-wool sheep are raised here.
Water Resource
China has under its jurisdiction three million
square kilometers of marine area, equivalent to the
land area of 30 Zhejiang provinces. Chinas seas are
vast, in terms of geographical range, the marine area
spans latitude of about 38 degrees, and longitude of
24 degrees. Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea
and South China Sea are linked as a chain of shining
pearls. Generally speaking, the natural environment
and resources of Chinas seas are superior with plenty
of bio-species and great potential.
China is rich in rivers and lakes, and has over
1,500 rivers with river basin area over 1,000 square
kilometers. The distribution of these rivers and lakes
is uneven, with both inland drainage and exorheic
drainage areas. Rivers can be divided into exorheic
rivers and inland rivers. Drainage areas of exorheic
rivers running to the sea approximate 64% of
Chinas land area; those of inland rivers running to
either inland lakes or missing in deserts approximate
10
36% of the land area. Tarim River in southern

Xinjiang, for example, is the longest inland river in
China, stretching 2,179 kilometers. These rivers and
lakes reserve immense natural resources. Most of
major rivers in China come from the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau, so there is a big drop from the river source
to its outlet.
Yangtze River is the longest river in China,
stretching 6,403 km in length. The river originates
from the Tanggula Mountains on Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau, flowing through the whole or part of 13
provinces including Tibet. It is the third longest
river in the world next to the Nile in Africa and
the Amazon in South America. Yellow River is the
second longest river in China, which is respected
as the Mother River of China. It originates from
Qinghai, flowing through nine provinces and
autonomous regions of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu,
Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan,
and Shandong. Collecting over 40 important
tributary courses and 1,000 rivers and streams, it
runs 5,464 kilometers and all the way into the Bohai
Sea. Pearl River is the largest river system in southern
China, running 2,214 kilometers. It is referred to as
one of the seven large rivers in China, along with the
Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huai River, Hai River,
Songhua River, and Liao River.
This Grand Canal is a famous man-made
waterway in the world. Starting from Beijing in
the north, the Canal runs through Beijing, Tianjin
cities, and Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang
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eneral Review
of China
provinces to end in Hangzhou in the south. Linking

Hai River, Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze
River and Qiantang River systems, it runs 1,801
kilometers. Excavated 785 years ago, it is the oldest
and longest man-made canal in the world. It has
made immense contributions to the economic,
cultural development and exchange between
northern and southern China, especially conducive
to the rise and boom of the industry and agriculture
of the regions alongside. In addition, it plays an
important role in irrigation, flood control and
drainage as well. In the east route of South-to-North
Water Diversion project, the Canal serves as the
water transfer channel for sending Yangtze Rivers
water to the north. The Canal and the Great Wall
are called the two greatest projects in ancient China,
known worldwide.
China boasts numerous lakes, dotting like
pearls on the country. Most important five lakes
are Dongting Lake in Hunan, Poyang Lake in
Jiangxi, Tai Lake and Hongze Lake in Jiangsu, as
well as Chao Lake in Anhui. All of these freshwater
lakes are found in the middle and lower reaches
of Yangtze River. Saltwater lakes are mostly found
on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as Qinghai
Lake, Namco Lake, and Qilin Lake. On YunnanGuizhou Plateau, however, lakes are formed mainly
through stratum rupture and sinking. For example,
Lake Dian in southern suburb of Kunming City in
Yunnan province is typically such a lake. Figures
about the lake are as follows: surface height of 1,886
12
meters above sea level, 39 kilometers from north

to south, 13 kilometers from east to west, 163.2
kilometers of lakeshore, and 300 square kilometers
of space. Therefore it is called 500-li Dian Lake,
and is a state-level tourist resort.
China boasts numerous long rivers which cover
a lot of areas. However, the total water resources from
these rivers are unevenly distributed and so inadequate.
The water resource per person averages 1,785 cubic
meters, less than 1/4 of the worlds average level.
Marine Resource
As a big developing marine nation, China has
a coastline of over 18,000 kilometers under the
jurisdiction of a marine area of three million square
kilometers, an equivalent to the land area of 30
Zhejiang provinces that incorporate 6,500 islands.
Chinas seas are vast, in terms of geographical range,
the marine area spans latitude of about 38 degrees,
and longitude of 24 degrees. Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea,
East China Sea and South China Sea are linked as
a chain of shining pearls. Generally speaking, the
natural environment and resources of Chinas seas
are superior with plenty of bio-species and great
potential.
The characteristics of the sea bays in China
are as follows: Divided by Hangzhou Bay, the
area north of that bay features plain bays which
are small in number and large in size, such as the
magnificent Liaodong Bay, Bohai Bay, Laizhou Bay,
and Haizhou Bay. The area south of that bay features
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of China
bays characteristic of mountains, hills and bedrocks,

which are large in number but small in size. These
bays tend to have long and narrow coastlines, namely
Sanmen Bay, Luoyuan Bay, and Qinzhou Bay. In
general, there are 150 bays with an area of over 10
square kilometers for each.
T h e C h i n e s e g ove r n m e n t a t t a c h e s h i g h
importance to development of the marine economy,
as it encourages and supports the emerging marine
industries in parallel with steady promotion of
traditional marine industries. Since 1980s, the Chinese
government takes an active position in restructuring
its marine industry by optimizing the industry layout,
and advocating advanced science and technology. All
these efforts maintain a high momentum of marine
economy growth in recent years. The recent two
decades have witnessed the gross output of Chinas
dominant marine industries growing at 25% in yearly
average, five times than 20 years ago. At present, there
are already 90 marine natural reserves of all levels built
and maintained in China. These natural reserves serve
to protect marine ecology, such as the coastlines, river
mouths, and islands, which are valuable for research,
education and nature and history. In addition to such
rare and endangered marine animal species as Chinese
white dolphin and their habitats, these reserves also
protect typical marine ecosystems as mangroves, coral
and seaside wetlands.
Metallic Mineral Resource
China is among countries of rich metallic
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mineral resources in the world, and all of the worlds

known metallic minerals can be found here with
proven reserves. Resources with the proven reserves
ranking first in the world include tungsten, tin,
antimony, rare earth, tantalum, and titanium; those
with the proven reserves ranking second include
vanadium, molybdenum, niobium, beryllium, and
lithium; the fourth ones include zinc, while the fifth
ones include iron, lead, gold, and silver.
In China, metallic minerals are distributed
nationwide, yet relatively concentrated in a few
regions. For example, iron mines are mainly found
in the three regions of Anshan-Benxi, northern
Hebei, and Shanxi; bauxites in Shanxi, Henan,
Guizhou, and Guangxi; tungsten ores in Yunnan,
Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan provinces. Some
of the metallic minerals are highly competitive in
the world for their large reserve and high quality,
namely tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony, and
rare earth.
China depends to a great extent on its own
energy resources for economic development, having
an energy self-sufficient ratio above 90%, a figure
much higher than many developed countries. Chinas
present energy output ranks the second in the world,
and maintains a powerful infrastructure for energy
production and supply. Despite Chinas rich energy
reserves, its energy possession per capita falls far below
the world average for its huge population base.
Non-metallic Mineral Resource
As a few countries with complete reserves of
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of China
non-metallic minerals in the world, China has over

5,000 non-metallic mineral mines with proven
reserves. The majority of these mines have rich
proven reserves. For example, the proven reserves
of magnesite, black lead, blue john, French chalk,
asbestos, gypsum, barite, aedelforsite, alum stone,
bentonite, and rock salt are in front rank of the
world; those of phosphorus, kaolin clay, pyrites,
glauber salt, bergmeal, zeolite, pearlite, and cement
limestone take important positions in the world;
its rock materials of marble and granite boast high
quality and rich reserves; especially noteworthy is
Chinas resources of rare earth, which account for
41.36% of the world total and at least 71% of the
Daqing Oilfield
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world total reserves. China is the only producer on

the earth to offer all the 17 rare earth metals. Of the
92.61 million tons of rare earth mineral, at least a
half is deposited in Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia. In
comparison, however, China is relatively short of
leopoldite and boron mineral resources.
Biological Resource
Animal Resource
As a country with most of the species of the wild
animals in the world, China has rich and colorful
biological resources. Its vertebrates alone account for
11% of the world total, amounting to 4,880 species.
Among which there are 410 species of mammals,
1,180 kinds of birds, 300 kinds of reptiles, 190
kinds of amphibians, and 2,800 kinds of fish. Panda,
golden monkey, white-flag dolphin, white-lipped
deer, takin, brown eared pheasant, Yangtze alligator,
and Crested Ibis are unique animals only found in
China; red-crowned crane in the northeast, golden
pheasant in Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, blue
peacock in Tibet and Yunnan, as well as paradise
flycatcher, swan and green parrot are valuable birds;
precious species of butterflies are found in Taiwan,
Yunnan and Sichuan.
China has also scored progress in building
natural reserves, as it has built 460 natural reserves
of all levels, covering 2.4% of the territory. Among
the reserves, Changbaishan Natural Reserve in
Jilin province, Dinghushan Natural Reserve in
Guangdong province, Wolong Natural Reserve in
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Panda Natural Reserve in Wolong, Sichuan
Sichuan province, Fanjingshan Natural Reserve in

Guizhou province, Wuyishan Natural Reserve in
Fujian province, and Xilinguole Natural Reserve
in Inner Mongolia have been designated as World
Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO under its Man and
Bioshpere Program.
Plant Resource
As one of the countries with the richest botanic
resources in the world, China encompasses more
than 30,000 plant species including 2,800 arbors,
ranking the third in the world, next only to Malaysia
and Brazil. There are 13 families, 71 genus and 750
species of gymnosperms worldwide, with 11 families,
34 genus and 240 species being found in China.
The number of total softwood species in China
18
accounts for 37.8% of the same species in the world.

Almost all the important plants found in the arctic
zone, warm zone and tropical zone in the northern
hemisphere can be found in China. In addition,
China has its unique species of redwood, water pine,
sliver fir, Cunninghamia lanceolata, Pseudolarix
amabilis, Taiwania, Fokienia hodginsii, Chinese
dove tree, eucommia, and Camptotheca acuminata
tree. Maidenhair trees can be found now and then
in Beijing. In prehistory, redwoods were widespread
in East Asia, North America and Europe, but they
perished in the Quaternary ice age, leaving but their
fossils. In 1940s, China found over 1,000 redwoods
of elegant shapes in Sichuan and Hubei provinces,
a happy surprise for the world. Since then, China
donated redwoods to many countries and let them
take root in Europe and Americas.
There are eight plants in China designated as
plants under Grade 1 Protection, which are valuable
for science and business alike. These plants include
spinulose tree ferns (called dinosaurs in botanic
world), ginseng (named one of the three treasures
in the northeast), silver fir (nicknamed panda in
the botanic world), redwoods (referred to living
fossil), Taiwania flousiana and Shorea wantianshuea,
as well as the Chinese dove tree (nicknamed dove
tree), and golden tea tree (referred as tea tree
queen).
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3. Division of Administrative Regions

Division of administrative regions is for the sake
of convenience in administration of the country.
As stipulated in the Constitution of the Peoples
Republic of China, the administrative regions of the
country are as follows:
The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under
the Central Government; under the provinces and
autonomous regions are autonomous prefectures,
counties, autonomous counties and cities; under
counties and autonomous counties are townships and
minority townships and towns. Municipalities directly
under the Central Government and larger cities are
composed of districts and counties. Townships are
the most grass-roots administrative unit in China.
Autonomous regions, prefectures and counties are
autonomous areas designed for ethnic minorities
which are inseparable parts of the country. The
state may decide when necessary to establish special
administrative regions. In addition, the government
may conduct necessary adjustments and changes
to the administrative regions, for the purpose of
administration and economic development and
consolidation of unity among the ethnic groups.
At present, China has 34 province-level
administrative regions, including 23 provinces, five
autonomous regions, four municipalities directly
under the Central Government, and two special
administrative regions. In compliance with history
20
Administrative Divisions in China

Name
Short
Form
Government
Area
Seat
(10,000 sq.km.)
Beijing
Jing
Beijing
Tianjin
Jin
Tianjin
1.13
Hebei
Ji
Shijiazhuang
19.00
1.68
Shanxi
Jin
Taiyuan
15.60
Inner Mongolia
Meng
Huhhot
118.30
Liaoning
Liao
Shenyang
14.57
Jilin
Ji
Changchun
18.70
Heilongjiang
Hei
Harbin
46.90
Shanghai
Hu
Shanghai
0.62
Jiangsu
Su
Nanjing
10.26
Zhejiang
Zhe
Hangzhou
10.18
Anhui
Wan
Hefei
13.90
Fujian
Min
Fuzhou
12.00
Jiangxi
Gan
Nanchang
16.66
Shandong
Lu
Jinan
15.30
Henan
Yu
Zhengzhou
16.70
Hubei
Wuhan
18.74
Hunan
Xiang
Changsha
21.00
Guangdong
Yue
Guangzhou
18.60
Guangxi
Gui
Nanning
23.63
Hainan
Qiong
Haikou
3.40
Chongqing
Yu
Chongqing
8.20
Sichuan
Chuan
Chengdu
48.80
Guizhou
Qian
Guiyang
17.00
Yunnan
Dian
Kunming
39.40
Tibet
Zang
Lhasa
122.00
Shaanxi
Shan
Xian
20.50
Gansu
Long
Lanzhou
45.00
Qinghai
Qing
Xining
72.00
Ningxia
Ning
Yinchuan
6.64
Xinjiang
Xin
Urumuqi
160.00
Hong Kong
HK
Hong Kong
0.1092
Macao
Mac
Macao
0.00235
Taiwan
TW
Taibei
3.60
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and customs, each province-level administrative

region has an abbreviated name. The seat of
a province-level peoples government is called
provincial capital, and that of the Central Peoples
Government is the capital of the country. Beijing is
the capital of China.
Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing are 4
municipalities directly under the central government.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and
Macao Special Administrative Region are situated
by two banks of the Pearl River estuary, with Hong
Kong on the east, and Macao the west. Hong Kong
and Macao have been part of the territory of China
since ancient times. The Chinese government
resumed the exercise of sovereignty of Hong Kong
on July 1, 1997, and established the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region. On December 20,
1999, the government resumed the exercise of
sovereignty of Macao, and established the Macao
Special Administrative Region.
Taiwan Province is located in the southeast of
the Chinese mainland. It faces the Pacific to the east,
and neighbors on Fujian Province across the Taiwan
Strait. Inclusive of Taiwan Island itself, adjacent
islands, and Penghu Islands, the total area of Taiwan
is 36,000 square kilometers. Taiwan is part of China.
In an effort to solve the Taiwan problem and achieve
national reunification, the Chinese Communist
Party and Government have made persistent and
unswerving efforts. President Hu Jintao, General
Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made four
22
comments on the cross-strait relationship in the new

situation: We will never waver in our commitment
to the One-China principle, never abandon our
efforts to achieve peaceful reunification, never
change the policy of placing our hopes on the people
in Taiwan and never compromise in our opposition
to the secessionist activities aimed at Taiwan
independence.
4. 56 Ethnic Groups
Chinas Ethnic Policies
China is a unified, multi-national country,
with 56 ethnic groups as recognized by the Central
Government. Among the 56 officially recognized
ethnic groups, people of Han Nationality accounts
for 91.59% of the total population and the rest 55
ethnic groups are generally referred to as minorities.
All the ethnic groups are uniformly called the
Chinese nation. China is a unified nation with 56
ethnic minorities living peacefully together like in a
big family.
Chinas ethnic minority policies stipulate that all
ethnic groups should be united as equal, help each
other and prosper together. Autonomy is encouraged.
Cadres from the ethnic groups will receive proper
trainings. Help is needed to promote economic and
cultural development of the ethnic minorities. Their
customs religious believes should be respected. A lax
population policy shall be adopted.
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MAP OF THE PEOPLEs REPUBLIC OF CHINA
24
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Population and Distribution of the

Ethnic Groups
The Han people can be found all over the
country, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of
the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Pearl River, and
the Northeast China Plain. In spite of the smaller
population size of the 55 minorities, they are found
in extensive areas which account for 64.3% of the
total national area, mostly in Northeast, North,
Northwest, and Southwest border areas of China.
As discovered in the fifth national population
census in 2000, the 56 ethnic groups are as follows
in a descending order of their population: Han,
Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Uyghur, Miao, Yi,
Zhuang, Bouyei, Korean, Manchu, Dong, Yao, Bai,
56 Ethnic Groups in China
26
Tujia, Hani, Kazak, Dai, Li, Lisu, Wa, She, Gaoshan,

Lahu, Shui, Dongxiang, Naxi, Jingpo, Kirgiz, Tu,
Daur, Mulam, Qiang, Blang, Salar, Maonan, Gelao,
Xibe, Achang, Pumi, Tajik, Nu, Ozbek, Russian,
Ewenki, Deang, Bonan, Yugur, Jing, Tatar, Drung,
Oroqen, Hezhen, Monba, Lhoba, and Jino.
Diverse Cultures of the Ethnic
Minorities
Languages and Religions
Han ethnic group has its own language and
characters. Chinese language is the official language
in China, and one of the common languages in the
world. In the 55 ethnic minorities, Chinese language
prevails in Hui and Manchu ethnic groups, while
the rest 53 use their own languages; 22 of them have
their own characters, totaling 28 sets of characters.
Schools mostly oriented to ethnic minorities use
textbooks in their own characters and teach in their
own languages. In the meantime, these schools also
provide courses in Chinese language, promoting
Putonghua and standard Chinese characters which
are commonly used nationwide.
All the 55 ethnic minorities have their own
writers and authors of great fame. Some of the ethnic
minorities with less population have bid farewell
to the history of no written literature and writers.
The first generation of literary writers from ethnic
minorities is already known in the Chinese literature
community, making immense contributions to a more
prosperous diversification of the Chinese culture.
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At present, China has collected over one million

kinds of ancient books from ethnic minorities, with
5,000 of them published; China has published five
series of books including Brief Records of Ethnic
Minority and comprising over 400 kinds of books,
covering all aspects of ethic minorities; the State has
studied, translated and published the three heroic
epics, including Tibetan Epic Gesar, Mongolian
epic Jianggar, and Kirgiz epic Manas; China has
also made special grant for publishing Tripitaka,
the traditional Tibetology encyclopedia, while the
famous work Kutadgu Bilig(Wisdom of Fortune and
Joy) which had almost been missing was published
in Uygur language in 1984.
The indigenous religion in China is Taoism.
Also worshipped in China are such religions as
Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity, as
well as Shamanism, Eastern Orthodox and the Naxi
peoples Dongba religion. Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz,
Tatar, Ozbek, Tajik, Dongxiang, Salar and Bonan
ethnic minorities adhere to Islam; the Tibetan,
Mongolian, Lhoba, Monba, Tu and Yugur believe
in Tibetan Buddhism (also known as Lamaism);
and the Dai, Blang and Deang adhere to Hinayana
Buddhism; Large numbers of people from Miao, Yao
and Yi are Catholics or Christians; Religious Han
Chinese tend to believe in Buddhism, Christianity,
Catholicism or Taoism.
As the fundamental elements of the intangible
cultural heritage, cultures of ethnic minorities are
the priorities in the preservation and development
28
of Chinese culture in recent years. All the 55 ethnic

minorities have their heritages included in the statelevel list of intangible cultural heritage protection.
For example, Mongols Changdiao Folk Singing and
Uygurs Twelve Muqam have been elected by the
United Nations into the World Intangible Cultural
Heritage for Protection. In national autonomy
areas, the state has designated 366 national cultural
heritage conservation units. As stipulated in
Regulations on Implementing the Law of Regional
Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities of the State Council,
the art festival for ethnic minorities is held every five
years, an effective measure to conserve and develop
the Chinese culture.
Clothes and Food
The clothes and food of the ethnic minorities
in China are diversified and colorful in terms of
their materials, color, style and way of matching.
Diversification features the culture of ethnic
minorities dress and accessories. Their dress &
accessories may find origins from their history,
culture, and the environment in which they work
and live. For example, ethnic minorities living in
plateau pastures and engaged in animal husbandry,
such as Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tajik,
Yugur and Tu, find their clothing mostly made
from animal furs. Coats or gowns trimmed with
precious animal furs used by Tibetans are graceful
and warm; Kupu used by Kazaks is a wide coat
stuffed with camel hair and has big sleeves, making
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the coat light and warm; Mongols dress themselves

in long and big coats with high collar, long sleeves
and fur-trimming, and they like to wear belts of
bright colors and leather boots to fit their needs for
riding a horse to herd their livestock. In southern
China, ethnic minorities there are good at growing
hemp and cotton, with which they make burlaps
and native clothes for dresses. The textile is delicate
and pretty with figures and patterns. As the climate
is hot and humid, their dresses tend to be short, thin
and light, with needlework ornaments and jewelry
or other accessories for womens clothing. For
example, collars of womens clothing of Yao are often
trimmed with elegant wide laces, ornamented with
beads decorated by red pompons and red decorative
ears as well as metal chest flowers. These ornaments
join both traditional and modern beauty in a perfect
harmony; women of Lhoba, Dai, Wa, and Deang
love to use pretty silver ornaments on their waist.
Women of Gaoshan and Li wear silver ornaments on
their feet; young men of Miao in Guizhou love the
hats decorated with pheasant hair, when they dance
Lusheng in festivals. Men of Jingpo and Bai ethnic
groups love to wear white scarves on their head, with
ornaments of red pompons on one side of the scarf.
Ethnic minorities in China have developed
their unique ways of eating and drinking in their
long-term production and living. As Hezhens live
by rivers on Sanjiang Plain and make a living by
fishing and hunting, they feed on fresh and salt
fish, dried fish and fish roe as well as the fresh and
30
dried animal meat; Kazaks live mostly in Xinjiang

as nomads in grasslands. They live on beef, mutton,
rice, flour and milk products, and drink horse milk
wine and milk tea. Dai ethnic group mostly dwelling
in southwest Yunnan Province is among the earliest
ethnic groups to grow rice, as agriculture and rice
growing find a dominant place in their economy.
Dai people therefore make rice their main diet, and
prefer steamed rice and bamboo rice. Lisu ethnic
group is mostly found in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous
Prefecture in Yunnan. As they mainly grow corn and
buckwheat, they normally eat two meals of corn
porridges each day. Jing ethnic group lives at seaside,
and love seafood of fish and shrimp as a result. Gelao
ethnic group dwelling in Guizhou, Yunnan and
Guangxi provinces makes a living by agriculture,
growing rice, corn, potatoes, tea, vegetables and
fruits. Therefore they makes rice and corn the main
food, alongside other grains, potatoes, and sour and
spicy appetizers as well. As Gelao people are good at
brewing, the famous Moutai liquor was developed
based on the ancient Ke Wine.
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Political and
Administrative
Systems
Chinas political system refers to the laws, systems,
regulations and customs applied on Chinas mainland to
regulate the fundamental issues including state power,
government system, and state-society relationship, since
the founding of the Peoples Republic of China on
October 1, 1949.
Chinas administrative system refers to all the
regulations and customs regarding the formation,
system, powers, and ways of operation of the
administrative departments of the state.
The state institutions of the Peoples Republic of
China include National Peoples Congress, President
of the republic, the State Council, the Military
Commission of the republic, the regional Peoples
Congress and their governments, Autonomous
institutions, Peoples Courts and Procuratorates .
32
1. Political System
The National Peoples Congress
The Peoples Congress system is a fundamental
political system in China.
According to Chinese constitution, The
National Peoples Congress is the highest executive
institution with the biggest power in China. The
Congress is managed by its Standing Committee.
The peoples congress system is a comprehensively
representative system, and a fundamental form
for people to rule the country. Principles for the
democratic centralism are implemented to guarantee
peoples democracy and rights, and ensure the
concentrated and unified exercise of state powers.
Under the premise that the peoples congress
exercises state powers in general, clear-cut divisions
of the executive, judicial, procuratorial powers, and
leadership of the armed forces make the coordination
Tian An men, the Gate of Heaven has become

a symbol of New China since its founding
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and cooperation among state power departments and

other state departments as executive, judiciary, and
procuratorate possible.
The National Peoples Congress is the highest
state power of China, and the highest legislature of
the country. Deputies to the congress are elected based
on a general election, from provinces, autonomous
regions, and municipalities directly under the Central
Government, special administrative regions and PLA.
Composition of the deputies is highly representative,
as they come from all walks of the society, various
localities, ethnic groups, classes and statuses.
Deputies to the peoples congresses at all levels
are elected in democratic elections. As stipulated in
the Constitution, all citizens of the Peoples Republic
of China aged 18 or above, irrespective of ethnic
status, race, sex, occupation, family background,
religious belief, education, property status or length
of residence, have the right to vote and the right to
be elected, except for those who have been deprived
of political rights according to the law. China
selected an election system applicable to its specific
conditions, i.e., direct election for deputies to the
peoples congress of the county level and below, and
indirect election for those above the country level.
This system enables the people to choose deputies
they know and trust. Based on experiences gained
in years, the election practice is further improved as
to use competitive election in place of the previous
single-candidate election.
The National Peoples Congress and its Standing
Committee shall exercise state legislative power. The
34
National Peoples Congress exercises the following

functions and powers: to amend the Constitution
and to supervise its enforcement; to enact and amend
basic laws governing criminal offences, civil affairs,
the state departments and other matters; to examine
and approve the plan for national economic and social
development and the report on its implementation,
and to examine and approve the state budget and the
report on its implementation; to elect the President and
the Vice President of the Peoples Republic of China,
the Chairman of the Central Military Commission,
the President of the Supreme Peoples Court, as well
as the Procurator-General of the Supreme Peoples
Procuratorate; and to choose the Premier of the State
Council upon nomination by the President of China.
The current President of the Peoples Republic
of China is Hu Jintao, and the Vice President is Xi
Jinping.
The permanent body of the National Peoples
Congress is the Standing Committee. The National
Peoples Congress is elected for a term of five years,
and a meeting is held every year. When it is not
in session, its Standing Committee will exercise
state power. The current Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the National Peoples Congress is Wu
Bangguo.
Multi-party Cooperation and Political
Consultation System under the Leadership
of the Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party is the only
ruling Party in China. The Chinese Communist
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Party is the vanguard of the Chinese working class,

and that of the Chinese people and Chinese nation,
as well as the core of leadership for the socialism
with Chinese characteristics. It represents the
development trend of Chinas advanced productive
forces, the orientation of Chinas advanced culture,
and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming
majority of the Chinese people. There are already
77.995 million Party members (as of 2009).
The Partys political and organizational principle
is the democratic centralism.
The central organizational framework of the
Chinese Communist Party consists of the National
Congress, the Central Committee, the Political
Bureau of the Central Committee, and the Standing
Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central
Committee, the Secretariat of the Central Committee,
the Central Military Commission, and the Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection. The National
Congress of the Party is held every five years.
The Central Committee is the highest leading
organ of the Chinese Communist Party. The leading
organ of the Central Committee is the Political
Bureau, Standing Committee of the Political Bureau,
and General Secretary of the Central Committee.
Hu Jintao is the current General Secretary of the
Central Committee and the Chairman of the Central
Military Commission.
The multi-party cooperation and political
consultation system under the leadership of the
Chinese Communist Party is a fundamental system
36
to safeguard peoples democracy. It is designed to

guarantee that all social levels, peoples associations,
and patriots from all walks of the society can express
their views and play their role in the political and
social life of the country.
In addition to the ruling Chinese Communist
Party, there are also eight parties referred to as
the democratic parties, which are Revolutionary
Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, China
Democratic League, China Democratic National
Construction Association, China Association for
Promoting Democracy, Chinese Peasants and
Workers Democratic Party, China Zhi Gong Party
(Party for Public Interest), Jiu San (September 3)
Society, and Taiwan Democratic Self-Government
League. These eight democratic parties are not
ruling parties or opposition parties. They are friendly
parties and political participating parties jointly
engaged in the socialist cause. Their relations with
the Chinese Communist Party are long-term
coexistence, mutual supervision, sincere treatment
with each other and the sharing of weal or woe.
Political consultation is a key to this multi-party
cooperation system. The Chinese Peoples Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is an important
organization in this multi-party cooperation and
political consultation system under the leadership
of the Chinese Communist Party. CPPCC plays an
important role in developing socialist democracy in
the political life in China. In CPPCC, democratic
parties may express their views on major national or
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local matters and multi-party cooperation and work

in political consultation. They may also supervise the
Communist Party to promote the ruling capability
of the Communist Party and self-development
of themselves. CPPCC functions as a vital carrier
and a channel for consultative democracy. The
parties, associations, and individuals from various
ethnic groups and circles may participate in the
administration and discussion of state affairs at the
meeting and activities run by CPPCC. This is a way
to expand democracy among people and realize that
people master their own country.
CPPCC consists of a National Committee
and local committees. The National Committee
of CPPCC consists of delegates from the Chinese
Communist Party, democratic parties, non-party
individuals, peoples organizations, ethnic groups
and all circles of the society, and those on behalf of
HKSAR, Macao SAR, Taiwan compatriots, returned
overseas Chinese, and individuals of special invitation.
The current Chairman of CPPCC is Jia Qinglin.
Building a harmonious inter-party relationship is
a key aspect to enhance the multi-party cooperation
and political consultation system in the new era. The
profound changes experienced by China currently
are promoting political development in the country.
From the perspective of political development in
present China, it is important to observe the role of
inter-party harmony in Chinas social development,
and explore the way to achieve inter-party harmony
both theoretically and practically.
38
Regional Autonomy for Ethnic

Minorities
China carries out a system of regional autonomy
for ethnic minorities. That is, under the unified
leadership of the state, corresponding autonomous
institutions should be established with the minorities
taking charge of their own local affairs at their own
land. The regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is
a fundamental political system of the country.
Law of the Peoples Republic of China on
Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities is the
basic law safeguarding the practice of the regional
autonomy system for ethnic minorities. The Central
Government provides effective support to regional
autonomy regions financially and materially,
encouraging the development of local economy and
culture. The state also endeavors to train officials
and technical professionals of the minorities by
establishing regular institutions of higher education,
university (college) for nationalities, and schools for
ethnic groups.
China has five autonomous regions, which are
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region, Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous
Region, and Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as 30
autonomous prefectures, 120 autonomous counties,
and over 1100 ethnic townships. The autonomy
departments in the regional autonomy areas are
the peoples congress and peoples government of
the autonomous regions, prefectures and counties.
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The Chairman or Vice Chairman of the Standing

Committee of the Peoples Congress in these areas,
as well as the Chairman of the autonomous regions,
governor of the autonomous prefectures and
counties will be elected from the ethnic group of
regional autonomy.
The autonomous organ can not only exercise the
same powers as other local state departments of the
same ranking, but also enjoy extensive autonomous
rights. These rights include enacting autonomous
regulations and specific regulations in view of the
political, economic and cultural features of the
local ethnic groups; autonomously deploying the
financial revenue of the regional autonomy areas;
autonomously arranging and managing the local
economic development, education, science, culture,
health, and sports; protecting and organizing the
cultural legacy of the ethnic group, and developing
ethnic culture to achieve prosperity.
Community Level Self-governance
In the political report at the 17th Party Congress
of the Chinese Communist Party, community level
self-governance is included into the political system
of Chinese feature for the first time. The system of
community level self-governance aims at developing
democracy at the grass-root level, and ensuring that
the people enjoy more practical democratic rights;
the people exercise their democratic rights according
to law, and manage grass-root public affairs and
public-interest institutions. This system features
self-governance, self-service, self-education, self40
supervision, and democratic supervision on the

officials. It not only helps to perfect the socialist
national political system, but also promotes the
development of socialist democratic politics. This is
a new development of the national political system
with Chinese characteristics.
Specific practice of the system is as follows:
Building and perfecting the energetic grass-root
self-governance mechanism under the leadership of
Party, expanding the coverage of community level
self-governance, and improving the democratic
administration system. The aim is to build
harmonious communities with effective management,
complete service and civic virtue. At present, many
rural areas have established such self-governance
organizations, for example the villagers committees;
in enterprises and public institutions, the workers
congress has been built and perfected for the staff to
exercise their democratic rights in management; and
in urban communities, the residents committees, the
community-based self-governance organizations, have
been established and developed. These systems are
important parts in the political system of the socialist
country. People can enjoy the rights of self-governance
and running their own affairs.
2. Administrative System
Position and Power of the State
Council
The central administrative organ is the State
Council of the Peoples Republic of China, i.e., the
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Central Peoples Government. It is the executive

body for the highest organ of state power, and the
highest state administrative organ.
The State Council exercises the following
functions and powers: To lay down administrative
measures, enact administrative rules and regulations
and issue decisions and orders in accordance
with the Constitution and the law; lead the state
administrative departments at all levels in the
localities; compile and execute the national economy
and social development plans and national budget,
lead and manage economic work, urban and rural
development, education, science, culture, health,
sports, family planning, civil affairs, public security,
judiciary administration, supervision, and national
defense development; administrate foreign affairs,
and conclude treaties and agreements with foreign
countries; appoint and dismiss, train, assess, reward
and punish administration staff according to law.
The State Council is accountable and reports on
its work to the National Peoples Congress and its
Standing Committee.
Organizational Structure of the State
Council and the Responsibilities of the
Premier
Departments under the State Council are as
follows:
Departments responsible for macro-control
include the National Development and Reform
Commission, Ministry of Finance, and Peoples
Bank of China;
42
Administrative departments of the specialized

economy sectors include the Ministry of Railways,
Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of
Commerce, Ministry of Information Industry, and
Commission of Science, Technology and Industry
for National Defense;
Departments for social security include the
Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Ministry of
Personnel, and National Population and Family
Planning Commission;
Resources management department is the
Ministry of Land and Resources;
Departments for foreign affairs, internal affairs
and security include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Ministry of Civil
Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public
Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of
National Defense, Ministry of Supervision and
National Audit Office;
Administrative departments for education,
science, culture and health include the Ministry of
Education, Ministry of Science and Technology,
Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Health.
The routine affairs office of the State Council is
the General Office of the State Council, taking care
of its day-to-day matters.
The State Council is composed of the Premier,
Vice Premiers, State Councilors, Ministers of the
ministries, chairmen of the committees, auditorgeneral, and secretary-general.
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of China
The premier responsibility system is adopted in

the State Council. In the ministries and committees, it
is the minister or chairman responsibility system. For
local governments at all levels, it is the responsibility
system for governor of the province, chairman of
the autonomous region, mayor, prefecture chief,
county governor, district chief, and township chief
respectively. The current Premier of the State Council
is Wen Jiabao.
3. Rights and Obligations of the Citizens

China is a democratic country governed by rules
of law, with every citizens rights protected by the
Constitution.
Rights entitled by citizens in Chinas political
life as stipulated in the Constitution of the Peoples
Republic of China are as follows: Every citizen is
equal before the law; all citizens who have reached
the age of 18 have the right to vote and be elected;
all citizens enjoy the rights of expression; freedom
of religious belief; inviolability of their personal
freedom; freedom of correspondence; freedom of
criticism and suggestion; right to state compensation;
right to work, right of welfare, right to education,
academic freedom and creation liberty, as well as the
equal rights between men and women.
Obligations of citizens in Chinas political life as
stipulated in the Constitution of the Peoples Republic
of China are as follows: Citizens are obligated to
protect the unification of the country and maintain
44
the unity among ethnic groups in China; citizens

must abide by the Constitution and laws, keep state
secrete, take good care of public property, observe
labor disciplines and public order, and respect social
virtue; citizens are obligated to protect national
security, honor and interest; It is the sacred duty of
every citizen to defend the motherland and resist
aggression; it is the honorable duty of citizens to
perform military service and join the militiaman in
accordance with the law; it is the obligation of the
citizens to pay tax according to the law.
In addition to the aforementioned five obligations, citizens have the duty to work as well as the
right to receive education; both husband and wife
have the duty to carry out family planning policy;
and children who have come of age have the duty to
support and assist their parents.
In April, 2004, the provision The State Respects
and Guarantees Human Right was included into
the Chinese Constitution for the first time. China
has formed its own perspectives on human rights
and formulated appropriate laws and policies,
based on its history and specific conditions as well
as experiences on years of practice. As stipulated in
the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China,
all power belongs to the people. Human rights in
China have three typical characteristics: First, it is
comprehensive. Subjects entitled to human rights are
all of the Chinese citizens, instead of a minority or
part of some classes and statuses. The human rights
entitled by Chinese citizens are comprehensive, as
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they cover not only the right of survival, personal

and political rights, but also economic, cultural
and social rights. The State not only focuses on
protection of individual human rights, but also those
of collectives. Second, it is fair. China implements
the socialist system, in which the exploitation
system and exploiting class are eliminated, and
civil rights are given to all the citizens, regardless of
their money, property status, as well as ethnic, race,
gender, occupation, family background, religious
belief, education and length of residence. Third,
it is authentic. The State guarantees the human
rights systematically, legally and materially. Citizens
rights as stipulated in the Constitution and laws are
consistent with those enjoyed by the citizens in their
real life. The human rights legislation and policies of
China are advocated and supported by all walks of
people, all the parties, and social organizations.
As a developing country, China also experienced
setbacks in its practice to protect and develop human
rights. In spite of its immense achievements in
protection and promotion of human rights, there
still remains plenty of room for improvement. It
is still a historic mission for the Chinese people
and government to develop and realize complete
human rights as required by socialism with Chinese
characteristics for a long time.
46
Reform, Opening
up and Economic
Development
Since the establishment of the republic in 1949,
particularly since 1978 when the country adopted
open-up policies, China has made tremendous
economic achievements. The reform and opening-up
have powerfully emancipated the productive forces,
propelling the national economy to increase at an
average annual growth rate of 10% for 30 years, and
10.6% in the recent five years. At this pace, China
has become the second largest economy in the world.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics is full of vigor and
vitality in this oriental nation, which makes the ancient
country more energetic and powerful. This proves the
fact that the reform and opening-up are the only way
toward the great resurgence of the Chinese nation.
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1. Reform and Opening up

Domestic Reform
Establishment and Perfection of the
Socialist Market Economic System
Economic reform is one of the most important
part in Chinas reform and opening-up efforts which
primarily centered on such areas as diversifying public
ownership, developing other types of ownerships,
establishing a modern enterprise system to meet the
needs of market economy, establishing a unified and
open market system nationwide, linking the domestic
market with international one, promoting optimal
allocation of resources, transforming the government
role in economy management, building a wellfunctioning macro-control system, providing social
security system for rural and urban citizens, which
fits the actual conditions in China, so as to realize
economic development and social stability.
Chinas socialist market economy is closely linked
to the socialist public ownership, leadership of the
communist party and pursuit of common prosperity,
which is totally different from the capitalist market
economy based on private ownership. Such an
economy has the following features: Economically,
it is a market economy with the public ownership
remaining dominant and coexistent with diverse
economic sectors such as private business developing
side by side; Politically, this economy is under the
leadership of the communist party and strongly
regulated by the central government; this economy is
48
Reform, Opening up and Economic Development
Production Line of the Electronic Products
designed to achieve common prosperity among all the

Chinese people. The essential feature of this economy,
however, is the integration of the fundamental socialist
political system with the socialist market economy.
From 1992 to the end of the 20 th century,
this economy took shape in general, as its role in
resources configuration becoming more important
and the macro-control system more efficient, a
pattern is formed with the public ownership as the
mainstay and non-public sectors such as individuals
and private sectors coexisting and developing
together. The economic growth evolved from the
extensive model to an intensive one. If all goes
well as planned, China will be able to establish an
improved socialist market economy by the year
2010, and a highly matured one by 2020.
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Fundamental Economic System at

the Primary Stage of Socialism
The socialist market economy system refers to
the fundamental socialist economic system, in which
public ownership plays the leading role and diverse
ownership forms develop together. The current public
ownership of the state and collective economies,
the private ownership including individual, private,
and foreign investment economy in China are
already different from the previous ones as people
thought they are. The contents and forms have been
tremendously changed.
State-owned enterprises have undergone reforms
on the ownership of stocks and established modern
corporate system, under which layout and structure
of the state-owned economy are optimized, making
it more dynamic, powerful and influential.
A large portion of state-owned economy has
grown into a mixed ownership economy with the
State taking control; the majority of rural and
township collective enterprises have been changed into
private enterprises or joint-stock enterprises; medium
and large private enterprises have mostly grown
into private limited companies and limited liability
companies, forming a mixed ownership economy;
emerging economic and social organizations constitute
the new social economy and public economy. China
has formulated principles, policies and laws for
reforming the state and collective-owned economic
entities while developing non-public economy. The
laws and policies for the equal competitions among
50
the non-public enterprises have been passed and

implemented.
At present, non-public economy has grown into
the largest community of enterprises in China. It
weighs over a half of the GDP, about two third of the
nations GDP growth, creating over 70% of the urban
and rural employment. The system and policy have
been continuously improved, which fundamentally
changed the system itself and the social environment
for non-public economy. This change stimulates nonpublic economy, encourages millions of people to
become self-employed, and provides immense room
of investment for private capital.
Fundamental Income Distribution
System at the Primary Stage of Socialism
The income distribution system at the primary
stage of socialism emphasizes on distribution
according to work, and coexistence of diversified
modes of distribution. Combining distribution
according to work with one according to production
factors, we should give priority to efficiency with due
consideration to fairness.
The principle that labor, capital, technology
and management and other production factors
participate in the income distribution in accordance
with their respective contributions, is a brand new
system under the socialist market economy in
China. At the primary stage of socialism, the basic
economic system, presence of commodity economy,
efficient operation of the market mechanism, and
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eneral Review
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leap-forward development through a new way to

industrialization make this distribution essential.
These two distributions are harmonious and unified
in the socialist market economy.
The system at this stage helps to realize the
strategic planning of allowing some regions and
some people prosper first, letting others to follow
suit and gradually prosper as well. as proposed
by Deng Xiaoping, the Chief Designer of Chinas
reform and opening-up policies.
The turn of the century found China at the
stage to better the socialist market economy, with
further reforms in income distribution system, and
an increase in income of urban and rural citizens.
The reasonable distribution system is a key to
social justice. On the basis of economic growth,
further focus is placed on social justice with the
national income distribution pattern adjusted and
further regulated. These efforts will enable all the
people to enjoy the fruits of reform, the openingup and socialist modernization. While upholding
and improving the distribution system in which
distribution according to work is dominant and a
variety of modes of distribution coexist, efficiency
and justice are emphasized on initial distribution
and secondary distribution, especially one for the
secondary distribution. Residents income will take
a greater share in the national income distribution
gradually, so does the work reward ratio in the
initial distribution. The income of the low-income
earners will see a substantial increase as evidenced
52
in the maintenance of higher standards for poverty

alleviation, minimum pay and mechanism for
normal growth of enterprise staffs salary. A system
that guarantees payment will be established. More
people will be able to possess property income.
Legitimate income should be protected, excessively
high income be regulated, and illegitimate income be
confiscated. Transfer payment should be expanded,
taxation regulation be intensified, monopoly in
certain sectors be broken, fair opportunities be
created, distribution order be rectified, and the gap
in income distribution be narrowed down gradually.
Opening up
Building an Open Economy
In the late 1970s, the CPC and Chinese
government came up with the open policy, leading
the entire nation for a wider opening to the rest
of the world. From the coastal areas to hinterland,
from the east to the west, China has shaped an alldimensional, multi-tiered and wide-ranged opening
pattern. It has achieved huge success, setting up a
successful model for an open economy in the world.
Building an open economy by opening up infuses
new energy and vigor into the economy and society
and accelerates modernization so as to form an open
development mode with Chinese characteristics. In
view of Chinas specific conditions and international
experiences, China has taken a strategy of openingup in a progressive way in the open areas, namely
from dots (special economic zones) to lines (coastal
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areas), and from lines to planes (inland areas); in

respect of the fields to open, cargo trade precedes
service trade, followed by manufacturing industry,
gradually expanded till totally opened up, with the
market rules gradually conforming to multilateral
trading system and international practices.
All-dimensional Opening-up at a
Greater Width and Depth
Opening to the outside world in all
directions
Having opened to the rest of the world from
late 1980s to early 1990s, China staged a strategy
of a diversified market. In line with the multi-polar
trend in world economy and politics, it forms an
opening-up pattern to the rest of the world, new to
a number of countries. Thanks to years of endeavor,
this diversification strategy proves successful as
evidenced in growing number of trading partners in
220 countries and regions in the world.
The Chinese government attaches great
importance to bilateral economic and trade
communication and exchange with other countries
and regions in the world. As of present, it has
established joint economic and trade committee
mechanism with over 140 countries and regions for
regular meetings and comprehensive discussions on
bilateral ties to ease conflicts and promote health
development of economic and trade relations. China
has established dialogue mechanisms with EU, USA,
Japan and so on, and plays an active role in the
54
regional organizations such as APEC and SCO. It

undertakes obligations and plays a constructive role
in WTO and other multilateral world organizations
as well. This proves that China is a comprehensive
player in the world economy.
Wider Opening-up
Opening-up is focused on yet not confined to
economic affairs. It also involves politics, culture
and social matters as well. Regarding the favorable
changes in world economic and political situation,
Chinas opening-up not only expands its commodity
trading, but also permits foreign businessmen to
engage in investment of enterprises and processing
trade. This expands the existing foreign economic
and trade exchanges from trade only to investment
and production.
In-depth Opening-up
The opening up and preferential policies first
adopted in special economic zones and coastal open
cities are gradually spread to vast inland provinces,
geographically one step further. Chinas admittance
into WTO accelerates the opening-up and as a
result unveiled a new era. China concluded with
ten ASEAN countries on founding the free-trade
zone in a decade, and started the Early Harvest
Program. This program stipulates decreased or even
zero tariffs, and reduces the number of non-tariff
measures, expediting the trade liberalization with the
degree beyond the WTO multilateral trade system.
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All the FTAs that China signed by now, such as the

Early Harvest Programs under China-Chile Free
Trade Zone and China-Pakistan Free Trade Zone,
are embodiments of in-depth opening-up, showing
a higher degree of opening-up in the world today.
China is seeking cooperation with more countries
and regions on wider ranges and deeper level for
mutual benefit and win-win growth.
Efficient Use of Foreign Investment
Efficient use of foreign investment makes an
important component in Chinas reform and open
policy, and is a key to this opening-up as well. To
attract and use foreign investment, the government
has enacted laws and regulations, paving the way
for building a friendly environment for foreign
investment.
Foreign investment in China is made normally
in the form of direct investment. Most popular
direct investment forms include Sino-foreign equity
joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative joint
ventures, sole foreign-owned enterprises, limited
companies with foreign investment, and cooperative
development. Other forms include compensation
trade, and processing and assembling business.
Direct investment takes the lions share of foreign
investment in China. Since 1993, China has been
maintaining its top position as the largest developing
country with regard to foreign investment inflow
in the world, with its size topping all developing
countries for years. Since 2002, it ranked top three in
56
the world. By the end of 2008, US $855.41 billion

dollars of foreign investment were used. Over 480
of the World 500 multinationals have invested in
China. Over 30 of them have their headquarters and
700 of them their R&D centers relocated to China.
As of 2009, 23,435 foreign enterprises have been
approved for establishment with total contracted
investment volume up to USD$193.51 billion, of
which USD$ 90 billion FDI. In addition to the
foreign aids from international financial institutions
and foreign governments, China also gets loans
from international financial organizations, foreign
governments and commercial banks, and financing
on the world market from the listed companies.
More and more channels are called into full play for
using foreign investment.
Ways to Attract More Foreign Investment
The first way is to permit qualified domestic
enterprises to go public on the overseas markets. The
government encourages such listings, in an effort
to broaden channels of financing and participate in
international competitions. It was calculated that by
the end of 2009, 159 domestic enterprises were listed
overseas, raising a total sum of 114.653 billion dollars.
The second way is to proactively implement
the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII)
and Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor
(QDII) systems. At present, the investment quota
for QFII has been lifted to US $30 billion dollars.
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eneral Review
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54 foreign institutions are granted QFII status, and

their investment quota approximates 10.5 billion US
dollars, while 5 foreign banks are permitted for QFII
trust business in China.
The third one is to open securities business
within the WTO framework. By the end of 2009,
China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)
has approved seven Sino-foreign joint venture
securities companies and 35 Sino-foreign joint
venture fund management companies. Notably, the
share rights of foreign parties have reached 49% in
15 fund management companies.
The fourth one is to improve merger policies
for foreign investment. In 2006, the Regulations
o n Fo re i g n In ve s t o r s Me r g i n g a n d Ac q u i r i n g
Domestic Enterprises was promulgated, a move that
significantly improved the policies and environment
for foreign investors in China. By the end of 2007,
foreign investors had acquired shares of 21,800
enterprises within the Chinese border, accounting
for 7.6% of the total foreign investment enterprises.
Namely, foreign investors purchased the share
rights of the Chinese investors in 19,400 foreign
investment enterprises, and share rights of 2,373
domestic investment enterprises; the registered
capital of the enterprises merged amounts to
134.3 billion US dollars, accounting for 11.6%
of the registered capital of the foreign investment
enterprises.
58
The industrial structure of foreign

investment in China is gradually optimized.
China has amended relevant policies, and
enacted the new Enterprise Income Tax Law, and
issued the Catalogue of Foreign Investment Industry
Guidance, which called for a super national treatment
for foreign investment enterprises, further opened
the service industry and restricted foreign investment
projects of low level, high consumption and heavy
pollution. In the meantime, these enterprises are
encouraged to play active roles in innovation.
Regional layout of foreign investment is optimized;
and new ways to use foreign investment are called
into play; proactive and steady steps are taken to
expand the opening-up in such services as finance,
insurance and telecom for foreign investment.
Focuses of foreign investment have evolved
from manufacturing to high-tech industry, basic
industry, and infrastructure development. Especially
in recent years, high-tech projects invested by
foreign investors in R&D centers, integrated
circuits, computer, and communication products
are increasing. With opening-up of service trade,
such services as commerce, foreign trade, telecom,
finance, insurance, and real estate are very hot in the
new round of foreign investment.
Qualitative changes have occurred to the
internal and external environments of foreign
investment utilization, as the existing ways are falling
behind demand of the time. Therefore, the Chinese
government has proposed innovative ideas such as
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trying to attract foreign investment of higher quality,

guiding overseas merger and acquisition to optimize
industrial structure, and relaxing industry limits for
foreign investment into the central and west regions
in China, improving the environment for merger
and acquisition, and establishing legal system;
optimizing the software and hardware conditions,
making great efforts in intellectual property
protection, supporting foreign R&D institutions
to work with Chinese enterprises and science
institutions and universities, developing technology
sharing, joint research and talent exchange,
encouraging MNCs to set up outsourcing enterprises
in China to undertake outsourcing jobs of their own
and other enterprises, elevating the competitiveness
of China to compete for international service
outsourcing; effective using overseas capital market,
encouraging qualified overseas institutions to hold
shares of domestic securities companies and fund
management companies, and enlarging qualified
overseas institutional investors.
The Going Global Strategy
The government initiated the Go Global
strategy in 1998, which marked a turning point
for wider opening-up and a key move in building a
more open economy.
Key elements of the strategy include encouragement and support for relatively competitive enterprises
of all ownerships to step out of China and engage in
international economic and technical cooperation
60
and business operations; promoting export of goods

and labor services by means of overseas investment
and foreign project-contracting and labor service
cooperation; fully using domestic and overseas
markets and resources to develop the economy, and
building a number of Chinese MNCs and renowned
brands overseas. Go Global is an optimized
combination of capital, technology, management, raw
materials and market resources at the international
level, and an optimal match of the absolute advantage
and comparative advantage.
Chinese enterprises are taking fast steps to go
global, as the scale grows, fields broadens and level
rises. By the end of 2009, there were over 13,000
Chinese investors have invested in enterprises in
over 180 countries and regions with a total direct
investment of over US $200 billion dollars. Turnover
of the projects in the capital and technology intensive
industries such as electricity, metallurgy, petrochemistry, railway transportation and electronics
have taken up half of the total volume.
The Chinese government always encourages
enterprises to open up international market with a
series of policy support. The policy system is taking
shape. The State Council has promulgated important
documents for guidance. The government requires a
close combination of Come in and Go Global.
It further calls for developing large companies
and large enterprise groups with international
competitiveness via market and policy guidance,
Encouragement and support for relatively com61
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petitive enterprises of all ownerships to invest

abroad in order to increase export of goods and
labor services and bring about a number of strong
multinationals and renowned brands.
Relevant departments under the State Council
have worked out detailed supportive measures,
including foreign trade development funds to
support the small and medium enterprises to open
to the world market, information platforms for
enterprises to go global, and establish the overseas
economic cooperative zones. All these measures
effectively promoted the Go Global strategy. At
present, constructions of the eight economic and
trade cooperative zones is under way beyond the
borders, as the government powerfully supports
enterprises to go global with policies, funding and
supporting services.
Actively Involved in the Global
Economic Cooperation
November 10, 2001 witnessed Chinas admittance into the World Trade Organization, an event
of monumental significance for Chinas openingup. This broadens the fields and space of Chinas
opening-up, with traditional cargo trading evolving
into service trading and regional opening-up into all
dimensional one. Market access conditions grow more
legal, transparent and normalized. WTO creates a
new platform for China to participate in international
competition on equal footing and grow more open.
China is taking an active stance in the economy
62
globalization. Its position in various economic

cooperative organizations and trade institutions is
growing more and more important than before.
This growing influence of China in the economic
globalization results from a healthy economic
growth. Opening-up elevates its international
position and influence in the world. Three decades
of reform and opening-up have transformed China
into a power of developing market, of export and
foreign investment inflow in the world. Booming
Chinese economy is creating for the world economy
more trade and investment opportunities. And this
gigantic emerging market is benefiting more and
more economies in the world. The two gigantic
opportunities offered by China to the world: A low
cost and high efficiency outsourcing market for
high quality products; a market of great potential
from its 1.3 billion people. The total annual flow
of investment in the world averages 650 billion US
dollars, in which China accounts for almost 10%.
China will take a three-fold general strategy in
promoting its economic and trade cooperation with
other countries: Advocating regional and bilateral
free trade cooperation, in parallel with multilateral
free trade cooperation. China is participating in the
regional integration based in East Asia. The free trade
initiatives of China-ASEAN 10+1, China, Japan,
South Korea and ASEAN 10+3, and ChinaJapan-South Korea are all under way at the same
time. In an important way, China is growing into a
vital player in the world economy.
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Developing Foreign Trade

Foreign trade is the center and starting point
for Chinas opening-up. In the three decades since
the initial reform and opening-up, China has scored
magnificent achievements in its foreign trade.
Since December 2001 when China was officially
admitted into WTO, China plays an active role in
economic globalization process. Taking hold of the
historic opportunities of faster pace of international
industries transfer, Chinas foreign trade becomes
more energetic than ever before to catch the golden
opportunity for development in its history. The
total volume of imports and exports in China has
crossed the threshold of USD$1,000 billion in
2004, and the threshold of 2,000 billion in 2007. In
2009, Chinas total volume of imports and exports
amounted to USD 2,207.27 billion dollars. Chinese
goods took up about 9% of the world total. As of
December 2009, the monthly export volume reached
record high, the fourth highest level in history.
Trade in Goods
In 2009, total imports and exports of goods
amounted to USD 2,207.27 billion, 13.9% down as
compared to the 1st half of the year. The goods export
volume went down to USD 1, 2017 billion, 16%
lower. The goods import volume was USD 1,005.6
billion, 11.2% lower. The difference between the two
was USD 196.1 billion, 102 billion less than the 1
half of the year. However, China became the biggest
exporter in the world in 2009 and has taken up 9.6%
64
of the total volume of the world.

The structure for goods trading is constantly
optimized. In respect of the structure of exported
goods, the str ucture has been evolved from
dominantly primary products to manufactured
goods, from labor intensive products such as
textile and other light industry product to capitarelated and technology intensive products such as
electromechanical and high-tech products. This
shows an ever upgrading structure of Chinas exports,
in which electromechanical and high-tech products
are playing a greater role. From the perspective
of the structure of goods imported, the share of
primary products such as resources and basic raw
materials is growing significantly, along with a rapid
rise of electromechanical and high-tech products.
In respect of the structure of trading partners,
China now boasts 220 trading partners since its
reform and opening-up, as a diversified pattern of
Container Terminal in Tianjin
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eneral Review
of China
trading markets is taking shape. With the progress

in economic globalization and regional economy
integration, trading cooperation between China and
three economies of US, EU and Japan welcomes a
booming growth. Efforts in developing emerging
markets as ASEAN, Russia and India are paying off,
while relations with other trading partners are also
growing rapidly.
Service Trade
Since its entry into WTO, China strictly abides
by its promises of opening up the service trade,
which effectively boosts the sectors development.
In 2008, the total imports and exports of Chinas
service trade (calculated by international revenues
and expenditures, excluding government service,
same below) amounted to USD 289 billion US
dollars, 4.0% of the world total, ranking sixth in the
world. In 2009, the total serve trade amounted to
USD 286.2 billion dollars.
Service trade structure is being steadily optimized, with a general development pattern covering
communication, insurance, finance, exclusive
right use fees and franchise fees, computer and
information service, consultation and advertisement.
Foreign Investment Cooperation and
Foreign Aid
Foreign Investment Cooperation
From zero to all, Chinas foreign economic and
technical cooperation is now presenting a variety of
66
forms, including undertaking engineering projects

overseas, labor cooperation, overseas investment,
acceptance of foreign economic and technical
aid, and provision of economic and technical aid
to foreign countries. These forms play critical
roles in helping Chinese enterprises to embrace
the world, open up world market, and enhance
their cooperation with other countries, especially
developing countries.
Chinas Overseas Direct Investment
Chinas direct overseas investment is on a fast
track as the annual growth of such investment
averaged 71.3% in the last few years, making China
an emerging foreign investment power in the world.
China keeps broadening its field to directly invest
overseas, with higher level and capabilities. Chinese
enterprises are diversifying their markets, and have
invested in over 170 countries and regions, mostly
in Asia and Latin American countries. In 2009, the
non-financial overseas direct investment amounted
to USD43.3 billion, up 6.5% and totaling 177
billion. The overseas direct investment for the year
2011 will reach USD60 billion, becoming the biggest
foreign investors in Asia. The investment in resource
industry will take up 2/3 of the total investment,
followed by port construction, automobile, banking,
telecommunication and electronics.
Chinas direct foreign investment not only
benefits Chinas investors, but also the countries
and enterprises of investment inflow. For example,
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the direct investment and net imports from Africa

and Latin America have become important positive
factor for the international revenue and expenditure
of many such countries, supporting their economic
development.
How to explain the fast rise of Chinas direct
foreign investment? The fast growth of Chinas
economy in three decades has fueled Chinese
enterprises with great strengths. To find rooms of
development, Chinese enterprises begin to look
beyond the horizons. With the fast globalization
of the world economy, China has made itself a
key player in the transnational production and
global manufacturing network. For the purposes
of organizing production elements and reasonable
deployment of resources, Chinese enterprises now find
it necessary to invest overseas; foreign governments
are making greater efforts to improve their investment
environment and attract foreign investment; the
Chinese government has staged series of policies and
measures to encourage and help Chinese denterprises
in their foreign investment. All these powerfully
propel the fast progress of Chinas foreign investment.
Undertaking Engineering Projects
Overseas
Undertaking engineering projects overseas
refers to Chinese enterprises or institutions
under taking constr uction projects in other
countries, covering such fields as consultation,
survey, design, supervision, bid invitation, cost
68
estimate, procurement, construction, installation,

commissioning, operation and management
activities. To normalize this business, China has
promulgated a special-purpose law Regulations on
Foreign Project Contracting. Other than this law,
government departments adopted and perfected
promotional measures for undertaking engineering
projects overseas, in order to establish and perfect
the service system and risk assurance mechanism
for undertaking these projects. To guarantee project
quality and completion time, and safeguard interests
of the client, the Chinese authorities require all
business units engaged in undertaking engineering
projects overseas must be qualified for undertaking
such projects as approved by the commercial
authorities, and apply for project bidding approval
as regulated. At present, China has approved 2,300
enterprises as qualified for undertaking engineering
projects overseas.
Chinese enterprises have mature technologies
and rich experiences in undertaking projects
overseas. For example, its engineering construction
and supportive industrial equipments manufacturing
capabilities rank among the highest in the world,
some of which even leading in the world. China
also enjoys obvious comparative advantages in
infrastructure fields such as metallurgy, electric
power, transportation, communication, petroleum
c h e m i s t r y, w a t e r c o n s e r va n c y, a n d h o u s i n g
construction. Now Chinese enterprises are capable of
designing and building the longest bridges, highest
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buildings, largest hydropower stations, and railways

of the highest altitude in the world. Chinas foreign
undertakings have covered 180 countries and regions
all over the world, including Europe and USA.
In 2009, the completed amounts of undertaking
foreign engineering projects by China amounted
to USD77.7 billion, up 37.3% as compared to the
previous year.
The Chinese government always regulates enterprises undertaking foreign engineering projects with
the basic principle of Harmonious development
and mutual benefit for win-win. It highly
emphasizes the guidance and management for these
enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. The
government instructs these enterprises to abide by
the laws, observe contract provisions, local customs,
eco-system protection, and promote local economic
and social development of the countries they work;
encourages the enterprises to localize their operations
by hiring local employees as many as possible to
alleviate local employment pressure, and training
local people with production skills, enhancing the
self-development capabilities of the countries of
residence; and take active actions to communicate
with local government and all walks of society
for harmonious relations with local communities
and residents. The above-mentioned measures of
Chinese enterprises are appreciated and accepted by
governments and people of the countries in which
they work, which embody the Chinese concept to
build a harmonious world.
70
Chinese oil workers are assembling equipments at a Saudi

drilling site
In the business process to secure and launch

foreign engineering projects, China adheres to the
market rules and business operations, and enterprises
are allowed to choose their fields and business
manners independently based on their competitive
strengths and development needs, in line with
international customs. The Chinese government
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is willing to build and maintain work mechanisms

and communication channels with governments in
relation, and create ideal conditions for enterprises
of both countries by concluding inter-governmental
cooperation agreements on infrastructure field. At
present, China has concluded such agreements with
Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Argentine, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Canada.
Overseas Labor Service Cooperation
Chinas foreign labor service began in late
1970s, as a key component of its foreign economic
cooperation. In China, foreign labor service abides
the principle of mutual benefit and win-win.
Enterprises approved by the Ministry of Commerce
for foreign labor service qualifications send labor
workers in shortage for the labor import destination
as required by the employers in an organized manner.
This is a way of economic cooperation to involve
in the local economic development. Foreign labor
service not only helps alleviate the labor shortage in
some industries of import destinations to enhance
its industrial competitiveness, but also enables
China to work these countries upon complementary
advantages of each other.
In 2009, China has sent out 34.7461 contract
workers of various fields to other countries. These
people are mainly found in such countries as
Japan, Singapore, Korea, Algeria, Russia, USA,
and Molecules, and regions like Hong Kong and
Macao. In addition to laborers in manufacturing,
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construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing and animal

husbandry, China also sends high-level technical
contract workers of professional designers, computer
service, sailors and civil air stewardess. The turnover
for the labor service reached USD 8.9 billion, up
10.6%, which involved totally over 600,000 workers.
To normalize and promote bilateral labor
service cooperation, the Chinese government has
promulgated a series of policies on foreign labor
service. These mainly include qualification approval
for foreign labor service operation, and project
approval for foreign labor service, while foreign
labor service projects must clearly acknowledge
such items as the charging standards, foreign labor
training, and protection for foreign labor workers.
The government also promotes the conclusion of
bilateral labor service agreements, for normalizing
such cooperation and protecting the legitimate rights
of Chinese workers.
Foreign Aid
Since 1950, the Chinese government has been
faced with a giant task of domestic development.
However, China has provided as much as it could,
aids to over 100 countries and regions in Africa,
Asia, East Europe, Latin America and South Pacific
region, in the forms of free economic aid, interestfree loans and loans of preferential interest rate.
These aids help the recipient countries to build 2,000
projects bearing close relations to the production
and life of the locals, including hospitals, schools,
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gymnasiums, theaters, agriculture demonstration

centers, housing, roads, and bridges, covering a
wide range of industry, agriculture, transportation,
communication, culture and education, and health
among other social and public facilities. China has
also provided aid recipient countries with numerous
materials and cash, and reduced or waived the
debts of some poor countries and least developing
countries owning heavy debts. In the meantime, the
Chinese government has invited 100,000 officials
and technical personnel to China for training,
and sent specialists, technicians, young foreign aid
volunteers, and foreign aid medical teams to these
countries for cooperation. China also provides
Tanzara Railway
74
emergency humanitarian aids to countries in

need, and takes active part in international rescue
operations to help with post-disaster reconstruction.
China as a developing country is still limited
in its size of foreign aid, a practice falling into the
category of south-south cooperation. The Chinese
government adheres to Eight Principles of Chinas
Foreign Economic and Technical Aids, fully
respecting the choices and wishes of aid recipient
countries, with aids provided on equal footing; no
additional political conditions attached, without
intervention of the internal affairs of the recipient
country, without seeking any privilege; aided projects
take full account of the actual needs of the recipient
country, for improvement of the infrastructure
conditions, taxation and employment, prosperity
of their urban and rural economy to benefit local
people, and promotion of economic and social
development of the recipient countries to benefit the
people directly.
With the continuous growth of Chinas
economy and national strength, the Chinese
government will continue to provide foreign aids to
developing countries at large as much as it can, and
further enlarge such aids to make its contributions
to the early accomplishment of the Millennium
Development Goals of the United Nations.
2. Economic Development
Chinas economic development follows the
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roadmap of Five-Year Plans. From 1953 to 2000,

China had formulated and accomplished nine FiveYear Plans and laid a solid development foundation
for the economy. The tenth Five-Year Plan from
2001 to 2005 proved an immense success, enabling
the Chinese economy an unprecedented fast growth.
At the advent of the 21st century, China staged its
11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) for comprehensive
development of a well-off society, in which the
Chinese economy maintains the momentum of highspeed growth. In 2009, the annual GDP exceeded
RMB 33.5 trillion, 8.7% up from the previous
year; the financial revenue amounted to RMB 6.85
trillion, an increase of 11.7% as compared to the
previous year. The tax revenue reached RMB 5.9515,
an increase of 52.91 billion, up 9.8%.
Chinas foreign exchange reserve has rocketed
from a negligible sum to the current first place in
the world. Since February 2006, China maintains
its position as a nation with the largest foreign
exchange reserve in the world. By the end of 2009,
the foreign exchange reserve in China amounted to
USD$ 2.3992 trillion, an increase of 453.1 billion as
compared to the previous year.
Goals of Economic Development
Chinese government keeps a clear goal for its
economic development, i.e., the three-step strategy
as brought forward in 1987. Step 1 aimed to double
the GDP level in1980 during which people could
afford adequate food and clothing, a goal basically
76
accomplished in late 1980s. Step 2 aimed to

quadruple GDP level in 1980, a goal accomplished
in 1995 ahead of schedule Step 3 aimed to basically
get the nation modernized by the mid-21st century,
when the per capita GDP reaches that of the
medium-level developed countries and people
becomes relatively well-off.
Development of Industries
Agriculture
China is a large agricultural country with a
rural population of 721 million, 54.3% of the
total population. Since the rural reform in 1978,
Chinas agriculture has developed rapidly. Under the
framework of the collective ownership, the marketoriented rural reform in China broke the bondage
of the traditional system, in an effort to explore new
forms of collective economy in market economy.
Production of Farm Produce
In 2009, China witnessed another harvest for
the 6th consecutive years with the grain output of
530,820,000 tons, up 0.4% as compared to the
previous year. The per capita share of grain in China
was 404 kilograms, an amount over the worlds
average and is sufficient to feed 1.3 billion people.
Apart from grains, cotton yield rose from 444,000
tons in 1949 to 6.09 million tons in 2009; the yield
of oil-bearing crops rose from 2.56 million to 31.00
million tons; the yield of the meat products grew from
2.21 million to 76.42 million tons, while the yield of
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A Mechanized Farming Scene
the aquatic products increased from 450,000 tons in

1949 to 51.20 million tons in 2009. For years, China
remains to be the world champion in output of grains,
oil-bearing crops, vegetable, fruit, tea, meat, poultry
and egg, milk and aquatic products. Thanks to these
achievements, China has not accepted any free food
aids from the World Food Program since 2006, and is
becoming an important food donor instead.
Farmers Income
From 1978 to 2009, the net per capita income
of farmers rose from RMB 134 to 5,153, averagely
an annual rise of 7.1% if the price factor is deducted.
The income structure of the farmers presents new
characteristics: First, the ratio of the household
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income characterized by agriculture-related incomes

is falling. Second, the ratio of income from wages
as represented by income from migrant workers is
steadily rising, which has become a main source of
income. In 2009, the per capita income from wages
of the rural residents accounted for 41% in their net
per capita income. The rural families have made their
passage into the age of electrization and information,
with their living standards getting closer to that of a
well-off society.
Infrastructure Development in Rural
Areas
The Chinese government attaches great
importance to the development of the infrastructure
in the countryside, which involves roads, power
grids, culture and education, respects that concern
the long-term development. Notable achievements
have been made in this respect. Size and intensity
of the rural infrastructure development have been
increased, after the fundamental historic task of
building a socialist new countryside is put forward.
At present, the countryside puts its emphasis on
the water saving irrigation, land rearrangement
and reclamation, transformation of medium and
low yield fields and turns them into land with high
yields. Nationwide, the ratio of administrative
villages connected by highway and with access
to telephone and television signal coverage and
electric power amount to over 95%. Over 80%
of the townships have postal and telecom services
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facilities. Cultural, educational, environmental

conditions and healthcare services in the countryside
have been improved substantially. Over 85% of the
administrative villages have primary schools within
three kilometers, ones that offer free compulsory
education. Over 98% of the townships have hospitals
or clinics. 72% of them have centralized water
supply, and 37% have garbage disposal stations.
Township Enterprises
Township enterprises refer to ones launched
by farmers in the countryside. These enterprises
cover such a great variety of fields as industry, farm
products processing, transportation, construction,
commerce and catering services. Among these
industries, farm products processing is emerging as a
dynamic development force for township enterprises.
The added value of the township enterprises in the
country amounted to RMB 9.25 trillion in 2009,
up 10% over the same period of the previous year.
These figures indicate that township enterprises have
become the main source of higher income for the
farmers and driving force behind a bigger economic
growth in the rural areas.
Agricultural Science and
Technology
Progresses in the farming technology have been
made in China in the form of biotechnology, hightech and basic research. China takes the lead in such
areas as plant cells and tissues cultivation, anther
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cultivation, haploid breeding and its application

studies.China has reached or neared the world
advanced level in two-line system intervarietal hybrid
rice, hybrid corn breeding and multi-cropping
techniques of intensive farming. In recent years, the
planting area of the hybrid rice accounts for 57%
of total rice planting area in China, i.e., 60 million
hectares. Hybrid rice yield in China averaged 7.2
tons per hectare, almost 1.4 more tons per unit than
that of the regular rice species. With the support
from the Chinese government, the hybrid rice
technique is being popularized in more and more
countries in the world. The objective for the third
stage of the Super Hybrid Rice cultivation program
presided over by Yuan Longping is to achieve an
yield of 13.5-ton per hectare by the year 2010. He is
called Father of hybrid rice in the world.
Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice
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Poverty Alleviation in Countryside

The Chinese government has implemented
successively the development-oriented poverty relief
program and Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation
Program. More poverty alleviation funds are offered
and relevant measures are better taken. 592 povertystricken counties nationwide have been designated
as the key areas for poverty relief efforts. The state
has promulgated the Outline of Chinas Rural
Poverty Alleviation and Development (2001-2010),
under which industrialized poverty alleviation and
labor output serve as support, village by village.
Poverty alleviation has made progress. Special
organizations and poverty alleviation funds are set
up in China, which helped cut back the povertystricken population from 250 million to around
20 million in short order. In 2009, new poverty
alleviation standards have put in place, which aim
at comprehensive implementation for low income
population in the countryside. The new standard
raises the poverty alleviation level up to RMB
1,196, and covers 40.07 million poverty-stricken
people. The 35.66 million farmers can enjoy the
minimum life insurance. Rural poverty alleviation
program has made tremendous achievements that
enjoy worldwide attention. In 2009, the government
further improves strategies and policies for its
poverty alleviation program, by allocating more fu
nds and adhering to development-oriented poverty
alleviation efforts. These efforts are focused on
villages, training of labor forces in the countryside,
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poverty alleviation by industries and for relocated

farmers, guaranteeing a stable supply of food and
clothing for the poor so they are able to shake off
poverty and get rich.
Despite of the spectacular achievements, China
is still faced with a huge poverty-stricken population
and a heavy load of poverty alleviation work. By the
poverty standard for the farmers in China of annual
income of RMB 1,196 yuan per capita, there should
be 35.97 million rural people under the poverty level
by the end of 2009.
New policies that Benefit Farmers
Abolishing tax on the special agricultural
products. Since 2008, the Chinese government
abolished the special agricultural product tax, as an
effort to promote tax reform trials for the reduction
or exemption of the agricultural tax and eventually
abolish the agriculture tax in five years nationwide.
This signifies that the agriculture tax which has been
in existence on this land for 2600 years will be history
soon. The loss of the local financial revenue due to
the reduction of the agriculture tax will be borne in
principle by the areas in the same coastal developed
regions, while that of the major grain yielding
and mid-central regions will be subsidized by the
central finance through transfer payment. Complete
abolishment of the special agricultural product tax is a
major system innovation and social change in Chinas
countryside. Comprehensive and long-term protection
of peasant rights and the rural marketization process
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will have profound effect on the country.

Direct subsidies to agriculture. Since 2004,
the government began to directly subsidize grain
producing farmers. Furthermore, it adopted a
comprehensive direct subsidy policy in 2006 to make
up for the increased expenditures due to price rise
of diesel, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. All the
subsidies will be borne by the central government
finance. In 2009 alone, direct subsidies for agriculture
in China amounted to RMB 120 billion.
New Rural Cooperative Medicine (NRCM).
NRCM refers to a mutual medical aid system
among farmers. Organized, guided and supported
by the government, focusing on comprehensive
arrangement for serious diseases, the program
gets fund from individuals, collectives and the
government. In other word, funds are raised by
means of individual payment, collective support
and government financing. In October 2002, the
Chinese government announced its roadmap to
eventually establish the NRCM characterized by
comprehensive arrangement for serious diseases.
In 2003, the central finance paid a cooperative
medicine subsidy of RMB 10 per capita annually
to the farmers covered by NRCM program in the
central and west areas, except for urban residents. As
part of the arrangement, the local finance subsidies
the farmers no less than RMB 10. In the event of
hospitalization, farmers covered by NRCM will be
entitled to medical charge reimbursements by certain
percentages accordingly. This is the first time in the
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history that the Chinese government is investing

such large sum of its financial resources to provide
basic medical care for the health of the farmers. Since
2006, the central finance raised its subsidy to the
aforesaid farmers from RMB 10 to 20, so is the case
of the local finance in question. By 2010, NRCM
coverage will blanket over 80% of the countryside.
NRCM plays a key role in ensuring farmers
basic medical care and health, alleviating their
poverty caused by or due to illness. It serves as a
showcase for the solutions to general and universal
headache for all countries, especially developing
countries. It is not only warmly embraced by farmers
in China, but also highly appraised by the countries
in the world, especially third world countries.
Chinese new-type socialized old-age insurance
undertaking in rural areas. Trials for the new social
old-age insurance system for the countryside
were launched before October 1, 2009. This is a
program under which the Chinese farmers can
enjoy a generalized preference from the state over 60
years old. This system is funded by a combination
of individual payment, collective support and
government financing. Central finance will subsidize
the localities, and directly to each farmer.
Industry
As early as the mid 19th century China began
its industrial pursuit, yet an effort in vain, as its
industry was almost zero when new China was
founded in 1949. Its per capita output of yarn,
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crude coal, electricity generated, steel, and crude oil

was but equivalent to that at the early years of the
British Industrial Revolution. 90% of the economy
was separated, individualized, agricultural and of
handicraft. China nowadays boasts a relatively selfcontained industrial system, with strengthened
traditional industrial sectors of steel, electricity, coal,
and petroleum processing and the new industries like
space and aviation, automobile, and electronics which
have grown from nothing and are developing rapidly.
All industry categories in the industry classification
by the United Nations can be found in China.
In the 60 years of development since its
founding, especially since the reform and openingup, Chinas industry has kept a rapid growth.
The industrial added value in 2009 amounted to
RMB 13.4625 trillion, up 8.3% as compared to
the previous year. The added value of all industrial
enterprises above designated size amounted to
11%. Since the reform and opening-up in 1979,
production of the major industrial products in
China have maintained a growth rate dozens of or
even hundreds of times faster, many are which are
sold to overseas markets. Chinas output of steel,
coal, cement, chemical fertilizer, TV set, electricity
generated, cotton cloth, and chemical fiber ranks
among the top three in the world. For 14 years,
China has been the biggest producer and consumer
of steel with an output of 568 million ton crude steel
and 696 ton steel products in 2009, up 12.9% and
16.5% respectively.
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Information Industry
Information industry has become the top
pillar of all the industries in China. The output
value, sales volume and profitability of electronics
and communication equipment manufacturing
industry have far exceeded those of the traditional
industries, taking the lions share of contributions
to national economy growth. For the post and
telecommunication service, a basic, nationwide postal
network has taken shape, which is based in Beijing
and major cities, covering all over the country. As for
telecommunications network construction, a basic
transmission network with large capacity and high
transmission rate has been built and put into operation.
The transmission is mainly dependant on optic cables
and aided by satellite and digital microwave. All
provinces in China have satellite ground stations in
operation, with up to 20,000 satellite circuits and digital
microwave transmission that reaches as long as 60,000
kilometers. China also takes part in the construction
of a number of international land and submarine optic
cables, namely China-Japan, China-Korea, and AsiaEurope submarine cable, and China-Russia on-land
cable. The 27,000 kilometer Asia-Europe land optic
cable project initiated by China is the longest land
optic cable system available in the world. This cable
starts from Shanghai in the east, and ends in Frankfort,
Germany in the west, running through 20 countries.
At present, there are already over 200 countries and
regions operating telecommunication communication
with China. In the end of June 2010, the number of
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phone users in China has reached and 305 million

billion, including 805 million mobile phone users and
305 million fixed line phone users. The number of
telephone users in China tops the world. The telecom
sector is speeding up the development of new services
such as data communication and information service,
by offering new services of like providing email boxes,
electronic data interchange, videoconference, telephone
information service, and internet access. China had
itself connected with the Internet in 1994. The
completion of Chinanet in 1995 marked the beginning
of the application stage of Internet in China. There
are 300 million netizens in the country, including 270
million with access to the broadband service. In the
end of June 2010, the number of netizens in China
amounted to 420 million, among them 364 billion user
of broadband. 31.8% of the population use internet.
The size of the internet and Broadband netizens and
number of top domain names registered in China
rank first in the world. Internet services have witnessed
rapid growth in distant learning, e-banking, on-line
transactions, e-advertisement, online news, online video
service, paid email service, IP telephone service, SMS,
online recruitment service, online information service,
and on-line games.
Energy Industry
Electric power industry boasts the fastest
growth. In 2009, the production and supply of
electricity and heating power rose by 6%. At
present, the installed power-generating capacity
88
and generated energy in China rank the second in

the world. Power grids construction is witnessing
the fastest growth in history, which covers all the
cities and most of the rural areas. The 220 kv power
grid is being replaced by 500 kv ones to send and
exchange electricity across provinces and regions.
Computer-based, automated electricity dispatching
systems have found their general and actual use. At
present, six trans-provincial or trans-regional power
grids (excluding that in the northwest), and five
independent 500kV main power grids at provincial
level have already been completed. Furthermore,
several large power stations have been put into
operation. All these indicate that Chinas electric
power industry has entered a new era characterized
by the large generators, large power stations, large
power grids with extra-high voltage and level
of automation. The completion of the ThreeGorge project manifests that China has taken a
leading position internationally in hydroelectricity
engineering technology and equipment technology.
Increasing Coal Output. Since 1980s, the State
has invested heavily in a number of large-scaled,
modernized coal mines, which raised coal output
year by year. In 2009, the coal output amounted
to 2.96 billion tons, up 12.7% over the previous
year. For the coal enterprises above designated scale,
the added value for mining and washing in 2009
increased by 8.3% over the previous year, which
makes China the second largest coal exporter in
the world. Technically, the coal industry in China
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is capable to design, construct, equip and manage

open air coal mines with 10 million ton capacity
and medium to large mining areas. Coal washing
technology keeps improving and capacity expanding,
while coal liquefaction and underground gasification
are actively underway.
The petroleum output in 2009 stabilized at 100
million tons. Natural gas output has kept an over
10% increase for 7 consecutive years. The increases
of petroleum and natural gas output significantly
increase their percentages in the energy consumption
pattern. Growth of the petroleum industr y
drives the development of the local economy and
related industries of machine making, steel and
transportation. In 2009, oil processing, coking
and nuclear fuel processing rose by 5.2% over the
previous year. A 4,000-kilometer long gas pipeline
has been installed that benefits over 200 million
people in over 80 cities of 12 provinces.
Machinery Industry
Chinas machinery industry is capable of
providing various industries and sectors with
complete sets of large-sized, high-quality equipments,
including large combustion turbines, large pumpedstorage sets, nuclear generator sets, ultra-high voltage
DC power transmission /transformation equipments,
large metallurgical and petrochemical equipment
sets, equipments to make chemical fertilizer, urban
rail transits equipments, new paper-making and
textile machinery among others. Machinery and
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electronic products made in China have become

mainstay products in the countrys foreign trade.
In 2009, electromechanical machinery and devices
manufacturing industry gained a 12% increase over
the previous year.
Automobile Industry
At present, China has become the third
largest automobile maker and the second largest
automobile market in the world. Auto industry has
become one of the pillar industries in the countrys
national economy, which plays an important role
in speeding up economy, readjusting industrial
structure and improving livelihood. In 2009, the
civilian automobiles in use in China amounted to
76.19 million, up 17.8% over the same period of
the previous year, including 52.18 million private
cars, an increase of 28.6%. Private cars, once durable
high-priced consumer products rarely possessed
by Chinese families in the past have now become
the retail commodity with the fastest growth in
China. In 2009, automobile sales in China exceeded
13.6448 million, up 46.15%. making China
the largest new cars market in the world. Auto
industry is an embodiment of modern industries
of machinery, electronics, chemical industry, textile
and light industry products, metallurgy and energy.
It is an industry with high correlation and spread
effect. For example, one per cent increase in the
automobile industry can bring about 10 per cent
growth in other sectors in the national economy,
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creating three to five times of output value growth in

related industries. Automobile industry makes huge
contributions to Chinas economic construction and
social development.
Domestic Trade
China pays great attention to the important role
the domestic trade plays in the fields of production
guidance, consumption expansion, employment
promotion, economic progress and social development and improvement of living standard. The
development strategy of domestic trade is to make
great efforts in promoting innovations in circulation,
urban areas bringing along rural areas, coordinated
development among regions, and revitalization upon
brands. With the growing prosperity of commercial
distributions and expansion of domestic market
size, the consumption structure keeps upgrading. In
2009, the retail volume of the social consumables
amounted to RMB 12.5343 trillion yuan, up 15.5%
over the previous year.
The Chinese government is speeding up
science progress in domestic trade by promoting
the modern way of distribution; actively developing
e-commerce business; developing new retail formats,
transforming and adjusting the traditional retail
industry; promoting the operation innovation in the
wholesaling industry and service modes; speeding up
development of modern commercial logistics system;
upgrading commodity exchange markets; speeding
up reforms in important commodities distribution
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system; in respect of enhancing rural market systems,

focusing on the Market Project for Ten Thousand
Villages and Thousand Towns to build a smooth
and efficient farm products distribution system
and perfect the new service system for agricultural
production materials distribution. At present, various
new and old business formats of distribution exist in
China, including convenience stores, supermarkets,
department stores, specialty shops, shopping malls,
and online sales. In 2009, the total consumer goods
sales in the rural areas amounted to RMB 4 trillion,
Half of the over 600,000 administrative villages in
China already have farmers shops in chain store
operation. The year-on-year increase of retail sales of
consumer goods in the countryside exceeded that of
the cities for the first time.
Transportation
Since China has always regarded highway construction as a key to its infrastructure development.
Transportation in China refers to highway transportation,
railway transportation, river boat transportation,
sea transportation and air transportation. A threedimensional structure has been formed with highway
and railway transportation being the backbones. As
of today, the total mileage of the national highway
network reached 65,000 kilometers. 148 airports for
civilian aviation have been put into use. Total port
capacity comes up to 6.91billion metric tons. The total
mileage of railways reached 86,000 kilometers. July
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Multiple Unit Train
Tibet Railway, 1118-kilometer passage going across

Qinghai and Tibet. This railway functions as a
strategic linkage connecting Tibet and Qinghai with
the rest of China, and a key backbone of the railway
network deep in the west region of the country. As it
spans the highest plateau on earth, the railway is also
called Sky Way.
Water Conservancy
Water conservancy is the foundation and guarantee
for national economy and social development in China.
In recent years, China has developed a sustainable,
people-oriented water control concepts that harmonizes
relations between man and nature and achieve a
sustainable use of water resources, making the water
conservancy development benefit the people.
The period from 1998 to 2008 witnessed a 5.5
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times increase over the period from 1949 to 1997,

during which trillions of yuan investment was made
in large scale water conservancy projects. Typical
water control projects include the Three Gorges
project, Xiaolangdi project, and the South-to-North
Water Transfer Project. 286,900 kilometers of river
banks are built, a length equivalent to seven rounds
around the terrestrial equator. The coverage of the
irrigated farmland is expanded to 877 million mu,
accounting for 20% of the world total, top in the
world. By the end of 2008, the number of reservoirs
in China grew from 1,223 in 1949 to 86,353.
In 2009, those reservoirs could averagely provide
enough safe drinking water for the 166,000 rural
population per day.
The South-to-North Water Transfer Project is
designed to go three ways and has made substaintial
headways. A huge and superb dam of 2,309 meters
long and 185 meters tall built at the Three-Gorges
on Yangtze River was completed in 2006. The dam
is effectively used for preventing flood, electricity
generation and river navigation.
Finance
Since reform and opening-up especially since
mid-1990s, China has made ever-accelerated progress
in commercializing and opening its financial sector.
At present, total assets of its finance amounted to
RMB 86.5 trillion, 53 times more than that of
20 years ago. As the financial industry gets more
modernized, commercialized and internationalized, a
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financial system compliant with the socialist market

economy has gradually taken shape. Financial
resources are deployed in a more optimal manner, the
credit demands of enterprises further satisfied, the
dynamism of the enterprises and social productivity
immensely unleashed. Furthermore, financial life
for Chinese people at large is upgrading all the time.
The Chinese people are provided with higher quality
and more convenient money management products
and financial services such as banking cards, stock
market, credit consumption and insurance coverage.
In 1980, China restored its legitimate seat in
International Monetary Fund and World Bank. With
years of efforts, China achieved a quota increase
in IMF, advancing its quota ranking from No.11
to No.6. China has also joined in the Revenue
Commission of IMF, Structural reform of the World
Bank High Level Committee of the World Bank,
and Board of the Bank for International Settlements.
Chinas central bank is the Peoples Bank of
China. The four state owned banks are Bank of
China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China and China Agricultural
Bank. The three major banks, the Bank of China,
China Construction Bank and Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China are among the world
largest banks with the highest market value. By the
end of 2009, there are 3,857 banking institutions
including policy-based and commercial banks,
106 securities companies, 61 fund management
companies and 166 futures companies.
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The legal tender of The Peoples Republic of

China is Renminbi (RMB) which is printed and
issued solely by the Peoples Bank of China. The
unit of the Renminbi is yuan and the units of the
fractional currency of the Renminbi are jiao and fen.
The Renminbi in current distribution is the fourth
and editions issued by the Peoples Bank of China
since 1987 and the fifth edition issued in 1999. Both
edi tions are in circulation at the same time.
Construction
Construction industry is one of the pillars of
national economy in China. In recent years, the
growth rate of both total output value and total
profit maintains at a level of 20% each year. Scale
of the construction industry keeps growing steadily,
and industry prospective is promising as indicators
showing new high all the time. In 2009, the added
values of the entire construction industry nationwide
amounted to RMB 2.2333 trillion, up 18.2% over
2008. The total profits made by the qualified general
and professional construction contractors in China
was RMB 266.3 billion, up 21% over 2008.
Tourism
China boasts magnificent mountains and rivers,
colorful folk culture and customs, peculiar animals,
plants and countless cultural relics, in addition to
unique dramas, operas, music, dances, and world
renowned gourmets. These advantageous tourism
resources attract numerous domestic and overseas
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tourists each year. At present, China has become

the largest tourism market with the fastest growth
and biggest potential in the world, and it is also the
fourth largest inbound tourist country in the world.
Tourism in China gets RMB 150 billion of new
funding each year. In 2009, the number of outbound
Chinese tourists reached 1,900 million, up 11%
over the previous year. The revenue of tourism in
China amounted to RMB 1.0184 trillion, up 16.4%
over last year. The outbound tourism earned as
much as USD 39.7 billion. Since 1992, the State
Administration of Tourism has been staging a tourist
theme every year, each characterizing one particular
type of tourism. The theme for the year of 2008
was Year of the Olympics in China, for which the
slogan was the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The theme for 2009 is Year of Eco-Tourism in
China, with slogan of Walking into Eco-tourism,
Feeling Eco-civilization. The theme of the China
tour in 2010 is Country Tour in China.
Development of Regional Economies
The Chinese government adopts a strategy
of promoting coordinated regional development,
i.e. pushing forward the developing of the West,
revitalizing the Northeast, promoting the rise of the
Central part and supporting the East.
Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone
Yangtze River Delta lies in the outlet of the
river, covering Shanghai and the coastal areas of
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Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Its land space

includes Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Suzhou,
Wuxi, Changzhou and Nantong of Jiangsu Province,
Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing
and Zhoushan of Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai.
These 14 cities and 74 counties cover a land space
of 109,600 square kilometers and 81.21 million
people. The city belt in this delta area as headed by
Shanghai has been recognized as one of the largest
in the world. This delta is home to a complete
metropolitans group, boasting powerful industry,
finance and trade as well as strong educational,
scientific and cultural strengths. These strengths play
vital roles for bringing along economic development
in the Yangtze River basin, which connects
domestic and overseas markets, attracts overseas
investment, promotes industrial and technology
transfer and international competition and regional
reorganization.
This area is under humid subtropical monsoon
climate, with mild temperature and fertile soil.
Teemed with aquatic resources, the famous
Zhoushan Fishing Ground, Lusi Fishing Ground
and Yangtze River Mouth Fishing Ground are
closely gathered. This area is advantageously located
to be given the name of the Golden Coastline and
Golden Waterway, with numerous navigation
channels and criss-crossed railways.
Pearl River Delta Economic Zone
Si t u a t e d i n Gu a n g d o n g Prov i n c e , Pe a r l
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Coal Terminal for the Industrial Park at Caofeidian
River Delta is spearheaded by Guangzhou and

supported by Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Fongduan,
Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Huizhou, and Zhaoqing.
With 31 cities and counties, it accounts for 23.4%
of the total area and 33% of the total population
of Guangdong Province. This delta is situated on
a flat terrain, crisscrossed by river networks. At the
convergence of tropical and subtropical climates, it
enjoys abundant rainfall. Farm products and fruits
like rice, sugarcane, rubber, orange, lichi, pineapple,
and banana grow all year round, making the area the
richest in the province.
This area also maintains the highest economic
growth in the country, with the gross domestic
product in recent years accounting for 70% of the
provincial total. As a result of its fast economic
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growth, social development in the area feature highly

industrialized countryside and rapid integration of
rural and urban areas. At present, almost half its GDP
come from foreign trade, and its total exports account
for over 10% of Chinas total. Taking full advantage
of its geographical vicinity with the neighboring
Hong Kong and Macao plus hometown to numerous
overseas Chinese, Pearl River Delta area has grown
into a favorite place for foreign investment and with
influx of foreign enterprises. In addition, this area
enjoys many fine harbors, rich supply of workforce,
and preferential policies offered by the state.
Bohai-rim Economic Zone
Bohai-rim region is located in Northern China,
with center in Beijing, extending all the way to
Bohai Sea, covering large regions in the northeastern,
northwestern and northern China. This region totals
a space of 1.86 million square kilometers, accounting
for 19.4% of the total area and over 22% of the total
population in China.
Bohai-rim region enjoys rich resources with
developed agriculture. Its farmland covers over one
fourth of the countrys total with its grain yields
accounting for 23%. Furthermore, its oil-bearing
crops, aquatic products, pork and mutton output
also take up a high percentage in the national
aggregate. With a strong industrial strength, Bohairim region is a place where heavy industry and
chemical industry and defense industry are based.
It is also the economic center in north China for
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its policy and government resources which play

an important role in market adjustments. In the
meantime, this economic center in the north boasts
strong reserves of talents, as Beijings Zhongguancun
area alone has 64 key universities and colleges which
keep providing the country with top talents. In the
coming one or two decades, the economy in the
north will be the largest regional economic center in
China with huge potentials.
Beibu Gulf (also Gulf of Tonkin)
Economic Zone
Beibu Gulf Economic Zone is composed of
the administrative region that covers the three
harbors and one city, comprising Beihai, Qinzhou
and Fangchenggang along Beibu Gulf including
Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Autonomous
Region. It totals a land area of 42,500 square meters,
with a population of 12.55 million, serving as the
international and domestic multi-region cooperative
showcase of the largest area in China. This zone
is positioned as the logistic base, commerce base,
processing base and information center for ChinaASEAN opening and cooperation, designed to bring
along the opening-up and economic development
of southwest China. It is expected to grow into
a strategic highland to support the Great West
Development and a key area for international
regional economic cooperation.
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Social and
Cultural Life
The three decades since reform and opening-up

have witnessed historic changes in China. Nationwide,
people made a historic leap from having only adequate
food and clothing to leading a well-off life. China
has taken firmer steps toward the great rejuvenation.
Thanks to the development of the national economy,
peoples life is greatly improved.
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1. Social life
Peoples life
Income
In 2009, the per capita disposable income of
urban and township residents was RMB 17,175
whereas the per capita net income of rural residents
reached RMB 5,153, a real increase of 9.8% and
8.5% respectively. The proportion of expenditures
on food to the total consumption expenditures
of households were 37.9 percent for the urban
households and 43.7 percent for the rural residents.
By the end of 2009, urban and rural residents
savings deposits amounted to RMB 26,077.2
trillion. Other financial assets of foreign exchange
deposits, shares, bonds, employee stock, and cash in
hand by residents also rose considerably.
Consumption
In 2008, consumer prices rose by 5.9 percent, 1.1
percentage higher than that in the previous year. This
includes 5.6% price rise in cities and 6.5% in the
countryside. As peoples living standard improves,
education, housing, cars, computer, shares, and
overseas tourism have become the main subjects of
investment or consumption in peoples daily life.
Great changes have taken place in respect to food,
clothing, housing and transportation: People pursue
fashionable clothes, nutritional food, and spacious
and comfortable house. It is common to see people
taking taxi or driving their own cars.
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Employment
A s a p o p u l o u s c o u n t r y, C h i n a i s a d d e d
with 10 million more workforces each year. The
present total employment is 775 million people.
Therefore, creating jobs is becoming the biggest
task for the Chinese government. Employment
is the toughest challenge for development in the
first decade of the new millennium. The Chinese
government attaches great importance to peoples
livelihood, and gives priority to employment in its
social and economic development. As government
departments cooperate and support each other,
active employment measures are carried out one
by one. With a heavy employment burden, the
number of employed people continues to increase
and the stability of employment is maintained. The
government places the employment of university
graduates into the general arrangements for
employment package. It clearly points out that for
university graduates, employment in urban and rural
grassroots units is the general orientation, and small
and medium enterprises and non-public sectors
shall be taken as the main channels. Graduates
are encouraged to become self-employed, and key
enterprises and science institutions are encouraged
to recruit university graduates. To improve the
employment and self-employment capabilities of
the workforce, the government plans to provide
targeted occupational training to employees of those
enterprises in hard times, jobless migrant workers,
unemployed people, and new workforce from 2009
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to 2010. From 2006 to 2010, China will provide

jobs to 900 million people a year in average, keeping
the unemployment rate in the urban areas within
5%. By the end of 2009, 779.95 billion people are
employed in urban areas, 5.15 million more people
than the first 6 months. These figures indicate that
the employment situation is generally stable.
Housing
The existing housing policy is market-oriented.
The country explores possible systems and measures
to solve the housing problems facing the middleincome families, sets the low-rent housing as the key
point of the housing assurance system, and focuses
on small and medium commercial houses at a low
and medium price level.
A Residential areas in Fuzhou, Fujian
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Since 2007, the policy for the government to

resolve the housing difficulty of low-income families
has been further clarified. In 2008, construction of
low-income housing accelerated, providing eligible
low-income families that have housing difficulties
with benefits to which they were entitled. In 2009,
China presses on its efforts in building low-income
housing. In the coming three years, China will
make RMB 900 billion investment to build lowincome houses in line with the investment plan
for expanding domestic demand and increasing
economic growth. This will alleviate the housing
difficulty of 13 million low-income families.
Social Security
The social security system in China is of the
social mutual aid pattern, that is, the three parties
of the state, the unit (enterprise), and the individual
jointly pay for the social security. This will be the
reform orientation for a long time. In 2009, the
central finance appropriated RMB 290.6 billion
yuan as social security fund.
The system is a program jointly cooperated
by the central government and local governments.
The central government is responsible for making
nationally unified laws, regulations and standards,
and financing those regions with financial difficulties,
while the local governments are responsible for
making local laws, regulations and standards based
on the unified policies of the central government,
raising social security funds and paying for social
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security benefits.
A socialized security network has taken initial
shape, which is independent of enterprises and
institutions, and has multiple functions in old age
support, medical care, unemployment insurance,
and minimum standard of living.
Coverage of the social security is expanding from
state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises
to non-public enterprises and institutions, as the
right that guarantees people a flexible employment is
ensured.
The Subsistence Security System
The subsistence security system is established
in all cities and county seats, providing basic living
security for all families with per capita income less
than the minimum local standard. At present, the
poor population in cities is entitled to be covered by
the system and get subsidies. Many rural areas have
started to set up subsistence security system. In 2009,
23.47 million urban residents received minimum
living allowance from the government, 129,000 more
than the previous year; 47.593 million rural residents
received such allowance from the government, 4.53
million more than the previous year.
The Old-age Insurance System
The old-age insurance system comprises three
parts: basic old-age insurance, supplementary oldage pension from enterprises, and old-age insurance
by personal savings. By the end of 2009, the number
of urban residents participating in the basic oldage insurance program amounted to 234.98 million
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people, an increase of 16.07 million than 2008.

Since October 1, 2009, China has established a new
type of rural old-age insurance system to pay basic
pensions to peasants.
The Healthcare system
Expansion of the coverage of the basic healthcare
system has made great progress, as the number of
urban workers and residents under the coverage
exceeded 330 million, and 830 million people have
been covered by the New Rural Cooperative Medical
System (CMS). In 2009, the urban residents basic
medical insurance system blanketed all cities in
China, as 390 million urban workers and residents
have been covered by medical insurance. Plus the
population covered by CMS, altogether over 1.2
billion Chinese citizens can now enjoy basic medical
security. While expanding the coverage, the country
also improves the quality of medical security.
The Unemployment Social Security System
The unemployment social security system is
a key part in the social security system. Since this
system was in force in China, the scope and the
targeted recipients have been expanded. Formerly,
1% of the standard gross wages of all employees
in state-owned enterprises should be paid as the
unemployment insurance premium. Now, 0.6%
of the gross wages of workers in China should
go to such insurance. Those falling below will be
withdrawn at 1% at maximum. The payment level
(equivalent to 120%-150% of the social relief
benefit stipulated by the local civil authorities) is
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appropriately raised, and the payment period is

prolonged.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security,
Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Health and
Ministry of Finance are the main institutions
under the central government responsible for social
security. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security
is in charge of old-age insurance, unemployment
insurance, medical insurance for urban workers,
employment injur y insurance and maternity
insurance and so on; the Ministry of Civil Affairs is
in charge of social relief, social welfare, and veteran
benefit and placement; the Ministry of Health
is in charge of the Rural Cooperative Medical
System; the Ministry of Finance is responsible for
formulating the financial policies and accounting
systems for social security, implementing financial
supervision over the fund revenue and expenditure,
and providing subsidies for social security plans. The
same administrative authorities are also established
at provincial, municipal and county levels for
corresponding social security functions.
Women and the Population Policy
By the end of 2008, women in China account
for 48.53% of the total population. The Chinese
government puts emphasis on the development and
progress of women, and promotes equality between
men and women as a basic objective in Chinas social
development.
While formulating the national macro policies,
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the government follows the principles of equality

between men and women, common development
and mutual benefit, encouraging women to
participate in social development. These measures
ensure that women enjoy the same rights as men in
politics, economy, culture, society and family life.
In China, men and women get equal pay for
equal work. Working women enjoy the special labor
protection and labor insurance. Currently employed
females account for 45.4 percent of the total number
of employees. Womens right to education is also
respected. The number of female students in school
increased. The growth rate of the length of education
enjoyed by women above the age of 15 and the
declining rate of their illiterates are larger than that
Women Delegates of CPPCC
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of the Chinese men, and the gap between men and

women is narrowing.
The Chinese government has always attached
great importance to the role women play in the
countrys political life, as more and more women
are elected into the party committee, peoples
congress, government and CPPCC leadership at all
levels. At present, the number of women cadres has
approximated 40% of the total officials, showing that
the extent of womens involvement in the countrys
political activities and management rise.
In China, women are entitled to have the
complete personal and property rights in their
families. In April 2001, the Standing Committee
of the NPC promulgated the revised Marriage Law.
This new version stipulates that bigamy shall be
prohibited; cohabitation of a married person with
any third party shall be prohibited; domestic violence
shall be prohibited. The invalid marriage system
is added; the matrimonial property regimes are
improved; divorce indemnity system is established,
with greater penalty for behaviors damaging family
life. The provisions preserve womens status in family
life at the present stage. To establish family relations
on an equal, harmonious and civilized basis, the
country maintains a long-term campaign of Build
Five-Good Families, and adds it into the overall
plan for its economic and social development and
spiritual civilization.
The state also pays special attention to protecting
womens right to freedom of choice in marriage and
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forbids mercenary and arranged marriages and other

acts of interference in other peoples freedom of
marriage. The judicial departments have taken stern
measures according to law against criminals engaged
in the sale of women.
All-China Womens Federation (ACWF) is a
social organization for women from different ethnic
groups and all walks of life. Its fundamental roles
include uniting and mobilizing women to participate
in economic and social development; representing
and protecting womens interest and promote gender
equality.
The government implements a family planning
policy in the light of the Constitution, as family
planning is a basic national policy. China is the most
populous developing country in the world, with a
1.334 billion population (exclusive of Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan), and 16 million newborns
each year. It is estimated if the birthrate remained
unchanged as in the 1970s, the existing total
population will exceed 1.7 billion, and the per capita
share of land, water, forest and energy resources will
be at least 20% lower than the present level.
The government encourages late marriage
and late births, fewer and healthier births and
advocates the practice of one couple, one child.
Rural families facing difficulties can have a second
child after several years. Family planning is also
being encouraged among ethnic groups to achieve
prosperity, and is based on their own will. The
specific requirements for minorities are different
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from those for Han families and are determined

by the governments of autonomous regions and
provinces according to their population, economy,
resources, culture and customs. This policy, taking
into account both the states need to control population growth and the masses real problems and
degree of acceptance, tallies with Chinas economic
and social situation and conforms to the peoples
fundamental interests.
China adheres to the principle of combining
government guidance with the wishes of the masses
when carrying out its family planning policy. The
government has always given priority to publicity
and educational work among the masses to enhance
their awareness that birth control, as a fundamental
policy, is of vital importance for the nations prosperity
and the peoples happiness. China has designed
a system offering special support for families
practicing family planning. In 2008, RMB 1.23
billion of family planning fund was offered to 2.05
million people in the country under the incentives
and support system for rural families of family
planning. In 2009, the central government provided
fund of RMB 719 million to the fewer-childrenmeans-faster-prosperity program that benefited over
71,900 households.
China has scored a gigantic success in its
family planning campaign. The birthrate, natural
population growth rate and the total child-bearing
rate of the Chinese women have dropped sharply.
Without the family planning policy adopted by the
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government in 1971, China would have to feed 400

million more people. To a certain extent, this success
has mitigated the contradiction between Chinas
ballooning population and its economic and social
development. It has played an important role in
advancing socialist modernization and raising the
living standard and the quality of the population.
Also it has made an important contribution to the
stability of the worlds population.
The Population size remains the key problem
restricting Chinas economic and social development.
The government insists on the stability and
continuity of the population policy, in order to keep
the total population within 1.36 billion by the end
of 2010 and within 1.45 billion by 2020.
Youth
Young people are the future and hope of a
country. By the end of 2005, the total number
of young people from 14 to 29 years old reached
294 million, accounting for 23% of the total
population. In recent years, the educational level
of school-age young individuals in China has risen
sharply. Compared to 2000, the per capita length
of education grew from 4.5 to 8 years, of which
the population with college degree rose by 21.39
million, and those with senior high school and
junior high school education rose by 9.74 million
and 37.46 million respectively. It is shown in the
China Youth Employment Research Report in 2009
that the average educational level of young Chinese
women is slightly higher than that of men.
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Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) is

a mass organization of advanced youths led by the
Chinese Communist Party, with the democratic
centralism being its organizational principle. The
national organ of the CCYL is the national congress
and the central committee elected at the national
congress. The National Congress of the CCYL is held
every five years. The Communist Youth League has
a magnificent history. It serves as a vital new force
and shock brigade in the founding of the new China,
consolidation of the socialist system and development
of the socialist economy, politics, and culture,
promoting healthy growth of the younger generations.
2. Cultural Life
Education
As a country respecting teachers and emphasizing education, China attaches great importance to
educational development. The strategy of developing
the country through science and education is the
fundamental strategy for the country. The government
has promulgated numerous laws to guarantee its
citizens entitlement to education, especially for the
minorities, children, women and disabled people.
With sustained efforts paid in five decades, China
has made great progress in education, and formed
an educational system adapted to economic and
social development. This system feautures multiple
levels and forms, and covers almost all disciplines.
It includes basic education, secondary vocational
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education, regular higher education, education

for adults, education for ethnic groups, and nongovernment funded education. At present, there are
20.21 million students in universities and colleges,
88.11 million students in middle schools, and 103
million in primary schools.
The system of basic education is under the
macro-guidance of the central government, with the
provincial governments taking the main responsibility
for overall planning. The Ministry of Education is
responsible for formulating the regulations, principles
and policies on basic education as well as general
development planning and basic system of education;
establishing special funds for poor regions, minority
areas and normal education; guiding and supervising
local education departments. Provincial governments
are responsible for the basic education within their
respective region.
More foreign friends come to study in China
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In the early years of the 21st century, a nine-year

compulsory education has been made universal by
and large; since 2003, Distant Learning program
has blanketed 360,000 middle schools and primary
schools in mid and western regions; in the spring of
2007, tuitions and fees for all primary and middle
school students in the countryside have been
exempted; in the autumn of the same year, a new
funding policy for college and secondary vocational
school students from poor families was carried out;
in September, 2008, China exempted all the tuitions
and fees for compulsory education in cities and
countryside alike.
Education is among the first opened-up sectors
in China. At present, Chinas bilateral and multilateral
cooperation and exchanges keep growing, as it has
established educational cooperation and exchanges
with 188 countries and regions in the world as well as
28 international organizations including UNESCO.
154 bilateral and multilateral agreements on
educational cooperation are concluded and in force,
while 77 intergovernmental projects are underway.
China has signed agreements on mutual recognition
of diplomas and degrees with 33 countries and
regions. China has grown into a leading country for
students outflow, which is welcomed among other
countries. In the meantime, China has become a
new destination country for overseas students, as
the growth rate of students inflow exceeding that
of the outflow. New breakthroughs have been made
in international promotion of the Chinese language
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which has become one of the most popular foreign

languages taught in many countries.
Health
The healthcare sector in China has made significant progress since the reform and opening-up. Public
healthcare, healthcare service system, healthcare
security system and medicine supply security system
have taken shape gradually. Medical education and
scientific research is developing rapidly. Traditional
Chinese medicine is being inherited and developed.
Besides, progress and development have been made in
aspects such as primary healthcare, disease prevention
and treatment, patriotic health movement, health laws
system, national health indicators, and international
health exchanges and cooperation.
In China, there are 1.52 medical doctors and 2.45
hospital beds per thousand people. There are highlevel specialized hospitals for cancer, cardiovascular,
ophthalmology, TCM, dental, infectious diseases,
as well as numerous general hospitals in cities like
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing. Mediumsized cities in the provinces and autonomous
regions also have general hospitals and specialized
hospitals with modern medical facilities. A threelevel network of medical treatment, prevention and
health care at county, township and village has taken
a basic shape, as counties have central hospitals,
townships have healthcare centers and administrative
villages have clinics. Thanks to the establishment
and improvement of healthcare facilities, and the
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cultivation of good health habits among the people,

a noticeable improvement of urban and rural peoples
health has been made. The average life expectancy
has reached 72.95 years, approximately up to that of
the moderately developed countries.
Prevention first practice has been one of
the successful experiences for healthcare work in
China. All the administrative regions in the country
have established sanitation and anti-epidemic
stations featuring disease prevention and health
care, which also has health supervision and disease
control functions. Thus, a nationwide network for
health surveillance and disease control has formed.
Establishment and operation of the emergency
response mechanism for unexpected health events
have been brought under a system of laws and
standards. The state has allocated huge investment
to establish the rescue and treatment system against
unexpected health events, in an effort to strengthen
and upgrade the response speed and capabilities of
emergency rescue centers, medical rescue system,
and hospital information management systems. The
country continues to strengthen cooperation with
the World Health Organization in these respects.
Centering on the community healthcare centers
(stations), a network of community healthcare
services with other grass-root medical institutions is
taking shape gradually in medium and large cities
in the country. Community healthcare services
providing prevention-based, general treatment and
healthcare, have extended the coverage from a few
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to the majority of cities in recent years as propelled

by urban health system reform and community
development. These services are becoming more
and more popular among residents. Development
of community healthcare service is adapted to such
changes as urbanization, population aging, and
social status variations, and provides feasible plans
for better healthcare services.
Sports
As sport has developed vigorously in China,
the physical health quality of the Chinese people
has greatly improved, fully deserving the title as an
internationally recognized sporting power. In cities
or villages, on high streets or small lanes, people do
physical exercises by playing shadow boxing, fitness
Sport Activities for Common People during the Keep Fit Day
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Chinese Athletes at 2008 Beijing Olympics
dance, playing balls and kicking shuttlecocks at

sunrise and sunset. In 2009, the State Council set
August 8 of each year as the National Fitness Day.
At the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los
Angles, Chinese shooter Xu Haifeng took the gold
medal in Mens 50m pistol (60 shots) contest, the
first for the 1984 Olympics, and became the first
gold medallist for China in the Olympic history.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games attended by
204 countries and regions, Chinese athletes created
one record after another and have won 51 gold
medals, ranking the first in terms of the number of
gold medals. At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, the
disabled athletes challenged the human limits and
outdid themselves by winning 89 gold medals, 70
silver medals and 52 bronzes, ranking the first in
terms of the number of gold medals and the number
of total medals.
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China is the only country in the world to hold

national farmers games. It was first launched in
1988. Since then, it has been held every four years.
In October 2008, the Sixth National Farmers Games
was unveiled in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province,
which was the first national sports event held in
China following Beijing Olympic Games and
Paralympics Games. In 2010, the 16th Asian Games
will be held in Guangzhou, China.
Religion
China is home to many religions. The main
religions in China are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam,
Catholicism and Christianity. Citizens may freely
choose and express their religious beliefs, and
make clear their religious affiliations. Incomplete
statistics show that China now has more than 100
million religious believers, 130,000 venues for
religious activities, 360,000 clerical persons and
5,500 religious organizations. In addition, there are
110 religious schools and colleges run by religious
organizations for training clerical personnel.
National religious organizations in China
include China Buddhist Association, China Taoist
Association, China Islamic Association, Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association, Chinese Catholic
Bishops College, Three-Self Patriotic Movement
Committee of the Protestant Churches of China
and the China Christian Council. Religious leaders
and leading departments of these religious bodies are
selected in accordance with their own regulations. In
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China, thanks to these correct policies on religions,

different religions and religious organizations as well
as religious people and nonreligious people respect
each other and live in harmony.
Chinas Constitution stipulates that the citizens
enjoy freedom of religious belief. The state protects
normal religious activities and the lawful rights and
interests of the religious circles. The Criminal Law,
Civil Law, Electoral Law, Military Service Law,
Compulsory Education Law and some other laws
contain clear and specific provisions which protect
religious freedom and equal rights of religious
citizens. No state organ, social organization or
individual is allowed to force others to believe in,
or not to believe in any religion; nor may they
discriminate against others who believe in, or do not
believe in any religion.
The Chinese government actively supports
Chinese religious organizations and religious
personnel in their friendly exchanges with foreign
counterparts on the basis of independence, equality
and mutual respect. International relationships
between religious circles are regarded as part of the
non-governmental exchange of the Chinese people
with other peoples in the world. In recent years,
Chinese religious organizations have established
and developed friendly relations with more than
70 countries and regions and sent delegations to
attend many international religious conferences and
symposiums. Chinese religious groups have joined
world religious groups such as the World Fellowship
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of Buddhists, the Supreme Council for Islamic

Affairs, the World Conference on Religion and
Peace, the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace
and the World Council of Churches.
The government department responsible for the
countrys religious affairs is the State Administration
for Religious Affairs of the Peoples Republic of
China.
Mass Media
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press
are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Peoples
Republic of China. Since the reform and openingup, mass media also diversifies as the economic
develops. By the end of 2009, there were 251 radio
stations, 272 TV stations, 2,087 broadcasting and
TV stations, 44 educational TV stations, 173.98
million cable TV users and 62 million digital cable
TV users nationwide. The comprehensive population
coverage of broadcasting programs and that of TV
programs reached 96.3% and 97.2% respectively. A
broadcasting and TV coverage network with satellite,
wireless and cable transmissions was basically
formed. In 2009, 43.7 billion newspapers, 31 billion
periodicals, and 7 billion copies of books were
published. The Internet and mobile phone SMS
which are the most popular and fastest means of
information transmission, find an explosive growth
in China, becoming new information carriers.
New media are growing drastically in China, as the
number of TV, Internet, and mobile phone users
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and netizens already top the world. The number of

the listed new media companies is two to three times
more than traditional types of media companies.
Expositions and Museums
Expositions
Shanghai World Expo
The 2010 Shanghai World Expo is the first such
event in China. With Better City, Better Life as
its theme and with a total investment of RMB 30
billion, this Expo is expected to attract 70 million
visitors from all over the world. It is also the largest
one in the history of the World Expo. As a tradition
of the World Expo, organizers will provide USD
100 million worth of aid money to help developing
countries with their participation, in an effort to
China Pavilion at Shanghai Expo
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attract more developing countries and international

organizations.
China Import and Export Fair
Founded in the Spring of 1957, China Import and
Export Fair is also referred to as the Canton Fair, which
is sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and held
twice a year in Spring and Autumn in Guangzhou
(Canton). Through over 50 years of efforts, it has
grown into a comprehensive international trade event
with the longest history, highest level and largest scale
in China. It has the most complete commodities,
covers the most countries and regions, boasts the
most businessmen, the best transaction effects and
reputation. Each fair provides 50,000 international
standard booths and attracts 260,000 to 300,000
overseas businessmen, earning the title No.1 Trade
Show in China.
China-ASEAN Expo
Founded in 2004, the China-ASEAN Expo
is a state-level international economic and trade
event jointly hosted by China, economic and trade
authorities of the ten ASEAN countries and the
ASEAN Secretariat. It is regularly held in Nanning,
Guangxi in China. This Expo has been held
successfully for four times. With the powerful
support from governments of the 11 countries
involved, boasting broad markets and preferential
policies of China-ASEAN free trade zone, this
Expo is very popular among political and business
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communities in these 11 countries. It is growing into

an optimal platform to promote Chinas cooperation
with ASEAN countries in trade, investment and
tourism.
China Beijing International High-tech
Expo
China Beijing International High-tech Expo
was first staged in 1998 by the Ministry of Science
and Technology, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry
of Education, Ministry of Information Technology,
China Council for the Promotion of International
Trade, the State Intellectual Property Office, and the
Peoples Government of Beijing Municipality. This
large state-level science and technology exhibition is
undertaken by Beijing Council for the Promotion
of International Trade in May each year in Beijing.
The mission is to promote the commoditization,
marketization and internationalization of hightech industry. Over a decade, the expo keeps
extending its coverage of fields and deepening its
service functions. With an ever-growing domestic
and overseas importance, this event has become a
key activity in Chinas international exchanges and
cooperation for science and technology, economic
and trade with other countries. Moreover, it has
established a noticeable brand of professional and
international level in showing the latest scientific
and technological results, disseminating pioneering
ideas, releasing industry information, and promoting
international economic and technical cooperation.
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Museums
At present, there are 1,593 museums in China.
With the addition of some special museums
sponsored by non-governmental organizations and
individuals, there are totally over 2,300 museums,
which comprise four categories. Firstly, the history
museums such as China National Museum and
Museum of Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses.
Secondly, the arts museums such as the Palace
Museum. Thirdly, the nature and science museums
such as China Geography Museum and lastly,
museums for general purposes, such as Shandong
Provincial Museum and Museum of Tibet.
Palace Museum
The Palace Museum sits in the heart of Beijing,
previously called the Forbidden City. As the royal
palace for Ming and Qing dynasties, it was the place
for 24 emperors to administrate state affairs and
to live. This priceless cultural relic is a symbol of
both supreme authority and mystery. Construction
starting in 1406 and completed in 1420, the palace
has an approximate space of 725,000 square meters
and 155,000 square meters of floor area. Most of
the structures within the Palace Museum are made
of wood. Buildings in the complex are roofed
with yellow glazed tiles, placed on greenish white
marble base, and decorated with splendid paintings.
The Palace Museum is the largest and most intact
ancient architecture complex of unparallel position
in the world.
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The Palace Museum
Holidays and Vacations

The first category of holidays and vacations
is weekends, which means two days off each week
(Saturday and Sunday).
The second is holidays for everyone, which
include the New Year (one day off on January 1),
the Spring Festival (three days off, starting from the
Lunar New Years Eve plus two more days thereafter),
the International Labor Day (one day off on May
1), the National Day (three days off on October 1,
2 and 3), the Tomb-sweeping Day (one day off), the
Dragon Boat Festival (one day off ), and the MidAutumn Festival (one day off).
The third category holidays and memorial
days are just for some people. These include the
Womens Day (half a day off on March 8), the Youth
Day (half a day off on May 4 for youths above 14
years old), the Childrens Day (one day off on June
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1 for children under 13 years old), and the Army

Day commemorating the founding of the Peoples
Liberation Army (half a day off on August 1 for all
the soldiers in service).
The fourth category holidays are based on
customs of the ethnic minorities, which are decided
by the local peoples governments where the
minorities live in light of their specific customs.
If holidays for everyone happen to fall on
Saturday or Sunday, then people can get one or
two days off on workdays. As for the holidays for
just some people, if they coincide with Saturday or
Sunday, they will not be put off in turn on workdays.
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Language,
Literature, Arts,
Culture and Customs
Chinas literature and arts have a long history.
They are the treasures of the nation and greatly enrich
the fruits of the human civilization.
China is one of the countries with the richest
intangible cultural heritages in the world. In June
2006, the State Council promulgated the list of the
first group of state-level intangible cultural heritages,
which included a total of 518 items in ten categories,
including folk literature, folk music, folk dance,
traditional drama, folk art forms, acrobatics and
athletics, folk fine arts, traditional craftsmanship,
traditional medicine and folk customs. Chinas Kunqu
opera, Guqin art, the art of Chinese Uyghur Muqam
and Pastoral Songs of the Mongolian ethnic group
have all won the title of Masterpieces of the Oral and
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity conferred
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 2001, Chinese
Tibetan epic King Gesar, the longest epic in the world,
was listed by UNESCO in the world millennium
memorials.
The policy for the development of Chinas literature and arts is to let a hundred flowers blossom and a
hundred schools of thought contend.
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Language, Literature, Arts, Culture and Customs
1. Languages
China is a country that advocates the Chinese
characters and attaches importance to recording
thoughts with the characters. The Chinese characters
record the Chinese language. With a history of more
than 6,000 years, they are one of the oldest written
characters in the world. Oracle bone inscriptions, the
oldest Chinese characters discovered so far, were used
more than 3,400 years ago and were very mature
and advanced characters. The fact that the Chinese
characters go down in history for several thousand
years and remain unchanged is something in which
the nation can take pride.
There is no accurate statistics as to the number
of Chinese characters.Approximately there are
100,000 and the number of modern characters in
common use lies somewhere between 4,000 and
8,000, most of them being phonograms. Long years
have led to changes between ancient and current
pronunciation, but the form and the meaning
remain relatively stable, so Chinese characters have
become an important means in spreading Chinese
civilization. It is not only the written signs of the
Han Nationality but also the universal signs for
all ethnic minorities. And it represents the official
language of China in international activities as well,
playing an immeasurable role in maintaining China
as a unified multi-ethnic country.
The Chinese language is the language with the
most speakers in the world, with a total of about 1.2
billion people. In addition to the Chinese mainland,
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Taiwan Province and the Special Administrative

Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, a considerable
portion of people in Singapore and Malaysia also
speak Chinese. Tens of thousands of Chinese
descendants living in every part of the world also
speak various dialects of Chinese as their mother
tongue.
China has a vast territory and a large population,
and even when speaking Chinese, people in different
parts speak different dialects. Currently the Chinese
language includes seven dialects, namely, the dialects
of north, Wu, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Min, and Yue.
If people in different parts all speak their own
dialects, they will have difficulties in communicating
with one another. The government attaches great
importance to the popularization of Putonghua
(Mandarin Chinese) and encourages people to speak
it. Putonghua facilitates communication between
people from different areas and ethnic groups.
With the rapid economic development of
China and the continuous increase of international
exchanges, the application value of the Chinese
language keeps on rising, with the global Chinese
Fever escalating continually. According to
incomplete statistics, over one hundred international
organizations, multinationals, international
media and world-famous universities have their
own Chinese websites and web pages. The State
Department of the United States has also established
its web pages in Chinese. Against the background
of globalization, learning Chinese means having the
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key to the gate of an important and vast market.

Today in the world, the number of people who learn
Chinese through a wide spectrum of means is more
than 30 millionmore than 2,500 universities in one
hundred countries are teaching Chinese; more and
more middle and primary schools begin to provide
Chinese courses; and the number of social training
institutions keeps on increasing with a strong and
swift development momentum.
2. Literature
As the first written collection of Chinese
poetry edited in the 6 th century BC, the Book of
Odes stands for the earliest accomplishment of
Chinas literature. This book represents the culture
of the Yellow River reaches, and embraces a total
of 305 poems, of which a lot are masterpieces in
the long history of Chinese literature, and are the
invaluable heritage of the nation. Written in the
Warring States Period, Chu Ci represents the culture
of the Yangtze River reaches, and is romantic and
diversified in its artistic representation, having a
huge impact on Chinese poems of later generations.
Tang Poems, Song Ci and Yuan Verses constitute
the most colorful articles in the Chinese literature,
with a wide spectrum of literary schools such as the
Frontier Fortress School, the Mountain-Water-Field
School, the Haofang (unrestrained) School, and the
Wanyue (subtle) School showing their respective
advantages. Literary giants such as Li Bai, Du Fu,
Su Shi, Lu You, Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Pu, and Guan
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Hanqing have been remembered by later generations

for thousands of years, and have become well-known
to every household in China. In the Ming and Qing
Dynasties, fiction creation reached its summit. With
their rich cultural and historical contents and unique
artistic styles, four long novels including Romance
of Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to
the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber have been
enjoying reputations in ancient times and today
and will go down forever in the world. The study of
the Dream of the Red Chamber has become a special
knowledge prevalent in the world.
Modern Chinese literature started from the
1920s and 1930s, with writing colloquial articles
being the mainstream and the concept of modern
humanity being the value standard. It has remained
an orthodox literature form in nearly the whole of
the subsequent century. The core spirit is to oppose
feudal culture, criticize autocratic system, maintain
and show the personalities of the people, and call for
the emancipation of humanity. Literary giants such
as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Shen Congwen, Ba Jin, Lao
She, and Bing Xin have created the cause of modern
Chinese literature. Since the 1990s, younger writers
have stepped onto the stage of Chinese literature,
making literature more diversified.
3. Arts
Calligraphy and Painting
Calligraphy is the art of writing Chinese
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characters, an artistic form with aesthetic nature,

in which Chinese characters are written with brush
in a wide variety of styles such as seal character,
official script, regular script, running script, and
cursive. It lays emphasis on brush holding, brush
using, stipple, structure, ink skill, and composition
skill. Calligraphy has a history of more than 3,000
years, burgeoned from bronze inscriptions in the
Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and evolved later to
seal character in the Qin Dynasty, official script in
the Han Dynasty, cursive in the Jin Dynasty, tablet
inscriptions in the Northern Dynasties, regular
script in the Tang Dynasty and running script in the
Song Dynasty, each with its respective advantages.
Calligraphy is not only the cultural treasure of China
but also shows its unique merit in the world cultural
and art field. Preface to the Orchid Pavilion, the
copybook in the running script and the masterpiece
of Wang Xizhi who was a master calligrapher in the
Eastern Jin Dynasty, is honored as the Number One
Running Script on the Earth by the calligraphic
circle. A large group of master calligraphers in the
Tang Dynasty thronged onto the calligraphic stage,
such as Chu Suiliang, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu
Gongquan, who had their respective advantages and
disadvantages, and diversified styles in calligraphic
study.
Chinas painting art has a long history and runs a
long, long way. After thousands of years of continuous
improvement, innovations and developments, artists
and painting artisans from Han Nationality and
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The handwritings by Wang Xizhi, a famous calligrapher
ethnic minorities have created rich and colorful

forms and techniques with striking national styles
and shaped a painting language system with unique
Chinese charms, which holds an important position
and has influence in the oriental art circle and even
the worlds art circle. Relying on the special materials
including brush, water ink and rice paper, Chinese
painting takes mountains, water, flowers and birds
as its themes, seeks more than mere likeness in
appearance and pays more attention to likeness in
spirit. When depicting mountains, water, flowers
and birds, the painters pay attention to their verve
and essence and show an elegant, leisured, and
lively painting spirit, which has enabled the Chinese
painting to hold a unique position in the world.
Western paintings such as oil painting, print painting
and water color painting also have room to develop in
China, and works of diversified styles crop up in the
painting circle. Modern art based on various modern
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materials, formats, frameworks and techniques

also has a footing in China, because new media art
works including video, digit, cartoon and sound arts
frequently show their appearances in contemporary
art exhibitions at home and abroad, and are loved
by people. Art museums, such as the National Art
Museum of China, hold painting exhibitions all the
year round and the gallery industry gradually follows
international practices in recent years.
Music and Dance
Chinese music has a history of more than 7,000
years. The nation has created a rich music culture. In
the long history, there are many prosperous periods
for music culture. For example, lyre music such as
Guang Ling San (Guangling Melody), and Hu Jia
Shi Ba Pai (Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute), and
lute music Shi Mian Mai Fu (Ambush on All Sides),
and national orchestral music A Night of Flowers
and Moonlight by the Spring River are all typical
examples of excellent music in ancient China. Since
the middle of the 20th century, Chinese music art has
opened a new page in history. Historic progresses
have been made in many fields such as symphony,
chorus, opera, piano, violin, and musicians have
created a group of works that reflect time spirit and
national spirit with optimal artistic quality. The
following are very good examples: large-scale dance
epic The East is Red, film music Liu San Jie, and
opera The Red Guards on Honghu Lake. Musicians
have made attempts in utilizing western music
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instruments to compose music with Chinese flavor,

such as violin concerto Liang Zhu, and piano music
The Yellow River (Huang He) and so on.
Chinese musicians and music art performance
troupes have extensively participated in all kinds of
international music exchanges and competitions,
and lots of them have won top achievements.
In recent years, Chinas national music has been
receiving extensive attentions from many countries,
and in every Spring Festival, Chinese musicians
are invited to hold Chinese New Year Concert in
Vienna Golden Hall. To strengthen exchanges with
developing countries, China has founded Oriental
Song & Dance Ensemble which is dedicated to
learning and singing folk songs from other countries
in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and since then the
music of developing countries has begun to influence
Chinese music.
Large-scale music festivals are also conducted
in many places in China. For example, grand arts
festivals such as the annual Shanghai International
Arts Festival, Beijing International Music Festival
and Beijing International Drama Festival have
attracted a large group of world-famous musicians
and first class music and arts performance troupes to
come to China for a visit and performance.
With a long history of more than 5,000 years,
Chinese dance has a deep art accumulation. It has
various forms of dances from different ethnic groups
and regions, which have their unique characteristics
and tones. Sacrifice dance, performance dance, social
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intercourse dance, educational dance, religious dance

and industrial dance all have a footing in the dance
circle. Classical court music dance, gigaku dance,
custom dance, religious dance are the important
components of the traditional Chinese dance.
China has a lot of folk dances, such as Yang Ge of
the Han nationality in the northern part of China,
Tea-picking Lantern and Flower Lantern in the
southern part of China, and Mangshi dance of the
Manchu, Maxrap of the Uygur nationality, and
Xuanzi dance of the Tibetan nationality, and they
are all beautiful and diversified.
Drama and Film
Chinese drama, Greek tragicomedy and Indian
Sanskrit Drama are equally called the three ancient
dramatic cultures in the world. Chinese drama
includes more than 300 kinds and utilizes songs and
dances as the main means to express the plots of
plays.
In the past one hundred years, Beijing (Peking)
opera was the most influential and representative
drama in China. It is rich in opera item, strict in
tone and rhyme, and melodious in music, with equal
emphasis on performing, singing, playing, reciting
and martial arts, utilizing multi-colored facial makeup and employing particular costumes of many
styles, shaping a standardized performance system.
Artistic schools with unique styles and large groups
of artists with perfect performance skills emerged
in different development periods of Beijing opera.
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As an outstanding master in this area, Mei Lanfang

took over the accomplishments of Chinese opera
art from the past and set a new course for its future
development.
Prevalent in various places of China are operas
with unique styles, which are very active up to now.
With innovations being continually made on the
basis of their respective traditions, a large spectrum
of operas, such as Shaoxing Opera, Hunagmei
Opera, Sichuan Opera, Henan Opera, Guangdong
Opera, Kunqu Opera and Tibetan Opera, have
become very popular with the people.
Chinese drama came into being in 1907 and
has undergone a progress of more than one hundred
years by now. Works such as Thunderstorm, Sunrise,
and Teahouse are classic masterpieces. Beijing Peoples
Art Theatre was founded in 1952, and its works
stand for the top level of Chinese drama. Works such
as Teahouse and Dragon Beard Ditch enjoy very high
reputations. Chinas dramas of the vanguard school
have been recognized by most young audiences
because their themes are mostly based on the lives
of the contemporary people and avant-garde artistic
expression techniques are employed in them.
Having undergone a development history of one
hundred years, Chinas movie has witnessed great
changes. As an important carrier, Chinese movie,
a new artistic form, has always been shouldering
the holy mission of carrying forward the Chinese
culture, inspiring national spirit, and invigorating
peoples spirit. People have created a large group of
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masterpieces that reflect the spirit of times. Through

the arduous and unremitting efforts made by
several generations of movie workers, contemporary
Chinese movie industry has already created a largescale system of film making, distribution, and
projection, with relatively high artistic and technical
levels. China has become one of the main movie
producers and consumers in the world. China holds
international film festivals annually and the relatively
influential ones include Changchun International
Film Festival and Shanghai International Film
Festival. The top prize for outstanding Chinese
movies is the Golden Rooster Award. To encourage
the development of mainstream movies, the state has
established the special the Huabiao Awards as well
as the Hundred Flowers Awards whose winners are
elected by the audience.
Handicraft and Architecture
Chinas handicraft dates back to ancient times.
It is broad and profound, with a wide range of
categories and consummate skills. The handicraft
works embrace unique Chinese cultural memory,
national feeling, and the wisdom and creativity of
the nation, and demonstrate peoples understanding
of beauty and pursuit of good life, thereby
constituting an important and integral part of the
Chinese civilization.
Skills for making handicrafts include cutting,
tying, twining, weaving, embroidering, carving,
molding, and drawing, and have strong local
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features and national styles. In February 2009,

the exhibition for traditional skills of intangible
cultural heritages with the largest scale and the
most complete categories since the founding of the
republic was held in Agriculture Exhibition Center.
The exhibition focused on displaying invaluable
folk skills such as Cutting, Carving and Drawing,
Printing and Decorating, Pottery Making and
Ware Burning, Engraving and Molding, Metal
Forging, and Tea Making and Wine Brewing. 130
representative successors to traditional skill items
in the state-level intangible cultural heritage list
performed their wonderful and incomparable skills
on the spot, which all won praises and exclamations
from the audience.
As one of the three main architectural systems in
the world, Chinas architectural art enjoys the same
reputation together with western architecture and
Islamic architecture, holding a proud position in the
culture of world architecture. Chinese architecture is
the only system in the world that is mainly based on
wood structure. For example, Qiniandian (Hall of
Prayer for Good Harvests) in the Temple of Heaven
adopts the traditional Chinese wood structure that
is very exquisite, becoming the largest building with
round wood structure currently existing in Beijing.
In 1998, it was selected to be a cultural heritage
and listed in the World Heritage List by the World
Heritage Committee of UNESCO. The buildings
of all ethnic minorities have their own styles and
have greatly enriched the overall picture of Chinas
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architectural system. In particular, the architectures

of the Tibetan, the Uyghur, the Dai and the Dong
Nationalities are very much characteristic.
The architecture of contemporary China
develops rapidly with a huge number of creations.
The exterior structure of the Bird Nest, a landmark
building for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, mainly
consists of huge portal steel framework, and the
entire building is connected via a huge network
structure. The grey mineral-like steel network is
covered with transparent membrane materials and it
contains a riddle colored stand in the stadium. Here
the hollowing method and the porcelain texture lines
in traditional Chinese culture perfectly integrate
with the most advanced steel structure design in the
current age. Bird Nest has creative significance in
the development history of world architecture and
will witness the architectural development of China
and the world in the 21st century. The membrane
Bird Nest, Main Venue of 2008 Beijing Olympic
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structure of the main swimming pool (also called

water cube) built for 2008 Olympic Games has
become the number one in the world. It is designed
according to the arrangement form of a cell and
the natural structure of a soap bubble, with more
than 30,000 steel components being all different
in positions. This independent innovative hi-tech
achievement filled in the vacancy in the history of
world architecture.
4. Culture and Custom

Food Culture
In terms of tableware, one very important
feature is the use of chopsticks. Chopsticks have a
long history in China, and they are usually made
with bamboo. With one pair of chopsticks in hands,
one is able to use them freely as one wishes. And
they are inexpensive and convenient. Upon seeing
how the Chinese use chopsticks, many people from
Europe and America acclaim this is the peak of
perfection and claim it is a kind of artistic creation.
In eating pattern, Chinese like gathering
together to eat, and this custom originates at an early
period and goes down up to today. The long-term
prevalence of this custom reflects that the Chinese
attach importance to kinship and family values.
The Chinese have always been well known in the
world for their extensive cookbooks and exquisite
cooking techniques. Chinese cuisine usually includes
Four Flavors and Eight Cuisines. The four
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flavors refer to Lu, Chuan, Yue, and Huaiyang. The

eight cuisines generally refer to Shandong Cuisine,
Sichuan Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine,
Zhejiang Cuisine, Anhui Cuisine, Guangdong
Cuisine, and Fujian Cuisine. Beijing cuisine is
complex and diversified and embraces flavors from
various areas, with a lot of famous cuisines, including
cuisine with court flavor, tasty quick-boiled port in
casserole, crisp and savory roast duck, and steaming
hot pot. There are many beautiful and delicious
cuisines for you to enjoy.
In traditional folk festivals, the Chinese have
fixed dietary customs. In the Spring Festival, all
families in northern China have dumplings and
people from almost all parts of the country have rice
cakes, symbolizing that life will be better and better.
In the Lantern Festival, people in northern China
have rice glue balls, while people in southern China
have sweet soup balls. In the Dragon Boat Festival,
all families have zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings) to
commemorate Qu Yuan, the great poet of China. In
the Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone has moon cakes
to signify the reunion of the whole family.
Wine Culture
Wine culture has always been holding important
positions in the 5,000-year-long history of the
nation. As a special cultural form, wine culture has a
unique position in the traditional Chinese culture.
The majority of Chinese wine is brewed with
grain, and wine is closely affiliated to agriculture,
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so it becomes a part of the agricultural economy.

Chinese wine appears with countless colors and
luster. The vast varieties and abundant output can be
called Top of the World.
Brewed in Renhuai Town, Zunyi County,
Guizhou Province, Guizhou Maotai Wine is one of
the three famous distilled wines that enjoy the same
reputation. The other two are whisky in Scotland
and Cognac brandy in France. Maotaiis honored as
State Wine. Maotai is pure, transparent, fragrant,
soft in mouth, cool, tasty and refreshing, and with
long lasting fragrance. It has won international gold
medals for 14 times, and won gold medals for all
national famous wine appraisements in China, and
is sold in every part of the world. At the ceremony
celebrating the founding of the republic in 1949,
Maotai served as the wine for state banquet, and
henceforth it has been appointed to be the wine for
state banquets celebrating the National Day every
year. In historic events such as Geneva peace talks,
establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations,
establishment of Sino-Japan diplomatic relations,
Maotai Wine became a special ice-breaking
medium. For many times, Chinese leaders have
given it to foreign leaders as a state gift.
Tea Culture
Chinas tea has a long history. There is a very
early record about tea drinking in history. The
customs of tea drinking in many places in the world
originated in China. China has a wide variety of
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teas, which are beautiful and wonderful. With tea as

a necessity in peoples daily life, the tea culture with
rich characteristics is formed in the long history.
According to different processing methods, tea can
be divided into 6 types, namely, green tea, black
tea, blue tea, white tea, yellow tea and dark tea. The
green tea is a type of tea with the largest output in
China, with its main planting bases being Zhejiang,
Anhui and Jiangxi. In the international market,
Chinas green tea accounts for more than 70% of
the total amount of the international tea trade, and
it is sold to dozens of countries and regionsin Asia,
Africa, Europe and the Americas. The sales volume
of green tea in the international market accounts
for more than one-third of the total volume sold
in China. White tea is Chinas specialty, which is
mainly planted in Fujian Province.
Chinas famous teas are the best teas selected
from numerous varieties, enjoying high reputation
in the world. China top ten famous teas include
West Lake Longjing Tea of Hangzhou, Dongting
Biluochun Tea of Suzhou, Maofeng Tea of Huang
Shan, Anxi Tieguanyin Tea, Yueyang Junshan
Yinzhen Tea, Yunnan Puer Tea, Jiujiang Lushan
Yunwu Tea, Qimen Black Tea, Suzhou Jasmine Tea,
and Liuan Guapian Tea.
Chinas tea ware also has a long history. It has
undergone developments and innovations in its long
history and its artistic model keeps on improving,
emphasizing elaborate processing and decoration.
The ware includes two series of products, which are
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the world-famous Jingdezhen porcelain and Yixing

purple-sand pottery. People can appreciate all kinds
of tea wares while sipping tea, so tea drinking reflects
a warm and cheerful aesthetic atmosphere.
Folk Houses
Due to different natural environments in China,
different civilian housing styles are gradually formed
in various places.
The traditional Chinese housing mainly consists
of courtyard houses with wood structures, numerous
in quantity and vast in distribution. This kind of
houses are mainly houses with wood structures,
with the main hall or main house being built on
the south-north principal axis line, and with east
and west side chambers being built on the left and
right sides in front of the main house, and with
the two side chambers facing opposite each other,
namely, siheyuan (courtyard house) . These houses
are distributed in all cities, towns and villages,
but they have their own features due to different
natural conditions and life styles in different areas.
Beijing Siheyua is their representative, as it contains
profound cultural connotations and is the carrier
of the traditional Chinese culture. The decoration,
engraving and colored drawing or pattern on
siheyuan demonstrate folk custom and traditional
culture, showing peoples pursuit for happiness, good
future, wealth and luckiness.
There are a lot of names for house in southern
China, whose plane layout is generally consistent
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with that of the siheyuan in northern China. The

difference is only that its courtyard is relatively
small, called parvis and is only used for drainage and
enjoying daylight. In watery town in Southern China,
house is usually built by a river, with its front door
leading to an alley and its back door facing water.
Each household has its own quay for use in washing,
getting water and getting onto or off a boat. Thus,
it forms a unique housing culture, which is skilful,
exquisite and warmhearted.
In areas in the middle and upper reaches of the
Yellow River in northern China, there are relatively
more cave-houses. In the loess areas including
Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan and Shanxi, local civilians
dig horizontal caves within natural loess walls. They
usually connect several caves and lay bricks within
the caves for reinforcement when building cavehouses. In a cave-house, it is warm in winter and
cool in summer. It saves land and building cost,
so it is the perfect building style based on local
conditions.
Due to economic development, the increase of
population and the growing modernization, most
city dwellers live in storied buildings. Building styles
keep on changing and updating and get diversified
with colorful features. And buildings are getting
higher and higher with each passing day.
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Science, Technology
and Intellectual
Property
China invented papermaking, printing, compass
and gun power. China also invented silk, porcelain
and bronze wares. Coming into the 21st century,
the Chinese government takes it as the core of the
national development strategy and the key to the
improvement of comprehensive national power to
improve independent innovation capability and
build an innovative country, and innovation is in
an outstanding position in promoting the national
economy. Currently Chinas science and technology are
developing rapidly, interdisciplinary integration speeds
up, new disciplines keep on cropping up, and the
period for technical updating and commercialization
of research findings becomes shorter. The fastest
development and the largest leap in the entire history
of the Chinese nation have been realized in the cause of
science and technology.
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Science, Technology and Intellectual Property
1. Science and Technology

Strategy of Scientific and Technological
Development
Science and Technolog y Progress Act, issued
and implemented in July, 1993, comprehensively
prescribes the goal, role, fund source and awarding
system of Chinas scientific progress and has become
basic code guiding the scientific development in
China. Law on Popularization of Science and Technology
issued in and implemented since June 2003 makes it
a standard code of behavior to popularize and elevate
the scientific awareness among citizens.
The State Council publicized The State
Medium- and Long-Term Program for Scientific
Development (2006-2020) on 9 February, 2006.
The program defines 16 major scientific fields
and crucial issues which the state plans to make
technical breakthroughs in the next 15 years. It
covers information, biology, energy, resource,
environment and health. Also involved are jumbo
jet R&D, manned space flight and exploration on
the moon. Besides, national engineering centers,
key laboratories and technology centers in the
IT, biology and environment protection fields are
planned. The program will develop key technology
and equipments for commuter aircrafts, new energy
vehicles and high-speed trains. In 2008, the central
government allocated fund of RMB 113.4 billion for
scientific development, 13.4 billion more than the
previous year. In the next 15 years, China will invest
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a lot more capital in scientific field and establish a

diversified and multi-channel technological R&D
system. By 2020, the share of GDP representing the
fund for scientific research and technological test and
development will be increased from 1.34% in 2005
to above 2.5% and the contribution rate of scientific
and technological progress above 60%.
System of Science and Technology
China has 5 systems pertaining to scientific
research, namely Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS),
universities, industrial sectors, national defense sectors
and regional scientific research institutes. China
Association for Science and Technology (CAST)
which includes over 160 scientific institutions and
their affiliates nationwide is a key force in scientific
and technological researches. As the highest level
academic institution and comprehensive research
center in China, CAS has under its jurisdiction
departments of math, physics, chemistry, geology,
biology and technology, and over 100 research
institutes all over the country. By 2010, CAS plans to
have built 80 national research institutes with strong
technological, innovative and sustainable development
capabilities. 30 of them should be able to become
renowned high-level research institutes universally
recognized by the world.
CAS Academician, the highest academic title for
science and technology in the nation, is an honor for
life. There are currently 707 CAS Academicians. As
the highest level consultative institution in national
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engineering scientific and technological field, the

Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) makes
strategic studies on important engineering scientific
and technological issues and provides advisory
services. There are currently 704 CAE Academicians
and 35 million scientists and engineers in China,
ranking first in the world. There are 1.36 million
full-time R&D engineers which rank second in the
world. Scientists and engineers under age 45, the
backbone of the science course in China, account for
close to 80% of the total.
Science and Technology Achievements
Starting form 2002, China has changed its
technological development strategy from tracking
and imitation to innovation and technological
leapfrogs. Reinforcing the innovation capability
has become a base point for its scientific and
technological development. The overall gap is
obviously narrowing between the R&D level in the
high-tech field of the country and that of the world.
Over 60% of the technology have attained or got
close to internationally advanced level, including
technology relating to nuclear, space, high-energy
physics, biology, IT and human simulation. Other
achievements include super hybrid paddy rice, the
electron-positron collider, the Galaxy supercomputer
and introduction of 1st 64-bit high performance
general purpose CPU chips, the sequencing of
the human genome and many others. All these
achievements have marked the footsteps on the way
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of the technological development. The successful

launches of the manned spacecrafts in 2003, 2005
and 2008 indicate the leap-forward progress in
Chinas space technology. In accordance with moon
exploration plan introduced in February 2004,
China will launch an unmanned exploratory device
to the moon by 2010 and accomplish sample
collection on the moon by 2020.
The High Yield Grain Project
This project enables the coverage rate of the
improved varieties of the staple grain reach up to over
90%, with increased per unit output and series of
high yield record. It is a great achievement recognized
all over the world that China supports its people
which takes up 22% of the worlds total population
and make them live a comfortable life with its arable
land that takes up just 9% of the worlds total.
The Laser Phototypesetting System of Chinese
Characters
The system is a fundamental breakthrough of
the basic theory, which brought about revolutionary
changes to the publication and printing industries
and greatly increased efficiency. While promoting
Chinese culture, the system also has far-reaching
effect on the publication and printing industries in
Japan and Korea.
Artificially Synthesized Bovine Insulin
This was the first time in human history to have
artificially synthesized protein. Before it happened,
it was generally believed that the living things were
natural so it was impossible to synthesize. It was the
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Chinese who made this a reality. The technology is a

fundamental breakthrough in life science.
Artemether
This is a medicine with a brand new chemical
structure, which was invented by the Chinese and
is acknowledged internationally as a purely Chinese
medicine. Up to the end of 2005, the medicine has
been designated as one of the first medicines for
malaria by 26 Asian and African countries, setting
a milestone in the treatment of this highly infective
disease.
Shenzhou (Divine Ship) VII Manned Spacecraft
The spacecraft was launched in October, 2008.
For the first time in the Chinese history, Chinese
astronauts did a space walk, a preparation for the
orbit dockings in 2009 and 2010.
Chang E Satellite
The satellite made a three-dimensional, digital
map of the moon, the first in the world, which
indicates that Chinas exploration project of the
moon has entered a new stage, from theory to
ChangE One Satellite successfully hit the Moon
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exploration and verification.

Compass (Beidou) Navigation Satellite
China successfully launched its Compass-G1 on
14 April, 2007. Two years later on 15 April, 2009,
Compass-G2 was put into the orbit by Long March
3B. Chinese CNSS (Compass/Beidou Navigation
Satellite System) is the third mature and proven
system after American GPS and Russian GLONASS.
China has always been exploring and developing
navigation satellite system that possesses its own
proprietary intellectual property rights. The wellestablished system plays a very important role in
mapping, telecommunication, water conservancy,
traffic and transportation, fishery, prospecting, forest
fire protection and national security.
J-10 Jet Fighter
China unveiled its J-10 jet fighter on December
29, 2006. Now it has become the most advanced
main jet fighter for the Chinese Air force. J-10
Project has been awarded 2006 Special Award for
National Technological Progress, the second such
award for the key technological program after
Chinas space program.
International Cooperation
China has signed technological cooperative
agreements with over 100 governments and
international organizations and joined over 1,000
such organizations. Non-governmental technical
cooperation and exchanges are even more active.
More than 250 CAS scientists hold positions
in various international science organizations.
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National Natural Science Foundation of China has

signed cooperative agreements and MOUs with
science foundations in 36 countries. By joining the
worlds big scientific engineering programs such
as human genome program, European Galileo
Satellite Positioning and Navigation Program and
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
Program, China has entered a new age of winwin on equal footing in the international scientific
cooperation.
China International Scientific and Technological
Co-operation award is a national award given by the
State Council to the foreign scientists, engineers,
technical managers, experts and organizations who
make important contributions to the bilateral and
multilateral scientific cooperation in Chinas science
and technology cause.
2. Protection of Intellectual Property

Rights
China has become a big country with many
intellectual proper ty rights. Protecting the
intellectual property rights has become a conscious
action of the Chinese government which believes
that this protection plays an important role in
promoting science and technology, thriving culture
and developing economy. It is not only an important
system that guarantees the normal operation of
the socialist market economy but also the basic
environment and one of the conditions for the
international exchanges and cooperation in scientific,
economic and cultural fields.
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China focuses its intellectual property rights

protection strategy on 1) perfecting the IP system,
law enforcement and management system; 2)
promoting creation and utilization of intellectual
property right, making enterprises as the main body
of these creation and utilizations; 3) enforcing the
protection of the intellectual property right and
increasing the punishment for violation; 4) avoiding
the right abuses and reasonably defining it so as
to maintain fair competition and protect public
interests and 5) cultivating an IP culture that respects
knowledge, upholds innovation and abides by law.
Though China is still a developing country
which faces challenges in the protection of
intellectual property right, it never slows down its
steps to strengthen this protection. China has done
lots of work in the legislation and execution of
intellectual property right.
The functional government departments
that enforce intellectual property right protection
include State Intellectual Property Office, State
Administration for Industry and Commerce, the
General Administration of Press and Publication,
National Copyright Administration, Ministry of
Culture, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public
Security, General Administration of Customs, the
Supreme Peoples Court and the Supreme Peoples
Procuratorate. In 2004, China established a working
group of intellectual property right protection
headed by vice premier of the State Council,
responsible for the overall coordination of the
national IP right protection.
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Harmonious
China and
Harmonious World
The theory of building a harmonious socialist
society was first put forward at the 4th Plenary
Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in
2004. In the following year, China presented this
concept for the first time at the Asia-Africa Summit.
China is determined to build a harmonious society
characterized by democracy and rule of law, equity
and justice, honesty and fraternity, vigor and vitality,
stability and order, and harmony between man and
nature. China advocate building a harmonious
world where all countries uphold multilateralism
for common security, adhere to mutually beneficial
cooperation for common prosperity, and uphold the
spirit of inclusiveness for a harmonious world.
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1. Building a Harmonious Society

Goals and Major Tasks
By 2020, China will achieve its goals and tasks
for building a harmonious socialist society. By that
time, the socialist democracy and the legal system
will be improved; the basic strategy of the rule of law
will be implemented across the board; the peoples
rights and interests will be steadfastly respected
and guaranteed; the trend of widening difference
between urban and rural development and among
regions will be gradually reversed; the reasonable
and orderly income distribution will basically take
shape; the family properties will generally increase;
the people will lead a more affluent life; the people
Harmonious World was proposed at the Asian-African

Summit in 2005
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Harmonious China and Harmonious World
in our society will be fully employed; a basic social

security system will cover all the urban and rural
residents; a basic public service system will be further
improved; the administrative and service level of the
government will see relatively bigger improvements;
the whole nation will see a big rise in the ideological
and ethical standards; scientific, cultural and healthy
qualities will be achieved and the good social
morals and harmonious interpersonal relationships
will be formed; the creativity of the whole society
will be markedly enhanced; an innovation-based
country will be established in general; the public
administration system will be further improved; the
good social order will be attained; the efficiency of
utilization of resources will be markedly enhanced
and visible progress in ecological environment will be
made; the target of building a moderately prosperous
society that benefits over one billion Chinese people
will be achieved, a society where everyone does his
best, attains proper social positions and gets along
peacefully with others.
Adherence to the Scientific Outlook
on Development
Development is the theme of contemporary
China. The Chinese Communist Party and the
Chinese Government put forward the strategic
thought of adopting a scientific approach to
commanding the economic and social development.
Meeting the new development requirements, the
scientific outlook on development is a great strategic
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thinking based on the basic national conditions

of the primary stage of socialism by summarizing
and drawing on the experience of development and
practice of China and other countries.
The basic thought of the Scientific Outlook on
Development means putting people first, aiming at a
comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development,
and promoting the overall development of economy,
society, and people.
The profound connotation and basic requirements of the scientific outlook on development
are comprehensiveness, coordination and
sustainability. We should put people first and achieve
the comprehen-sive, balanced and sustainable
development of the people. Based on the basic
interests of the people, we will seek and promote
development, continuously meet the increasing
material and cultural needs of the people, really
guarantee the rights and interests of the people in
respect of economy, politics and culture, and let
them share the benefits of the development; promote
economic, political, cultural and social constructions,
achieve the balanced development of modernization in
every respect, push forward the coordination between
production relations and productive forces as well
as between superstructure and economic base, and
realize the economic development and overall progress
of the society according to the general arrangement of
socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
The scientific outlook on development has
the following specific contents: People-oriented
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development view, overall development view,

coordinated development view, and sustainable
development view.
The fundamental method of the scientific
outlook on development is to coordinate and plan as
a whole the urban and rural development, regional
development, socio-economic development,
harmonious development of man and nature, and
domestic development and opening to the outside
world.
The Rule of law
The rule of law is Chinas basic strategy of
governing the country, and is stipulated in the
Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China.
The socialist democracy and the rule of law with
Chinese characteristics should follow the road for
development by adhering to an organic unity under
the leadership of the communist party, allowing
people to mind their own affairs and ruling the
country by law. The strategic target of the rule of law
is to build a socialist country under the rule of law.
The basic requirements of the rule of law are
there must be laws to go by, the laws must be
observed and strictly enforced, and any lawbreakers
must be prosecuted.
It is an unprecedented innovation to build
a socialist country under the rule of law. China
has so far preliminarily established a socialist legal
system with Chinese characteristics. The awareness
that there must be laws to go by, the laws must be
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observed and strictly enforced, and lawbreakers must

be prosecuted has increasingly taken root among the
people. China has attained internationally known
achievements in respecting and safeguarding human
rights, controlling political power according to law,
strengthening democratic legislation, enhancing lawbased government, reforming the judicial system,
improving the legal supervision, achieving judicial
justice, and publicizing the concept of rule of law.
In 1994 China started to explore the establishment
of a legal aid system. China has by far seen over 3,200
legal aid organizations, employing about 12,000 staff.
Since the year 2005, the national legal aid organizations
have handled more than 1.9 million cases, providing
legal aid to more and more people who are in difficulty.
China has popularized basic knowledge of law,
and launched the publicity and education concerning
the law among hundreds of millions of people. This
is a great pioneering achievement in the history of
legal system in the human society. Since 1986 when
the first five-year plan of legal popularization is
implemented in this country, China has completed
four similar five-year plans. The current fifth fiveyear plan of legal popularization under way, which
targets civil servants, leading cadres, teenagers,
business managers and farmers, has basically shifted
the focus from the enlightened education of law to
enhancement of the legal quality-oriented and legal
education for all the people in China focusing on the
leading cadres. The efforts of over 20 years to give
publicity and education of law have comprehensively
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improved the legal awareness and legal quality of all

citizens in this country, markedly raised the legalized
management of the society, strongly promoted the
implementation of the basic strategy of the rule
of law, and laid a solid foundation for building a
socialist country under the rule of law.
Chinese judicial institutions include courts,
procuratorates, public security departments, judicial
administrative departments and affiliated lawyer
organizations, notary departments, and educationthrough-labor institutions. The peoples courts are
the judicial departments of the state; the peoples
procuratorates are state departments for legal
supervision. As law enforcement force, the public
security departments are responsible for investigating
criminal cases, detaining, preliminarily hearing,
and arresting criminals. The judicial administrative
departments are responsible for managing prisons,
reform of criminals through labor, lawyers,
notarization, peoples mediation, and publicity and
education of law. The judicial organizations include
lawyer, notarization and arbitration organizations.
The purposes and tasks of the judicial work are, in
accordance with the law, to protect the basic rights,
freedom and other legitimate rights and interests of
all citizens, safeguard the public property or legally
private property of every citizen, maintain social
order, guarantee the smooth progress of socialist
modernization, and punish a few criminals.
Promoting Economic Restructuring
Accelerate the transformation of economic
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development mode and promote the upgrading of

the industrial structure. This is a pressing strategic
task vital to the national economy as a whole. Since
the policy of reform and opening to the outside world
was adopted, China has implemented economic
restructuring many times so as to achieve the fast and
steady development of the national economy.
In 2010, Chinese government made it clear
that the content of the economic restructuring is
to continue to revitalize the key industries, breed
new industries, further promote medium and small
enterprises, and speed up development of service
industries. More work should be done in the field of
energy saving and emission reduction so as to establish
industrial and consumer mode characterized by low
carbon emission.
Building an Environment-friendly
Society
In the 1980s the Chinese Government set the
environmental protection as a basic state policy.
Chinas environmental protection mode has changed
to the current process monitoring from the previous
end-of-pipe treatment and treatment after pollution.
Ten key energy conservation projects are under way
in China, including oil replacement with saving, cogeneration of thermal power, utilization of waste
heat and building energy efficiency, to support the
construction of key and demonstration projects of
energy conservation and encourage the application
of high-efficiency energy conservation products. By
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2020, the renewable resources will see its proportion

in the energy structure rise to approximately 16%
from the current level of 7%.
As an important force of international
environment cooperation, China always actively
participates in the global environment activities
and plays a constructive role in the international
environment affairs. China has maintained the good
partnerships with the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP), United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), Global Environment Facility,
World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and other international organizations, and carried
out fruitful cooperation. China has successively
signed the bilateral cooperation agreement for
environmental protection or memorandum of
understanding with 42 countries, including the
United States, Japan and Russia, and implemented
the cooperation over multiple environmental
A Wind Power Generation Project in Inner Mongolia Aided
by Asian Development Bank
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project fields with 13 countries and international

organizations on the basis of bilateral nonreimbursable assistance, including European Union,
Germany and Canada. Up to now, China has
joined over 50 international conventions involving
environmental protection and actively performed the
obligations under such conventions.
National Security
The Chinese armed forces are composed of
the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), the
Chinese Peoples Armed Police Force (CAPF), and
the militia. The tasks of the PLA are to consolidate
the national defense, resist aggression, defend and
construct the motherland, and work hard to serve
the people. The CAPF shoulders the tasks of frontier
defense, internal security and public security and
so on. The militia is an armed organization of
the masses not divorced from production. As the
national military leading organ, the Central Military
Commission (CMS) of the Peoples Republic
of China (PRC) assumes unified command of
the nations armed forces. The CMS consists of
chairman, vice-chairman and CMS members. The
incumbent chairman of the CMS is Hu Jintao.
China pursues a defensive national defense
policy and puts the defense of national sovereignty,
security and territorial integrity, and the guarantee
of national development interests and the protection
of peoples interests above everything, makes great
efforts to consolidate the national defense and
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build a strong army that complies with the national

security and development interests, and makes the
country prosperous and its army powerful while
building a well-off society in an all-round way.
At the new stage in the new century Chinas
national defense policy include safeguarding the
nations security and unity, guaranteeing the national
development interests, achieving the comprehensive,
coordinated and sustainable development of national
defense and army construction, strengthening
the army quality construction marked by
informationalization, implementing the military
strategy of active defense, adhere to the nuclear
strategy of self-defense, and building a security
environment in favor of the national safety and
development.
2. Pushing forward the Construction

of Harmonious World
Foreign Policies
China unswervingly holds high the banner
of peace, development and cooperation, and as
always, continues to uphold the independent foreign
policy of peace. China is committed to developing
friendly relations and cooperation with all other
countries on the basis of the Five Principles of
Peaceful Coexistence (Mutual respect of sovereignty
and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression and
mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality
and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence), follow
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the path of peaceful development, persistently

pursue a win-win strategy in opening to the outside
world, and build a harmonious world of lasting
peace and common prosperity. The number of
countries maintaining diplomatic ties with China
has risen to 171 from 18 in the early period after
the establishment of PRC, forming a satisfactory
situation where we have friends all over the world.
China will unswervingly follow the path of
peaceful development. This is a strategic choice the
Chinese Government and people have made in light
of the development trend of the times and their
own fundamental interests. The Chinese nation is a
peace-loving people, and China is always a staunch
force safeguarding world peace. China is committed
to combining the interests of the Chinese people
with the common interests of the people of other
countries, and always stands for fairness and justice.
China maintains that all countries, big and small,
strong and weak, rich and poor, are equal. China
respects the right of the people of all countries
to independently choose their own development
paths, and never interferes in the internal affairs of
other countries or imposes its own will on them.
China works for peaceful settlement of international
disputes and hot issues, promotes international and
regional security cooperation, and opposes terrorism
in any form. China pursues a national defense policy
that is defensive in nature, and it does not engage
in arms race or pose a military threat to any other
country. China opposes all forms of hegemonism
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and power politics and will never seek hegemony or

engage in expansion.
China is committed to developing friendship
and cooperation with all other countries on the basis
of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. For
developed countries, it will continue to strengthen
strategic dialogue, enhance mutual trust, deepen
cooperation and properly handle differences to
promote long-term, stable and sound development
of bilateral relations. For its neighboring countries,
China will continue to follow the foreign policy
of friendship and partnership, strengthen goodneighborly relations and pragmatic cooperation
with them, and energetically engage in regional
cooperation in order to jointly create a peaceful,
stable regional environment featuring equality,
mutual trust and win-win cooperation. For other
developing countries, China will continue to
increase solidarity and cooperation with them,
cement traditional friendship, expand pragmatic
cooperation, provide assistance to them within its
own ability, and uphold the legitimate demands
and common interests of developing countries.
China will continue to take an actively part in
multilateral affairs, assume its due international
obligations, play a constructive role, and work
to make the international order fairer and more
equitable. China will also continue to conduct
exchanges and cooperation with the political parties
and organizations of other countries, and strengthen
the external exchanges of the peoples congresses,
173
eneral Review
of China
CPPCC committees, the armed forces, localities

and peoples organizations to enhance mutual
understanding and friendship between the Chinese
people and the peoples of other countries.
China will continue to determinedly safeguard
state sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,
advance the great cause of national reunification,
boost the economic, cultural and public diplomacies,
actively develop the economic cooperation with
other countries, and enhance exchanges and
dialogues with other civilizations to increase the
international understanding of China. China will
continuously adhere to the principle of putting
people first and people-oriented diplomacy, and
effectively maintain the legitimate rights and interests
of Chinese citizens and legal persons overseas.
Shouldering a Developing Nations
Responsibilities
China has been an active suppor ter and
participant of the multilateral trade system. Since it
officially joined the WTO (World Trade Organization)
in July 2001, China has strictly kept its commitments
to creating more favorable conditions for international
economic and technological cooperation. China has
sorted out and revised some 3,000 laws, regulations
and department rules, continually improved its
foreign-related economic legal system, and enhanced
the transparency of its trade policies. China has cut
its customs tariffs step by step, as promised, and
most non-tariff measures had been cancelled. The
174
development of opening to the outside world in the

fields of service trade, involving banking, insurance,
securities and distribution, is being accelerated. China
has so far opened over 100 sectors out of a total of
160 in service trade defined by the WTO, reaching
62.5%, close to the level for the developed countries.
Participate in Regional Economic
Cooperation
China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is Chinas first
one where the fastest progress and the most practical
results are made. When it completes in 2010, it
will cover a population of 1.9 billion, involve $5.2
trillion worth of economic aggregate of 11 countries,
$5.2 trillion worth of a total of imports and exports,
Chinese Minister of Commerce signs FTA with Costa Rica

government in April 8, 2010
175
eneral Review
of China
whereby become a free trade area worldwide with

the most population. At present, this trade area is
under construction smoothly, sees a total of bilateral
trade value of over $200 billion three years ahead
of schedule, and overall tax cuts in commodities
regarding 7,000 tax items. China has launched
negotiations about free trade areas one after another,
including the China-Southern African Customs
Union (SACU), China-Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC), China-New Zealand, China-Chile, ChinaAustralia, and China-Pakistan, and signed free trade
area agreements with relevant countries. China
participates actively and practically in the events such
as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC),
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC),
China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, AsiaEurope Meeting, and GMS Environment Ministers
Meeting. In addition, China signed the bilateral
trade agreements or protocols with more than 150
countries and regions, and the bilateral investment
treaties with over 110 countries, Agreements for
the Avoidance of Double Taxation with over 80
countries. It serves as an active participant in the
liberalization and facilitation of bilateral trade
investment.
Participate in International Peacekeeping Operations
As a permanent member of the Security
Council, China has taken active part in international peacekeeping operations organized by the
176
United Nations, and made its own contribution. In

1988 China became a member of United Nations
Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.
It dispatched military observers to take part in the
United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
(UNTSO) for the first time since 1989, which was
Chinas first participation in the UN peacekeeping
operations. So far, China has participated in 16
United Nations peacekeeping operations, having
dispatched peacekeeping personnel of more than
7,000 person-times; more than 1,800 personnel are
participating in 12 peacekeeping operations. China
not only fully performs its due responsibilities and
duties in the United Nations, but also demonstrates
the good image of the Chinese army as a just force,
a mighty force and a civilized force, and gains praise
internationally. From now on, China will continue
to strengthen its participation in the United Nations
peacekeeping operations to make more contribution
to world peace.
Participate in International Cooperation against Terrorism
The policy on Chinas participation in international cooperation against terrorism is consistent
and clear: China supports efforts of combating
terrorism of all forms, supports the relevant
resolutions of the General Assembly and Security
Council, and maintains that the actions should be
based on solid evidence and clear target, observe
the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
177
eneral Review
of China
United Nations; China opposes any expansion of the

fighting scope, and opposes the linkage of terrorism
to certain countries, ethnic groups or religions.
International cooperation is vital to winning the
international anti-terrorism campaign.
In terms of multilateral anti-terrorism cooperation, China supports the United Nations and the
Security Council in playing a leading role in the
international anti-terrorism cooperation, actively
participates in the relevant discussions at the General
Assembly and Security Council, promotes and
supports the General Assembly and Security Council
to pass counter-terrorism resolutions, and executes
the resolutions of the Security Council earnestly and
strictly. In the area of anti-terrorism cooperation,
China and U.S. have established a mechanism of
mid- and long-term anti-terrorism exchange and
cooperation, and China and Russia have created an
anti-terrorism workgroup that aims to hold regular
discussions about international anti-terrorism
situation and bilateral anti-terrorism cooperation and
other problems. Meanwhile, China has established a
similar anti-terrorism cooperation mechanism with
Pakistan and India respectively, and has discussed
the same with UK, France, and Germany about antiterrorism. As a permanent member of the Security
Council, China will continuously enhance the
coordination and cooperation with the international
community, and jointly propel the international
anti-terrorism campaign to another new stage.
178
Achieving Common Development

with Other Nations
The Chinese nation always loves peace, pursues
and advocates harmony. The idea of harmony runs
through the whole development process of Chinese
culture, deep in the blood vessels of the Chinese
nation. The harmony tradition has turned into an
innovative idea of building a harmonious world of
lasting peace and common prosperity, and a great
idea that reflects the trend and spirit of the time.
The harmonious world China advocates is where
there is harmony with differences, harmonious
coexistence of diversity, common ground sought
with differences reserved. Promote the building of
a harmonious world of lasting peace and common
prosperity.
When handling the relations with its neighboring countries in Asia, China always adheres to
the principles of amicable, secure and prosperous
neighborhood, and maintains friendly relations with
all countries. Meanwhile, China maintains good
cooperation with other big countries.
As a developing country, China always takes
enhancement of unity and cooperation with
developing countries as the basic stand of Chinese
diplomacy, and development of unity and mutual
beneficial cooperation with them as the basis for
Chinese diplomacy.
Facing that the global financial crisis produces a
serious impact on developing countries, China will
treasure the unity and cooperation with developing
179
eneral Review
of China
countries even more. In the situation of the global

financial crisis, China neither reduces the assistances
to some developing countries nor lowers the
cooperation with them, but expands assistances within
its ability to developing countries and performs the
cooperation agreements signed with relevant countries
when ensuring that its economy and society undergo
sound and smooth development.
China and all other countries share the same
world, and all the people in the world sincerely hope
that the earth we coexist upon has lasting peace.
The stability and prosperity of this world depend
on the harmonious coexistence of all countries.
In these days, when international conflicts and
disputes frequently occur, it is the common desire
of the worlds people to strengthen international
cooperation, promote common development,
take the road for peaceful development and work
toward building a harmonious world of lasting
peace and common prosperity. This is also a grand
cause benefiting all mankind, and an inevitable
requirement of development of the human society.
The Chinese people will continue to hold high
the banner of peace, development and cooperation,
combine the great rejuvenation of the Chinese
nation with the peace and prosperity of the world,
join hands with the people of the rest of the world
to make unremitting efforts to achieve the durable
peace of the big world family, push forward the lofty
cause of human peace and development, and create a
better future for the human society.
180
CIP
: /
. - : , 2010.6
ISBN 978-7-5085-1741-4
. . .
. D61
CIP(2009)207535
31B7
100088
010-82005927, 010-82007837
www.cicc.org.cn
201111
201111
97177 1/24
6
099000

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of China

A Reader on Human Resource Development and

General Review of China

The socialist system is the basic system of the People's

China Intercontinental Press

Price: 99 Yuan (RMB)

A Reader on Human Resource Development and

Republic of China. All power in the People's Republic of

Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China

A Reader on Human Resource

China Intercontinental Press

A Reader on Human Resource Development and

Compilation and Review Committee:

2. Landscape and Resources...............5

3. Division of Administrative Regions.... 20

Political and Administrative Systems

3. Rights and Obligations of the Citizens... 44

Reform, and Opening up and

Social and Cultural Life

2. Cultural Life................................. 116

Language, Literature, Arts,

4. Culture and Custom................... 146

Science, Technology and

2. Protection of Intellectual Property

Harmonious China and

Goals and Major Tasks..................................... 162

2. Pushing forward the Construction of

Dear friends from afar, we live in the same era of

is pragmatic to make political policies to bring peace to

ancient Silk Road, you will learn the meaning of long

China has a civilization of over 5,000 years and

1. Geography and Climate

Topographic Map of China

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

land area of Asia, one fifth of that of the world. It

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

north and south is so striking when the north is all

2. Landscape and Resources

Mount Qomolangma (Everest)

Mountains, Himalaya Range, Yinshan Mountains,

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

the Three Mountains and Five Peaks (mountain), each

its population still lives in rural areas. Chinas

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

River Delta abounds with paddy rice that is gathered

than 57% of the world average level, most of the

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

36% of the land area. Tarim River in southern

provinces to end in Hangzhou in the south. Linking

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

meters above sea level, 39 kilometers from north

bays characteristic of mountains, hills and bedrocks,

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

mineral resources in the world, and all of the worlds

non-metallic minerals in the world, China has over

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

world total reserves. China is the only producer on

Panda Natural Reserve in Wolong, Sichuan

Sichuan province, Fanjingshan Natural Reserve in

Geographical Environment and Administrative Division

accounts for 37.8% of the same species in the world.

3. Division of Administrative Regions