NAVIGATION
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NAVIGATION
People's Republic of China
Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
Zhong Guo
INTRODUCTION
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Background:
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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, China was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established a dictatorship that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping gradually introduced market-oriented reforms and decentralized economic decision making, and output quadrupled by 2000. Political controls remain tight even while economic controls continue to be relaxed. |
GEOGRAPHY
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Location:
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Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam |
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Geographic coordinates:
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35 00 N, 105 00 E |
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Map references:
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Asia |
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Area:
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total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km water: 270,550 sq km |
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Area - comparative:
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slightly smaller than the US |
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Land boundaries:
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total: 22,147.34 km
border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km |
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Coastline:
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14,500 km |
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Maritime claims:
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contiguous zone: 24 NM
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin territorial sea: 12 NM |
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Climate:
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extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north |
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Terrain:
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mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east |
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Elevation extremes:
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lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m (1999 est.) |
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Natural resources:
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coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest) |
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Land use:
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arable land: 13.31%
permanent crops: 1.2% other: 85.49% (1998 est.) |
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Irrigated land:
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525,800 sq km (1998 est.) |
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Natural hazards:
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frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence |
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Environment - current issues:
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air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal, produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered species |
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Environment - international agreements:
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party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol |
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Geography - note:
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world's fourth-largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount Everest on the border with Nepal, is the world's tallest peak; soybean, one of the oldest of cultivated crops, is believed to have originated in China |
PEOPLE
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Population:
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1,284,303,705 (July 2002 est.) |
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Age structure:
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0-14 years: 24.3% (male 163,821,081; female 148,855,387)
15-64 years: 68.4% (male 452,354,428; female 426,055,713) 65 years and over: 7.3% (male 43,834,528; female 49,382,568) (2002 est.) |
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Population growth rate:
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0.87% (2002 est.) |
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Birth rate:
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15.85 births/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
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Death rate:
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6.77 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
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Net migration rate:
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-0.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.) |
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Sex ratio:
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at birth: 1.09 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2002 est.) |
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Infant mortality rate:
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27.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) |
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Life expectancy at birth:
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total population: 71.86 years
female: 73.86 years (2002 est.) male: 70.02 years |
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Total fertility rate:
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1.82 children born/woman (2002 est.) |
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
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less than 0.2% (2000-01 est.) |
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
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1.25 million (January 2001) |
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HIV/AIDS - deaths:
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17,000 (1999 est.) |
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Nationality:
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noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
adjective: Chinese |
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Ethnic groups:
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Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1% |
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Religions:
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Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 1%-2%, Christian 3%-4%
note: officially atheist (2002 est.) |
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Languages:
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Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages (see Ethnic groups entry) |
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Literacy:
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definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 81.5% male: 89.9% female: 72.7% (1995 est.) |