Population
Population: 1,330,044,605 (July 2008 est.)
Capital: Beijing
Nationality: Chinese
Ethnic groups: Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uyghur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1% (census from www.cia.gov)
Language: Standard Chinese or Mandarin (70%), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages
Government
China is a Communist State. The China Democracy Party is considered a subversive group.
Economy
Once a centrally planned system largely closed to international trade, Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development in the late '70's and by 2000 output had quadrupled. China now has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically, and in 2007 China stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income.
Currency (code): Renminbi (RMB); also referred to by the unit yuan (CNY)
Exchange rates: yuan per US dollar - 7.61 (2007), 7.97 (2006), 8.1943 (2005)
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