Wednesday, June 19, 2013 12:33 AM PDT

China

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is the most extensive country in East Asia and the third or fourth most extensive country in the world. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, it is the most populous country in the world.
   
The Communist Party of China (CPC) created the PRC in 1949 after defeating the Republic of China (ROC) in a civil war lasting from 1946 to 1950. China remains one of the few remaining officially communist/socialist states in the world, although its government, economics, and society can no longer be convincingly qualified as such. After Deng Xiaoping initiated the “reform and opening” period in the 1980s, which reintegrated China with world trade and dramatically increased its economic growth, the country’s government has referred to its political system as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”  
  
The term "Mainland China" is used to denote the areas under PRC rule, but excludes its two Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macau. Since the ROC and its main political party, the Nationalists or Guomindang (GMD) retreated to Taiwan, both mainland and Taiwanese governments have disputed the political status of the island. Efforts to assert de jure independence from the Taiwanese independence movement in the late 1990s created friction with the mainland, but the further lifting of trade, travel, and investment restrictions over past years have resulted in a period of warming relations. 
 
Because of its vast population, rapidly growing economy, and large research and development investments, China is considered an "emerging superpower". In past years, it has consistently shown yearly double digit growth, which eventually allowed the country to become world's second largest economy in both nominal and purchasing power parity terms. According to various international groups, China passed Japan to become the world’s second largest economy at the end of 2010. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank respectively predict that China’s economy will become the world’s largest by 2017 or 2030.  The government is currently trying to adjust the economy in two significant ways: first by slowing growth and preventing the economy from overheating; second by rebalancing to orient from export-driven to domestic-consumption driven growth.
 
China plays a critical role in international trade. The country is the world's largest consumer of steel and concrete, using, respectively, a third and over a half of the world's supply of each. Counting all products, China is the second largest importer and the largest exporter in the world.
However, in per capita terms, the country largely remains a developing nation, ranking 90th in the world with the average person making only more than $5,400 a year in 2011 (IMF). However, people living in relatively developed large urban areas in the coastal regions, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have living standards increasingly comparable to those in South Korea and Japan.
 
China is also a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Organization. Since 1978, China's economic reforms have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. However, the country is now faced with a number of other economic problems, including an aging population, an increasing rural-urban income gap, and rapid environmental degradation.

Headlines Around the Web

Paul B. Farrell: New China billionaires’ Happy Meditation Guide

9:01 pm - MarketWatch

Implications of Rio Tinto’s potential IOC sale

7:30 am - Financial Post

China builds world’s fastest supercomputer that can do 33,860 trillion calculations every second

Jun 17 - Financial Post

China’s dissidents

Jun 17 - Financial Times

Starboard calls for Smithfield break-up

Jun 17 - Financial Times

Craig Stephen's This Week in China: China exposed as Abenomics trade ends

Jun 16 - MarketWatch

China media urges probe into US hacking

Jun 14 - Financial Times

Caixin Online: China-EU deal could be game-changer: Andy Xie

Jun 13 - MarketWatch

Shell signs letter of intent for Chinese LNG import terminal

Jun 13 - Financial Post

Cloud office systems total 8% of the overall office market and will rise to 33% by 2017

Jun 13 - The Times of India

Rémy Cointreau: Chinese conundrum

Jun 11 - Financial Times

Slide Show: The charts that have some worried over China

Jun 10 - MarketWatch

Metals Stocks: Gold edges lower after S&P revises U.S. outlook

Jun 10 - MarketWatch

Indications: Stock futures point higher, Fed’s Bullard to speak

Jun 10 - MarketWatch

Craig Stephen's This Week in China: Calling time on world’s factory workshop

Jun 09 - MarketWatch

Asia Markets: Asia stocks rise; Nikkei Average rebounds

Jun 09 - MarketWatch

Economic Report: China’s economy slowing; government may not care

Jun 09 - MarketWatch

CHINA: Europe's vintage wines grapple with Chinese fakes

Jun 09 - France24

Obama, China’s Xi discuss cybersecurity

Jun 08 - MarketWatch

‘A gastronomic transition’: China’s growing hunger for Canada’s food

Jun 08 - Financial Post

Articles About China

Asian investors wait and watch
Asian Investors Hold Fire As Fed Fears Linger

By IBTimes UK

FOMC will end its two-day meet later in the day and Fed chief Ben Bernanke is due to speak after the meet. (11:19 pm)

MORE TOPICS: GOLD, FEDERAL RESERVE, BEN BERNANKE, BARCLAYS, HSBC, TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE

Hairy celebs
Anti-Pervert Hairy Stockings Are The Newest Trend In China + Celebrities Who Have Skipped Shaving

By IBTimes AU

Ladies, forget shaving. This year is about embracing your natural hairy state. Or if you need help growing curls on your legs, you can just fake it with hairy stockings. You heard it right. Thanks to hair stockings, women can display hairy legs anytime. (11:02 pm)

MORE TOPICS: HOLLYWOOD

Japan's exports pick up pace, give economy momentum in rough markets

By Reuters UK

Japan's exports rose in May at the fastest annual rate in more than two years with the help of a weak yen and a moderate pick-up in global demand, boding well for the government's efforts to steer the economy through market turbulence. (10:42 pm)

MORE TOPICS: FEDERAL RESERVE, MORGAN STANLEY, FIXED-INCOME, JAPAN, INVESTMENT

China sex scandal
Chinese Girls Opt for Hairy Stockings to Fend Off Perverts

By IBTimes AU

While stockings are considered to be a sexy piece of clothing for ladies, would you still deem a woman as such if you see her walking with hairy stockings? (10:19 pm)

a businessman sitting near a cargo area at a port in Tokyo
Japan Posts 11th Straight Monthly Trade Deficit on Rising Import Bills

By IBTimes UK

Value of exports rise 10.1% to 5.77tn yen, trade deficit widens to 993.9bn yen. (10:09 pm)

MORE TOPICS: FEDERAL RESERVE, CRUDE OIL, EUROPEAN UNION, JAPAN

Shoppers ride the escalators at VivoCity shopping mall in Singapore January 3, 2010.
India Business Sentiment at Over 3-Year Low

By Reuters

Asia's top companies have become more optimistic about their business outlook with the retail and shipping industries rebounding sharply in the second quarter of 2013, the latest Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Survey shows. (8:44 pm)

MORE TOPICS: CRUDE OIL, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA, RETAIL, INDIA

Apple iPhone 5S
4 Reasons Why $99 iPhone 5S Release Date Will Happen This Year

By IBTimes AU

New rumours claimed that the low cost iPhone will cost $99 and there are reasons to back it up. (8:27 pm)

MORE TOPICS: IPHONE, GOLDMAN SACHS, SAMSUNG, INDIA, EMERGING MARKETS, SMARTPHONE

Iron ore prices to weaken in 2013
2 Companies Express Interest in Buying Rio Tinto’s $4B Iron Ore Operations in Canada

By IBTimes AU

There are two miners that have expressed interest in purchasing Rio Tinto's (ASX: RIO) $4 billion iron ore operations in Canada. (5:28 pm)

MORE TOPICS: MANAGEMENT, RIO TINTO, CREDIT SUISSE

File photo of an employee counting U.S. dollar banknotes as yuan banknotes are seen at a branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Huaibei
Australian Dollar Outlook - 19 June 2013

By IBTimes AU

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The RBA minutes released yesterday leaves the door open to further cuts in interest rates. (4:55 pm)

MORE TOPICS: AUSTRALIA, DOW JONES

3,000 Year Old Logic: Don’t Sell Your Gold

By The Daily Reckoning Australia

Christie's advertised a solid gold bracelet that's about 3,000 years old. It dates to the Iron Age, and was unearthed - yes, dug out of the ground - in Portugal, or old pre-Roman Lusitania. (4:20 pm)

MORE TOPICS: GOLD, DOW JONES, PORTUGAL, GOLD PRICES, AUSTRALIA, RETAIL

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