China
People's Republic of China
Capital: Beijing
The China Bulletin
Weekly Brief: October 5, 2015
Top Story Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday. America’s Secretary of State John Kerry said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad should leave power, but Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Assad should meet with the Syrian opposition to discuss a settlement to the conflict. Though Russia claimed to target the Islamic State of Iraq and the […]
Weekly Brief: September 28, 2015
Top Story Russia is escalating its military presence in Syria. American officials report (though Russia denies) that Russia has at least 28 warplanes deployed at an airbase near Latakia, on the Syrian coast. Russia also began flying surveillance missions in Syria with drones, a week after sending artillery and tanks to an airbase controlled by the Syrian government at […]
Weekly Brief: May 4, 2015
Top Story Representatives from around the world traveled to New York this week to begin the ninth review conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Review conferences have been held every five years since the NPT entered into effect in 1970. American Secretary of State John Kerry, who will lead his country’s […]
Weekly Brief: April 20, 2015
Africa Al-Shabab militants drove a car loaded with explosives into a government compound in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Tuesday. After the explosion, gunmen stormed the government offices and killed at least 17 people, including eight civilians and two soldiers. Security guards and Somali special forces soldiers eventually managed to secure the building, killing five attackers.
Weekly Brief: April 13, 2015
Africa One of the gunmen responsible for the attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College last week, which killed 148 people, was the son of a Kenyan district official. He had been missing for over a year, since dropping out of law school. His father has been cooperating with authorities since reporting his son missing last […]
Weekly Brief: April 6, 2015
Top Story Parties negotiating limits on Iran’s nuclear program announced a framework agreement on Thursday, which they intend to finalize by the end of June. The talks had intensified ahead of a March 31 soft deadline for a deal. By Monday, three primary sticking points remained: the process of lifting restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after 10 years, […]
Weekly Brief: March 30, 2015
Middle East Fighting in Yemen continued to escalate this week. On Wednesday, the Houthi rebels seized an airbase as they moved closer to the city of Aden, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sheltered. By Thursday, Mr. Hadi had briefly sought shelter in Oman before moving on to Riyadh. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia led airstrikes against the Houthis in […]
History
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, MAO's successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight. Since the early 1990s, China has increased its global outreach and participation in international organizations.
Geography
Metric Units
| Total Area | 9,596,961 sq km |
| Land Boundaries | 22,117 km |
| Border Countries | Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikis |
| Coastline | 14,500 km |
| Terrain | mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east |
| Minimum Elevation | -154 m |
| Maximum Elevation | 8,850 m |
| Climate | extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north |
| Natural Resources | coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest) |
| Arable Land | 11.62% |
| Permanent Crops | 1.53% |
Economy
| Gross Domestic Product | $12.38 trillion |
| GDP (per capita) | $9,100 |
| GDP Growth | 7.8% |
| Unemployment Rate | 6.4% |
| Population in Poverty | 13.4% |
| GINI Index | 47.4 |
Budget & Debt
| Expenditures | $2 trillion |
| Revenue | $1.87 trillion |
| Current Account Balance | $213.8 billion |
| External Debt | $770.8 billion |
Trade
| Exports | $2.05 trillion |
| Export Items | electrical and other machinery, including data processing equipment, apparel, radio telephone handsets, textiles, integrated circuits |
| Export Partners | US 17.2%, Hong Kong 15.8%, Japan 7.4%, South Korea 4.3%, Germany 3.4% (2012 est.) |
| Imports | $1.82 trillion |
| Import Items | electrical and other machinery, oil and mineral fuels, optical and medical equipment, metal ores, motor vehicles |
| Import Partners | Japan 9.8%, South Korea 9.3%, US 7.3%, Germany 5.1%, Australia 4.6% (2012 est.) |
People
| Population | 1,349,585,838 |
| Population Growth | 0.46% |
| Ethnic Groups | Han Chinese 91.5%, Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uighur, Tujia, Yi, Mongol, Tibetan, Buyi, Dong, Yao, Korean, and other nationalities 8.5% (2000 census) |
| Religion | Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2% |
| Life Expectancy | 74.99 years |
| Infant Mortality | 1.06 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Maternal Mortality | 2.3 deaths/100,000 live births |
Energy
| Electricity Production | 4.94 trillion kWh |
| Electricity Consumption | 4.69 trillion kWh |
| From Fossil Fuels | 69.5% |
| From Nuclear | 1.1% |
| From Hydroelectric | 21.8% |
| From Renewable Sources | 7.6% |
