Country Report—China
(From Guan Chunhua: Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and
Technology)
Land area
Located in the east of the Asian continent, on the western shore of the
Pacific Ocean, the People's Republic of China has a land area of about 9.6
million sq km, and is the third-largest country in the world, next only to
Russia and Canada.
With a land boundary of some 22,800 km, China is bordered by 14
countries, they are Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos
and Vietnam. Across the seas to the east and southeast are the Republic of
Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.
China's mainland coastline measures approximately 18,000 km, with a
flat topography, and many excellent docks and harbors, most of which are
ice-free all year round. A total of 5,400 islands dot China's territorial
waters. The largest of these is Taiwan, followed by Hainan.
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Topography
The topography varies greatly in China, a vast land of lofty plateau, large
plains, rolling land and big and small basins surrounded by lofty
mountains. Taking a bird's-eye view of China, the terrain gradually
descends from west to east like a staircase.
Due to the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau rose continuously to become the top of the four-step "staircase,"
averaging more than 4,000 m above sea level, and called "the roof of the
world." Soaring 8,848 m above sea level on the plateau is Mount
Qomolangma (Mount Everest), the world's highest peak and the main
peak of the Himalayas. Mountainous land and very rough terrains make
up 2/3 of Chinese territory, and this has created some problems in
transport and in the development of agricultural production. However
such topographical features are conducive to the development of forestry,
mineral and hydropower resources and tourism.
The second step includes the gently sloping Inner Mongolia Plateau, the
Loess Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Tarim Basin, the Junggar
Basin and the Sichuan Basin, with an average elevation of between 1,000
m and 2,000 m.
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The third step, dropping to 500-1,000 m in elevation, begins at a line
drawn around the mountain ranges and extends eastward to the coast of
the Pacific Ocean. Here, from north to south, are the Northeast Plain, the
North China Plain and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, on which crops
grow in luxuriant. Many small plains in the Chengdu area, the Pearl River
Delta, western Taiwan Province and other areas.
To the east, the land extends out into the ocean, in a continental shelf, the
fourth step of the staircase. The water here is mostly less than 200 m deep.
Off the Chinese coast is an extensive continental shelf richly endowed
with petroleum, natural gas and marine resources.
Climate
Most of China lies in the north temperate zone, characterized by a warm
climate and distinctive seasons, a climate well suited for habitation. Most
of China has a continental monsoon climate. In terms of temperature, the
nation can be sectored from south to north into equatorial, tropical,
subtropical, warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate zones.
From September to April the following year, the dry and cold winter
monsoons blow from Siberia and the Mongolian Plateau, resulting in cold
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and dry winters and great differences between the temperatures of north
and south China. From April to September, warm and humid summer
monsoons blow from the seas in the east and south, resulting in overall
high temperatures and plentiful rainfall, and little temperature difference
between north and south China.
Precipitation gradually declines from the southeastern to the northwestern
inland area, and the average annual precipitation varies greatly from place
to place. In southeastern coastal areas, it reaches over 1,500 mm, while in
northwestern areas, it drops to below 200 mm.
Population
The natural growth rate of population continued to decline. At the end of
2003, China's total population in the mainland amounted to 1,292.27
million. Of the population, the male reached 665.56 million, accounting
for 51.5 percent; the female, 626.71 million, taking up 48.5 percent.
Since the beginning of the 1970s when China adopted family planning
policy, the fertility started to decline. The natural increase of China's
population continued to maintain steady decline after it for the first time
decreased to 10 per thousand in 1998. Now although China's population
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is in the low growth rate period, there is an annual net increase of about 7
million of population due to the large base of the population. Thus,
maintaining low birth rate remained a long-term task for China to carry
on.
Urbanization is accelerated
With the reforms, opening up and economic development, China's
urbanization has been greatly improved. In 2003, the urban population
reached 523.76 million and the proportion of urban population is 40.53
percent. Comparing with 1990, China's urban population rose 221.81
million, up 14.12 percentage points. Comparing with developed countries,
China remains at a low level of urbanization. In 1998 the average level of
urbanization in the world was 47 percent. The level of urbanization in
developed countries and regions was 75 percent.
The rise of the urbanization in China is based on the expansion of the
urban areas and the increase of the population. In the decade of 1990 to
2000, the cities at prefectural level in China rose from 185 to 259, rising
40 percent while the cities at county level rose from 268 to 400, up 49
percent. Meanwhile, the number of towns also rose drastically. The
increase of cities and expansion of urban areas promoted the urbanization
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level in China. The improvement of agricultural productivity and the
development of secondary and tertiary industries helped rural people to
transfer to the urban areas, which facilitated the development of
urbanization in China.
Economic system
Economic restructure is one of the most crucial elements of China's
reform and opening-up policy.
For the first 30 years of the PRC, the government practiced a planned
economy system, whereby industrial production, agricultural production,
and the stocking and selling of goods in commercial departments were all
controlled by state plan. The variety, quantity and prices in every sphere
of the economy were fixed by state planners. While this contributed to the
planned, focused and steady development of China's economy, it also
sapped its vitality and limited its growth.
Economic reforms began with the rural areas in 1978, and were extended
to the cities in 1984. In 1992, after some 10 years of reform in the clear
direction of the establishment of a socialist market economy, the
government set out the main principles of economic restructuring:
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encouraging the development of diversified economic elements whilst
retaining the dominance of the public sector; creation of a modern
enterprise system to meet the requirements of the market economy; a
unified and open market system across China, linking domestic and
international markets, and promoting the optimization of resources;
transformation of government economic management in order to establish
a complete macro-control system; encouraging certain lead groups and
areas to become rich first, enabling them to help others towards
prosperity too; the formulation of a China-appropriate social security
system for both urban and rural residents, so as to promote overall
economic development and ensure social stability.
In 1997, the government stressed the importance of the non-public sector
to China's national economy, in which profitability is encouraged for such
essential factors of production as capital and technology, so as to further
progress economic reforms.
A socialist market economic system has now taken shape, and the basic
role played by the market has been improved in the sphere of resource
allocation. At the same time, the macro-control system continues to be
perfected. The pattern has basically been formed in which the public
sector plays the main role alongside non-public sectors such as individual
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and private companies to achieve common development. According to the
plan, China is forecast to have a relatively complete socialist market
economy in place by 2010 and this will become comparatively mature by
2020.
Diverse economic elements
Before 1978, state-owned and collectively-owned enterprises represented
77.6 percent and 22.4 percent respectively of China's exclusively
public-ownership economy. The policy of reform and opening-up has
given extensive scope to the common development of various economic
sectors. Individual and private industrial enterprises and enterprises with
foreign, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan investments have mushroomed.
Reform of state-owned enterprises has always been the key link of
China's economic restructuring. The Chinese government has made
various attempts to solve the problem of chronic extensive losses in this
sector and by now almost every state-owned enterprise has adopted the
company system. After being transformed into joint stock companies, the
economic benefit of the state-owned enterprises increased steadily and
their overall strength and quality were remarkably enhanced, gaining
continuously in their control, influence and lead in the whole national
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economy. In 2004, of the industrial added value created by all
state-owned industrial enterprises and non-state industrial enterprises
with annual turnover exceeding five million yuan, state-owned and state
stock-holding enterprises accounted for 42.4 percent, collectively-owned
enterprises 5.3 percent, the rest taken up by other non-public enterprises,
including enterprises with foreign, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan
investments, and individual and private enterprises.
In 2004, of Chinese enterprises ranking in the world's top 500, 14
enterprises of China's mainland were all state-owned. Of China's own top
500, 74 percent (370) were state-owned and state stock-holding
enterprises, with assets of 27, 370 billion yuan and realizing profit of
266.3 billion yuan, representing 96.96 percent and 84.09 percent
respectively of the top 500 corresponding values. Small and
medium-sized enterprises and non-public enterprises have become
China's main job creators. Private enterprises alone provided 50 percent
of employment of the entire society.
Three-Step Development Strategy
China's overall economic construction objectives were clearly stated in
the Three Step Development Strategy set out in 1987: Step One--to
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double the 1980 GNP and ensure that the people have enough food and
clothing -- was attained by the end of the 1980s; Step Two--to quadruple
the 1980 GNP by the end of the 20th century --was achieved in 1995
ahead of schedule; Step Three--to increase per-capita GNP to the level of
the medium-developed countries by the mid-21st century--at which point,
the Chinese people will be fairly well-off and modernization will be
basically realized.
Economy Development
China, economically extremely backward before 1949, has become one
of the world's major economic powers with the greatest potential, and the
overall living standard has reached that of a fairly well-off society. In the
27 years following reform and opening-up in 1979 in particular, China's
economy developed at an unprecedented rate. In 2004, the government
further strengthened and improved its macro control, and the economy
entered its best ever development period of recent years. The gross
domestic product (GDP) for 2004 amounted to 13,687.59 billion yuan,
9.5 percent higher than the previous year.
Key national projects
The "West-to-East Electricity Transmission," the "West-to-East Gas
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Transmission," and the "South-to-North Water Diversion" are the
government's three key strategic projects, aimed at realigning overall
economic development and achieving rational distribution of national
resources across China.
The "West-to-East Electricity Transmission" project is in full swing,
involving hydropower and coal resources in western China and the
construction of new power transmission channels to deliver electricity to
the east. The southern power grid line, transmitting three million kw from
Guizhou to Guangdong, was completed in September 2004.
The "West-to-East Gas Transmission" project includes a 4,000-km trunk
pipeline running through 10 provinces, autonomous regions or
municipalities, conveying natural gas to cities in northern and eastern
China. This was finished in October 2004 and has a design capacity of 12
billion cu m per year.
Construction of the "South-to-North Water Diversion" project was
officially launched on 27th December 2002 and completion of Phase I is
scheduled for 2010; this will relieve serious water shortfall in northern
China and realize a rational distribution of the water resources of the
Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe, and Haihe river valleys.
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In 2003, after a decade of hard work, another key national project --the
Three Gorges Dam --began to impound water, opened its permanent locks
to navigation and sent power to the grid from its first generating units. It
is designed to install 26 sets of generators, each with a generating
capacity of 700,000 kw. When fully operational, the annual output of the
Three Gorges Power Plant will reach 84.7 billion kw, produced from 26
sets of generators, each set able to meet the needs of a 1,000,000
population city.
Another key national project, the 1,142 km-long Qinghai-Tibet Railway,
the highest railway in the world, it has been completed in 2006 Aug. Now
we can go to Tibet by train.
Industry Development
In 2004, state-owned industrial enterprises and non-state enterprises with
annual turnover exceeding five million yuan achieved industrial added
value of 5,480.5 billion yuan and realized profits of 1,134.2 billion yuan,
representing 16.7 percent and 36 percent year-on-year rises respectively,
and revealing a gratifying simultaneous improvement in speed, quality
and benefit. Since 1996, China has led the world in the production of
steel, coal, cement, farm-use chemical fertilizer and television sets.
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Increase in outputs of major industrial products
Product
Unit
1978
1990
2000
2003
2004
Raw coal
100 million tons
6.18
10.80
9.98
16.67
19.56
Crude oil
10,000 tons
10,405
13,831
16,300
16,960
17,500
100 million kwh
2,566
6,212
13,556
19,106
21,870
Steel
10,000 tons
3,178
6,635
12,850
22,234
27,280
Cement
10,000 tons
6,524
20,971
59,700
86,208
97,000
Automobiles
10,000
14.91
51.40
207.00
444.39
507.4
Large and medium-sized tractors
10,000
11.35
3.94
4.10
4.88
9.83
Color TV sets
10,000
0.38
1,033.04
3,936.00
6,541.40
7,328.80
Chemical fibers
10,000 tons
28.46
165.42
694.00
1,181.15
1,424.50
Yarn
10,000 tons
238.2
462.6
657.0
983.6
1,120.0
Cloth
100 million m
110.3
188.8
277.0
353.5
420.0
Sugar
10,000 tons
227
582
700
1,084
1,018
Sulfuric acid
10,000 tons
661
1,197
2,427
3,371
3,994
Farm-use chem-ical fertilizers
10,000 tons
869.3
1,879.7
3,186.0
3881.3
4,469.5
Ethylene
10,000 tons
38.0
157.2
470.0
611.8
626.6
100 million pieces
0.3
1.1
58.8
148.3
211.5
10,000 lines
--
--
7,136.0
7,379.9
8,464.8
Telephones
10,000
--
--
5,247.9
18,231.4
23,344.6
Micro-electronic computers
10,000
--
8.2
672.0
3,216.7
4,512.4
Power
Integrated circuits
Program-controlled
Switchboards
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Science and Technology Development
In 1900, China had no modern science and technology at all - fewer than
10 people in all of China understood calculus. Now, in the early 21st
century, the gap in high-technology research and development between
China and the world's advanced countries has visibly shrunk; 60 percent
of technologies, including atomic energy, space, high-energy physics,
biology, computer and information technology, have reached or are close
to the world advanced level. On October 15, 2003, the successful launch
of the "Shenzhou V" manned spacecraft made China the third country to
master manned spaceflight technology. According to the Moon Probe
Project started in February 2004, China will launch unmanned probes to
the moon before 2010, and gather moon soil samples before 2020.
Since the 1990s, state budgets for science and technology have greatly
increased. In 2004, the appropriation for science and technology reached
97.55 billion yuan, 19.5 percent more than in 2003; the government spent
184.3 billion yuan on scientific research and development, 19.7 percent
more than in 2003, accounting for 1.35 percent of GDP, the highest in
China's history.
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From 2002, the national strategy for developing science and technology
shifted from following on the heels of others to making independent
innovations and technological strides, aiming at the international sci-tech
heights. According to a national plan, by 2010 a preliminary national
innovation system will be established, the building of basic science and
technology conditions will be obvious, national key bases for scientific
research will reach the world advanced level, China's innovation ability in
key fields will soar, and expenditure for developing experimental and
research science will reach two percent of GDP; by 2020, a relatively
complete national innovation system will be in place, expenditure for
developing experimental and research science will account for three
percent of GDP, and China's competitiveness in science and technology
will step up to the world's first rank.
The Strategic Opportunities on Development In 20 Years
1. The structure of consumption continued to upgrade, that create a large
demand.
2. The structure of industry adjusts incessantly, provided a firm
foundation of supply.
3. The urbanization has been greatly accelerated, a more wide space has
been developed.
4. The progress of science and technology change with each passing day,
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provided a condition to realize leap-frogging development.
5. Economy globalization has been strengthened continuously, provided
good chances to participate in international division of the work.
The challenges we will be faced in 20 years
1. The restriction of environment and resource is aggravated.
2. The social contradiction is stood out.
3. The pressure of international competition increasing.
4. There is still some insecurity factors in economy and the nation.
Main problems of regional development in economy, society and S&T:
1. The low capability of innovation in enterprises becoming the most
important factor of restriction to the regional development.
2. The capability of S&T innovation in all regions is low.
3. The contradiction of division of regional S&T resource is far away
from solved.
4. The system of division the work and competition between different
regions is not founded.
5. There is a big gap in economy and S&T between different regions.
6. The rate of development in counties is lower than the average level of
the whole country.
7. It’s still a hard task to increase the farmers’ income.
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8. The situation of ecological environment is still very stern.
9. There is still some insecurity factors in social security.
Our strategic emphases and the main missions:
1. In East part of China should carry out the strategy of upgrade the
capability of regional competition, become the important base of
national innovation. This area can develop the soft, mobile
communication, biologic technique, new materials and modern
knowledge service.
2. In Yangzi-River Delta region should carry out the strategy of central
city, become one of the international base of innovation. This area can
develop integrate circuit (IC), soft, biomedical, aviation and
nanometer industry.
3. The big Pearl River Delta should carry out the strategy of integration
with Hong Kong and Macao, become one of the most competitive
regions, the precursor of the internationalization in high-tech industry.
This area can develop electronic information, modern service trades
and advanced manufacturing industry.
4. The middle area should carry out the strategy of integration with the
talented person, capital and technology. This area can develop
advanced manufacturing industry, modern agriculture, photoelectron,
important commercial food supplies base and the base of material
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technique.
5. The northeast area should carry out the strategy of innovation of
system and technology. This area can develop modern agriculture base,
important commercial food supplies base, digit control machine,
mega-whole set equipment and inlay soft.
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