China that is officially known as the People’s Republic of China is a sovereign state. It is a country in the content of Asia placed towards the east of the continent. Its capital is Beijing. China is a beautiful country with a very rich cultural background and a long history of its evolution since the ancient times. Since the 1990’s China has been on the radar for its fast economic growth. It today is a country with the largest population of the country. The Great China Wall was voted as one of the seven wonder of the world.
China has a landmass of 9,600,000 sq km making it the third largest country of the world, with Canada and Russia preceding it. It is on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. Its neighbouring countries are Korea, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Laos, Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bhutan. Off its east coast is the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Its coast line with flat topography measures about 18000 km with many docks and harbor. A 4.73 million square km maritime area is flanked by the Bohai, the Yellow, the East China and the South China seas. In the territorial waters of China, there are 5400 islands.
One of the most important topographical events, the emergence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, stood to be the cause of the China topography to be formed millions of years ago. There is a gradual decent in the terrain from the west to the east. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau which rouse to the high of 4000m above the sea level was the result of the collision of the Indian and European places and is also called “the roof of the world”. Mount Qomolangma or the Mount Everest is soaring 8848m above the sea level. It abounds in river with 1500 rivers, most of these rising from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It’s the world’s leading hydro-power potential. Its climate is warm with distinctive seasons under the influence of North Temperate Zone. Wind blowing from Siberia and the Mongolian Plateau cause the dry and cold winter. As much as it experiences hot and humid summer with high temperature, so does it enjoy plentiful rain during monsoon.
China with 1,364,040,000 people is the world’s largest populated country with 135 people per sq km with dense population on the east coast. In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was formed, its population was 541.47 million. (Kaplan, R. D., 2014) Later the medical and health condition improving, but lack of awareness on population growth in the public its population grew rapidly. It reached 806.71 million by 1969. Since 1970 China, implemented the family planning policy. The annual growth rate by 2004 decreased to 12.59 per thousand.
56 ethnic groups building China’s as a multi ethnic nation, has 91.6% of Han ethnic group. China practices a regional ethnic autonomy system. Established under the unified leadership of the state’s self-government the ethnic minorities live in compact communities. Its people have developed individual customs regarding food, clothing and etiquette. They celebrate their traditional festivals like spring festivals, Pure Brightness Day, the Lantern Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. Ethnic minorities also retain their traditional festivals.
China induced nine years of compulsory education including pre-school and standard junior and senior high school. They have special education facility for the disabled and the illiterate people. There are over 200 million elementary and high school pupils. To improve the condition of education, the government has created special funds. The rural China has the highest number of junior and senior high schools. China utilizes its radio, television, satellite technologies to impart agricultural training and has the world’s largest distant learning system. Other than this China also has special and vocational schools.
Beginning in 1979, China launched several economic reforms. It introduced price and incentives for farmers and the choice to sell a portion of their crop in the open market. It demarcated four special economic zones along the coast. It aim was to import high technology products, attract foreign investment and boost its exports. (Wayne M. M., 2014) It decentralized the policy making in many of its sectors. The local and provincial government were given the control of the various enterprises which otherwise were operating like an open market. Since then, its economy has grown faster and steady. A growth rate of 7.75% in the year 2013 is expected to reflect in spite of the weak and uncertain global economic condition. A moderate inflation of 3% was being maintained. (IMF, 2013) In 2012, the Balance of Payments recorded a surplus of up to 2.25% of the GDP, though domestic imbalances remained large. Investments have been used for supporting domestic activities and for setting off the impact of external stock. This activity had a positive effect and the global demand increased. In line with the 25th planning year, the structural imbalance of the economy was rebalanced. The service sector was given importance in the growth of the economy, with largely equalizing the tertiary industry. Signals the labour share of income has picked up. Both the urban household’s real disposable income and the rural household’s per capita income outran the real GDP growth if the country in 2012. With the rebalancing of the economy as it proceeds investment growth was expected that year by IMA (2013).
Kerry, D., Michael F. M., 2009 in the CRS Report for Congress (2009) have mentioned that in one way China can be considered as a single party state, ruled by the single largest party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1949. But now a highly competitive, complex and defused political power in China. The other three actors co-exist which are the muscular state government bureaucrats, the People’s Liberation Army and s the National People’s Congress. China’s politics is complicated. (Chau. D. C., 2014) Though there are internal problems, political system led by the PRC’s Communist Party has proved extraordinarily resilience through the past and current challenges. The Communist Party of China founded in the year 1921 has more than 68 million members. After the “Cultural Revolution” ended in 1956, China saw a new era of historical developments. From 1979, the CPC started reforming and opening policies that were initiated by Deng Xiaoping. China crowned with remarkable success along with social and economic growth has given a completely new look to the country. The communist party showed negligible interest in the growth of the country. In 1980, an effort was endow with disincentive for the corruption in the local government.
Over the time, China has struggled to become a developing economy with its reforms and policies. (Godement, F., 2010) It has sustained the ultra competitive labour force with huge investments. China’s make it difficult for the European and American companies to do business in China, because of its protective industrial policies, intellectual-property rights and the insecurity of web-based communications. It’s a country that is reluctant in making its domestic policies liberal because of its WTO rules. As part of its trade and investment policy China invests into Europe’s hi-tech companies which are small and none-controversial policies. It follows a policy of friendship and partnering in growth with its neighbouring countries. A new era of relations with its neighbouring countries was witnessed in 2004, where the countries came into consensus to have their respective permanent representatives to the UN hold regular consultations.
In the last three decades, China’s economic performance has been impressive, so much so, that it is amongst the top three countries which are the world power. (World Bank, 2013) It s not the world’s largest exporting and manufacturing country in the world with the second largest economy. It is expected to become the world’s high income country and the largest economy before 2030. 30 years of rapid growth seen by China has not brought it to another turning point in its development path when a second strategic shift was called for, in its policy. It is to be seen how China provides an excellent start.
Reference
Wayne M. M., 2014, China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States, Congressional Research Service.
People's Republic Of China 2013 Article Iv Consultation, 2013, IMF Country Report. Washington, D.C.
Kerry, D., Michael F. M., 2009, Understanding China’s Political System, CRS Report for Congress
Godement, F., 2010, A Global China Policy, The European Council on Foreign Relations.
The World Bank, 2013, China 2030 : Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative Society, Development Research Center of the State Council, the People’s Republic of China.
Kaplan, R. D., 2014, Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific, Random House.
Chau. D. C., 2014, China and International Security [3 volumes]: History, Strategy, and 21st-Century Policy (Praeger Security International), Praeger.
