What you should know about China

China has one of the world's oldest and continuous civilizations dating back more than 6000 years. It was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. The earliest human fossils date from 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago. A cave near Beijing has fossils dated at between 300,000 to 550,000 years. Voila do you know elder elder cultures than that?

China is as we all know a communist governed country, but post-1978 reforms on the mainland have led to some relaxation of control over many areas of society. However, the PRC government still has almost absolute control over politics, and it continually seeks to eradicate what it perceives as threats to the social, political and economic stability of the country.

Most languages in China belong to the language family, spoken by 29 ethnicities. The most spoken dialect is Mandarin spoken by over 70% of the population,

China is an economic powerhouse. Its economy is the 2nd-largest one in the world with a GDP of $6.9 trillion (2007) measured in purchasing power parity. Since free market reforms in 1978 China's GDP has grown yearly ca 10%. China's per capita income has grown at an average annual rate of ca 8% over the last three decades, drastically reducing poverty, but leading to rising income inequalities.

The country's per capita income is with about $2000 nominal and $7800 at purchasing power parity still relatively low. Since the late 1970s / early 1980s the economic reforms shifted farming from a collectivized agriculture to a system of household responsibility with gradual liberalization of prices; fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises thereby permitting a wide variety of private enterprise in services and light manufacturing; the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets; the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening of the economy to increased foreign trade and foreign investment. China’s governments have generally implemented reforms in a gradualist fashion. China's foreign trade has grown faster than its GDP for the past 25 years, but as of 2007 most of China's growth came from the private sector instead of exports. China has emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introduced new management systems to help increase productivity and living standards.

Nevertheless, key bottlenecks constrain growth. Available energy is insufficient, the transport system is inadequate and the telecom system cannot yet meet the needs of an economy of China's size and complexity. Technology, labor productivity and incomes have advanced much more rapidly in industry than in agriculture leading to disparity between rural and urban areas.

China 's economy grew at an average rate of 10% per year during the period 1990-2007 the highest growth rate in the world. With 2006 total trade of $1.76 trillion China became

the world's third-largest trading nation after the U.S. and Germany. Such high growth is necessary if China is to generate the 15 million jobs needed annually. Inefficient state-owned enterprises are still a drag on growth. While social and economic indicators have improved since reforms were launched, rising inequality is evident between the more highly developed coastal provinces and the less developed, poorer inland regions. According to World Bank in 2007 around 300 million people in China, mostly in rural areas are still living in poverty.

Companies in China are apportioned along lines of directive planning (mandatory), indicative planning (indirect implementation of central directives), and market forces. While strategically important industry and services and most of large-scale construction remain under directive planning, the market economy has gained rapidly in scale every year.

China , economically extremely backward up until 1979, has become one of the world's major economic powers with the greatest potential. Since opening-up in 1979 China's economy developed at an unprecedented rate. But at the same time the growth of new businesses has outpaced the government's ability to regulate them. This has created a situation where businesses, faced with mounting competition and poor oversight are willing to take drastic measures to increase profit margins even at the expense of consumer safety. This came to the fore in 2007, when a number of restrictions had to be placed on problematic Chinese exports to the United States: like toxic pet food, toxic milk formula. The Chinese Government recognizes the severity of the problem, recently concluding that up to 20% of the country's products are substandard or tainted.

Since 2005 stronger demand for labor led to significant improvements in wages and better working conditions. Minimum monthly wages began rising toward the equivalent of 100 U.S. dollars (ca NPR 8000) as companies started to scramble for employees.

Many young people were attending college rather than opting for factory work. The demographic shift resulting from the one child policy continued to reduce the supply of young entry-level workers. Also, government efforts to advance economic development in the interior of the country began to create better opportunities there. And while Chinese exports to US and Europe contributed earlier to price stability there, by February, 2008, concerns were being raised that rising wages and inflation in China were beginning to create inflationary pressure in the United States and Europe.

The financial sector in China also starts to develop its own dynamic, even though most of China's financial institutions are still state governed. But the Chinese government also recognized early on in its reform efforts, that widespread share ownership can substitute state ownership and created two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzen, which represent nowadays a market value of more than $1 trillion and have become the third largest stock market in Asia, after Japan and Hong Kong.

Since 2003 China has become the second-largest consumer of energy, after the US. But China is also the third-largest energy producer in the world, after the US and Russia.

The tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in China and is also one of the industries with a very distinct global competitive edge. While new figures should be much higher the total number of inbound tourists was already 91.7mio in 2003 about 10 times higher than in 1980. For regions rich in tourism resources, and there are many especially in rural areas, tourism has become the main income source. In 2003, there were 11.522 travel agencies in China, of which 1,349 were international ones. WTO forecasts China's tourism industry to become the world's top tourism industry by 2020.

China 's global trade broke the 1 trillion mark n 2004, more than doubling from 2001. China's primary trading partners include Japan, the U.S, South Korea, Germany and Singapore. The U.S. is one of China's primary suppliers of semiconductors and electronic components, power-generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials and chemical and agricultural products.

Since 1989 the government introduced legislation and regulations designed to encourage foreigners to invest in high-priority sectors and regions. And today China is the target of a top number of foreign investors.

Due to the one child policy China's population growth rate is now among the lowest for a developing country, although, due to its large population, annual net population growth is still considerable. One side effect of the one-child policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly ageing countries in the world.

From the above you can see, that nowadays people can get rich in China. This is underlined by the fact, that in 2007 China had 106 US$ billionaires the second largest number after the United States, which had 415.

It is therefore no wonder to see the extent of luxury spending the Chinese citizenry are undertaking. There is no greater indication of the newfound wealth of the Chinese than the amount of money now spent on goods and services once inaccessible. The country's Motor Vehicle Production industry has reached a turnover of $200billion with yearly growth rates of 20% to 30%. But also pure luxury goods find a bigger and bigger market and major luxury brands including Louis Vuitton apparel, Moet-Chandon wines and champagne and Hennessey cognacs, reported earnings growth of over 25% in 2007 in China, which is now accounting for around 16% of their global business.

Since the early 1980s scientific and technological modernization has been given an especially high priority. Plans were made to rebuild the educational structure, continue sending students abroad, negotiate technological purchases and transfer arrangements with the U.S. and others, and develop ways to disseminate scientific and technological information. Areas of most critical interest have included microelectronics, telecommunications, computers, automated manufacturing, and energy. China also has had a space program since the 1960s and in 2008 the first Chinese arrived at the moon.

Chinese science strategists have seen China's greatest opportunities in newly emerging fields such as biotechnology and computers. where there is still a chance for China to become a significant player. Most Chinese students who went abroad have not returned, but they have built a dense network of global contacts that have greatly facilitated international scientific cooperation.

At the end of 1996, China had 5,434 state-owned independent research and development institutions at and above the county level. There were another 3,400 research institutions affiliated with universities, 13,744 affiliated with medium and large industrial enterprises, and 726 affiliated with medium and large construction enterprises. A total of 2.8 million people were engaged in scientific and technological activities in these institutions.

The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement remains the framework for bilateral cooperation between the two countries in this field. It was originally signed in 1979 and last extended in 2006. The Agreement covers cooperation in areas such as high energy physics, renewable energy and health. Biennial Joint Commission Meetings on Science and Technology bring together policymakers from both sides to coordinate joint science and technology cooperation. Executive Secretaries meetings are held biennially to implement specific cooperation programs. Japan and the European Union also have high profile science and technology cooperative relationships with China.