Foreign Policy of China - Essay Example

4th Revision Order 142941 China A case study of the foreign policy of China Introduction China is the most populous country in the world and its economy is the fourth largest worth about 2.22 trillion US Dollars which is equivalent to approximately 18 percent of the US economy. In terms Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), it is the second largest in the world with a GDP (PPP) of US $9.412 trillion. According to a recent IMF review of the economy, China's GDP is projected to grow in 2006 and 2007 at the same rate of 10 percent as in 2005.1 . The main argument of this paper is that the country's foreign policy, as much as the other policy instruments at the disposal of the government, is to be used, as undoubtedly they have been and may continue to be used, for maintaining, if not accelerating the rate of growth of the economy. In investigating this problem the method adopted is qualitative analysis of both historical and current data to lay bare the relation between the country's economic growth and its foreign policy, particularly the economic component of that policy. There are two dominant approaches to political decision making in general and foreign policy decision making in particular: rational choice and cognitive psychology. Cognitive Theories are those which examine the role of psychological processes - perception, misperception, belief systems - on the foreign policy behaviour of states. It includes theories such as classical realism, neo realism, neo classical realism, liberalism, neo liberalism etc.2 Constructivism is a rational choice theory in as much as it examines state behavior in the context of state characteristics. States have identities and those identities define their behavior in the international system. In such a model, foreign policy is rooted in and an offshoot of the domestic environment and policies of the country concerned. The discussion of china's foreign policy has to be within the framework of such a theory3. China's domestic environment Population As of mid-2005 with a population of a little over 1.3 billion people (1,306,314,000), representing 20% of the world's population. China's population growth has been somewhat slowed by the one child policy, in effect since 1979. China's total fertility rate is 1.7, which means that, on average, each woman gives birth to 1.7 children throughout her life, nonetheless, China's population is expected to grow over the next few decades.4 (PGR) This can be attributed to immigration and a decrease in both infant mortality and death rate as national health standards improve. By the late 2010s, China's population is expected to reach 1.4 billion. Around 2030, its population is anticipated to peak and then slowly start dropping. However, one of the demographic consequences of the "one child" policy has been that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world. 5 Ethnic and religious groups China has numerous ethnic groups (56) as constituents of its population. (Appendix ). The Han Chinese is the most numerous. Many of the ethnic minorities have their own culture and language, but many are becoming more like the Han who dominates the whole of China except Tibet and Xianjiang where the Han is still a minority. In the absence of an 'equal opportunity law', one is free to advertise for a preferred ethnic group for employment. However, most government bodies are required to employ at least one member of an ethnic minority. China was established in 1949 as an officially atheist state, and organized religion was banned and religious belief and practice were discouraged. During the Cultural Revolution, religion was condemned as feudalistic and thousands of religious buildings were looted and destroyed. The 1978 the Chinese Constitution reversed the atheist stance of the government and guaranteed freedom of religion. Many Chinese actually continue to practice a wide variety of religions. One source gives about 100 million religious worshippers in China: Buddhists 72%; Muslims 11%; Protestant Christians 10%; Catholic Christians 5.10%; Taoists 1.5%. However, this estimate of 100 million worshippers may undercount the actual extent of religious practice in China because some may be afraid, for various reasons, to admit religious belief.6 Neighbours From 2003 onwards China has adopted a so-called Good Neighbour Policy as part of a new strategy of "peaceful development," in which China sought to promote an interdependent, rather than competitive, relationship with its neighbours. In the second half of the 20th century, China had been engaged in three military conflicts with neighbouring countries-India in 1962, the Soviet Union in 1969, and Vietnam in 1979-each of which had been over disputed territories along their borders. The Good Neighbour Policy was clearly evident by 2005. In 2004 China had reached an agreement with Russia that put an end to their decades-long border disputes. In 2005 China signed an agreement with India to resolve their dispute over a territory covering 130,000 sq km (50,000 sq mi) in the Himalayan region. During a visit to Vietnam in late 2005, President Hu of China offered a five-point proposal for developing political and economic relations among which were to complete the full demarcation of the border between the two countries and their plans to expand bilateral trade from $7 billion to $10 billion by 2010. China has been active in consciously promoting regional cooperation. China also remained committed to building relations with Central Asian states, mainly via the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This intergovernmental body had originated as the "Shanghai Five" in 1996, when China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions at a summit meeting held in Shanghai. Uzbekistan joined the group in 2001, when the SCO was formally established. Its basic goals were regional security and economic cooperation. 7 However, in spite the China's Good Neighbour Policy, by 2005 tensions in Sino-Japanese relations heightened sharply. Several issues had led to an increasingly acrimonious atmosphere. One was Japan's adoption of new history textbooks that whitewashed its wartime atrocities against China. Another issue was Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council-a bid that China successfully helped to thwart. Toward the end of 2005, however, both governments called for resolutions of sensitive problems and promised to work on their differences. In China's case it appeared evident that it would continue to regard a good relationship with neighbouring countries as vital to its economic development as well as to political stability.8 . China's Ideology The colour and complexion of the "communist" government established in1948 has been changing over the years. But China is still a one-party state ruled by the communist party. Communism has suffered some hard knocks in the recent past. It collapsed in the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. And it had bad disasters in China in the 1959-61 Great Leap Forward, which killed millions of people, and the cultural revolution of 1966-69 and the chaos and tensions that followed it well into the 1970s. From 1978 onwards China has been reforming its economy from a centrally planned one to a market-oriented one but within the political structure determined by the Communist Party of China. The resulting economic structure has been characterised as a 'mixed economy', with greater household responsibility in agriculture replacing the earlier system of 'collectivisation', a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing being permitted, and the economy being opened to increased foreign trade and foreign investment. In 2004 Chinese National Peoples Congress (NPC) amended the country's constitution to explicitly protect the private ownership of property, businesses and wealth. Former president Jiang Zemin's theory of "Three Represents," which permitted private entrepreneurs to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was added to the "guiding principles" of the state, together with "Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory." In 1982, the constitution recognised the private sector as being "complement" to the public sector. In 1999, private enterprises were elevated to the status of an "essential part" of China's economy. Commentators said that the amendments "will eliminate entrepreneurs' hidden worries about the security of their assets and boost their confidence in long-term investment and feel more confident and more optimistic about the future.9 These changes have also been interpreted as marking an ideological breakthrough, signaling that the Chinese regime is no longer communist. "One interpretation is that China is no longer communist; another is that China has become the world's fastest-growing capitalist economy, retaining a one-party system, albeit with many competing interests and constituencies."10 And it has all the bad qualities of a 'capitalist economy'. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, although China stood in 2005 as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, in per capita terms the country is still at the 'lower middle-income' level, and 150 million Chinese fall below international poverty lines. According to the China-Poverty Relief Fund, 30 million rural people lack adequate food and clothing, while another 60 million earn less than US$100 a year. At the other extreme, the country's 400 wealthiest individuals have a combined fortune of 301.1 billion yuan ($US36 billion). Despite economic growth of over 9 percent last year, the official unemployment rate has increased from 4.3 percent to 4.7 percent, and at least nine million new jobs were required to simply maintain the present level of unemployment, yet 24 million job seekers were expected to join the labour force 11 China has a "new political ideology" in former President Jiang Zemin's 'Three Represents theory', which is now starting to catch on with the Chinese masses after almost three years of nonstop official propaganda and media saturation. Three Represents was added to China's Constitution in 2004, and links them to the teachings of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as a continuum of Chinese political dogma. The theory, announced by Jiang in July 2001, says that the Communist Party must represent ''advanced productivity,'' ''advanced culture'' and ''the fundamental interests of the majority.''12 Foreign Trade and FDI Trade has been growing rapidly during the reform period. In 1952 exports and imports were each running at a miserable US$1 billion. By 1970 they were just over double that, though world trade had expanded many times since 1952. The limited opening up that occurred in the late Mao period brought exports and imports each to about US$7.5billion, only slightly better. Then under Deng Xiaoping, two-way trade shot up: from less than US$15billion in 1975, it grew to $38billion in 1980, nearly $70billion in 1985, and $115billion by 1990. The rapid growth continued in the 1990s, especially after Deng's southern tour in January 1992, and by 1999 two-way trade was worth US$360bn. Imports were balanced with exports when the two were too small to be worth worrying about, then in the 1980s imports exceed exports, and in most years in the 1990s there was a substantial trade surplus. China's foreign trade figures were US $1150 billion in 2004, more than double that of 2001. At the end of 2004, China became the world's third largest trading nation behind the United States and Germany. 13 China's trade surplus has been positive over many years. In 2005, her exports were valued at $762.0 billion and imports at $ 660.12 billion, giving a BOT surplus of US$ 102. China's principal trading partners are US, Japan, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, and Australia. With the US, China had a trade surplus of $170 billion in 2004, more than double of the 1999 figure. Table 1 China's top ten trade partners: 2003 Rank Country/region Volume (exports + imports) Percentage of total (billions of US dollars) Total 851.21 100.0 1 Japan 133.57 15.7 2 US 126.33 14.8 3 EU 125.22 14.7 4 HK, China 87.41 10.3 5 ASEAN 78.25 9.2 6 Korea 63.23 7.4 7 Taiwan Province 58.37 6.9 8 Russia 15.76 1.9 9 Australia 13.56 1.6 10 Canada 10.01 1.2 Note: Ranking by value of trade. Source: Ministry of Commerce, People's Republic of China China has become an integral part of the world's trading system. In November 1991, it joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group, which promotes free trade and cooperation in economic, trade, investment, and technology issues. In 1999, the United States and China signed a market-access agreement to pave the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). China joined the WTO on December 11, 2001, after 15 years of negotiations, the longest in GATT history. China was one of original 23 signatories of the GATT in 1948, but effectively left it after the Chinese revolution in 1949. Beijing never recognized the withdrawal. Negotiations started in 1986. Trade Implications of China's Accession to the WTO Some of the trade implications of China joining the WTO include: China must offer most favoured nation (MFN) treatment to all foreign suppliers and cannot treat one country better than another (except within regional agreements); domestic regulation must be "administered in a reasonable, objective and impartial manner"; must ensure that any monopoly supplier does not act in a manner inconsistent with China's obligations; enter into consultations in order to eliminate business practices that may restrain competition and restrict trade in services; must maintain appropriate measures to prevent any "major supplier" from engaging in anti-competitive practices; must ensure telecom interconnection with a "major supplier" at any technically feasible point in the network a) under non-discriminatory terms and rates b) rates which are "cost oriented", "transparent", and "reasonable" WTO membership gave scope for China to increase its share world trade with an assurance of fairer treatment in trade backed up by binding dispute settlements. Other countries must offer China MFN treatment and remove or bring into consistency all prohibitions, quotas and other measures. China already had MFN treatment in most markets, but certainty of treatment had improved. A major source of China's economic growth is it export sector. Almost in all the commodity markets of the world, in all their "wal-marts" as well as their 'humble' retail shops, there is a proliferation of Chinese goods, most of which can be had, what their rivals across the street complain, at "throw-away-prices". It is as if Chinese goods have captured the world commodity markets, and may be in the process of raising a serious threat to the currently reigning 'merchant kings' in the service and financial markets of the world. And conversely, there is a scramble among the industrialized nations for a slice or two of the burgeoning Chinese market of millions, for their manufactures. The manufacturers in UK or in USA or in other industrialized countries, for that matter, find it difficult to increase their exports to China and sell their products in the Chinese markets. Invoking WTO has not helped. And china has not erected any 'physical' barriers against their entry either. The culprit for this state of affairs has been identified as china's undervalued rate of exchange. The U.S has experienced continued bilateral trade deficits with China, in the last several years; and so too, the European Union, and Japan. 14 China has adapted very quickly and successfully to a relatively open trading regime during the two decades preceding WTO accession. Exports now account for about 20% of GDP, higher than in many other countries. (WTO) Foreign direct investment The other major result of opening up has been a massive inflow of foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment was welcomed with open arms in the 1980s and the arms opened even wider after 1991. There was no alternative. Deng first tried to lure foreign companies into doing compensation trade deals, but they didn't bite. Foreign direct investment, at first in joint ventures, then, especially in the 1990s, in the form of wholly owned subsidiaries of foreign companies, was the only way to bring in foreign capital to help fund China's industrialisation and provide it with the necessary technology and know-how. During the 1980s, FDI inflows rose gradually from only US$1bn a year in the early years to US$ 3.5bn by 1990, then from 1992 they accelerated, reaching a peak of over US$ 44bn a year in 1997-98, since when they have levelled off at around US$ 40bn. FDI in China rose in 2004 despite government efforts to cool off the economy. And despite a dip in the number of new projects, contracted and actual FDI were both up year-on-year for the first quarter of 2005. Asian investors led investment in China in 2004, with the United States coming in fifth at nearly $ 4 billion, and will likely continue their lead in 2005. The trend of investment is seen to be venturing beyond traditional manufacturing industries into the information technology, high-tech, and service sectors and into lower-cost, interior locations, and it is expected to continue beyond 2006. The result of years of trade surplus and foreign direct investment inflows has been the accumulation of a large reserve of dollars and other foreign currencies. China's foreign exchange reserves are among the highest in the world, reaching US$ 819 billion in December 2005. China is now on course to accumulate more than $1,000bn in foreign exchange by the beginning of 2006 - a total that would surpass Japan, which had $847bn in reserves at the end of December 2005. With China's foreign direct investment stable in 2005 at $60bn, the same amount as in 2004, the largest stimulus to the reserves came from its swelling trade surplus, which more than tripled to $102bn last year. 15 Table 1: Foreign Investment in China, 2004 Number of Contracts Amount Contracted Amount Utilized Investment Vehicle Total % Change % of Total $ Billion % Change % of Total $ Billion % Change % of Total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) 43,664 6.29 100.0 153.47 33.38 100.00 60.63 13.32 100.00 Equity Joint Ventures 11,570 -7.60 26.50 27.64 8.37 18.01 16.39 6.46 27.03 Contractual Joint Ventures 1,343 -13.19 3.08 7.79 4.13 5.08 3.11 -18.88 5.12 Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises 30,708 13.97 70.33 117.28 43.70 76.42 40.22 20.49 66.34 Share-based Enterprises with Foreign Investment 43 16.22 0.10 0.77 99.09 0.50 0.77 136.68 1.27 Cooperative Development 0 -100.00 0 0 -100.00 0 0.11 226.45 0.18 Sources: Ministry of Commerce and the USCBC Note: Percentages may not add up because some categories were omitted from this table. Table 2: Origins of FDI, 2004 Origin Amount Invested ($ billion) Hong Kong $19.00 British Virgin Islands $6.73 South Korea $6.25 Japan $5.45 United States $3.94 Taiwan $3.18 Cayman Islands $2.04 Singapore $2.01 Western Samoa $1.13 Germany $1.06 So what can be said about the role of foreign economic relations in recent years, in post-Mao China - whether there has been a real change in attitude towards the outside world Probably not. What has changed is that China's leaders understand that trade and investment links with the outside world allow a faster rate of economic growth than the former policy of self-sufficiency, protectionism and import substitution. The economy did grow during the Mao period, quite impressively. It doubled in size between 1952 and 1959, and then doubled again by the time Mao died in 1976, so that it quadrupled over those 24 years. But in the following 23 years it has become more than eight times as big as in 1976. Foreign Policy Objectives As mentioned in the introduction, China's foreign policy can be characterised as 'constructivist', relating to and emanating from the characteristics of the Chinese state. The Constitutional amendments during the Eighth National People's Congress in 1996 incorporated the explicit stipulations concerning China's foreign policy. The main content and basic principles of the policy included: safeguarding independence; opposing hegemonism and safeguarding world peace; developing good-neighbourly relations; strengthening unity and cooperation amongst third world nations; establishing and developing friendly cooperative ties with all nations on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence; maintaining a positive attitude toward international cooperation; making energetic efforts to promote the establishment of a new international order; opposing arms race and promoting the disarmament process; practicing comprehensive opening to the outside world; and actively enhancing the friendly people-to-people contacts throughout the world. Foreign Policy in early years In the early days of new China, it formed an alliance with the former Soviet Union to fight hostility, isolation and blockade by the United States with a "turning to one side" strategy that was necessary at the time. But, the former Soviet Union attempted to force China to submit to its own strategic needs by withdrawing its experts from China and disregarding economic agreements it had signed with China and deployed one million soldiers along the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian borders, posing a serious threat to China. China, however, did not give in to the Soviet pressure and put up a 'fight against hegemonism'. In the 1970s, with the US strength reduced by the Vietnam War, the former Soviet Union took advantage of the opportunity to expand, posing a serious threat to Chinese security and incidentally to world peace.. It was at this time that China under Mao Zedong decided to open the door to Sino-US relations, and put forth the "one-line" strategy that extended from Japan to the U.S. and to Europe, in order to counter the Soviet challenge. This strategy played an important role in relaxing tensions in Chinese security at the time, ending the long period of being surrounded by enemies and curbing Soviet expansion and 'hegemonism'.16 Both the "turning to one side" strategy and the "one-line" strategy affected Chinese relations with some countries to certain degree and cost the country in necessary flexibility and initiative. China changed the "one-line" strategy and did not form an alliance or forge strategic relations with any big powers. On international issues, it considers the basic interests of the Chinese people and the people of the world and independently decides its own stance on the pros and cons of these issues. China made its policy of peace in foreign relations clear when Deng Xiaoping said that its fundamental goals were to oppose hegemonism, safeguard world peace, and promote human progress. He tied the principle of independence closely to that of peaceful foreign relations. Deng emphasized that socialist China belongs to the third world and will always stand by the third world. He always took strengthening unity and co-operation with developing countries as a basic part of China's foreign affairs, promoting mutually beneficial and friendly co-operative relations with the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Deng also was of the view that in handling state-to-state relations, no lines should be drawn in accordance with social systems and ideology, and corrected the deviation of "drawing a line" by the former Soviet Union or "drawing a line" by the US, creating favourable conditions for friendly co-operative relations with all other countries. He also called for the proper handling of the relations between independence and opening up to the outside world. In the process of opening up, the country should always put national independence and sovereignty above anything else. 17 Another adjustment of the foreign policy was the resolving of the Hong Kong and Macao issues with the "one country, two systems" concept. The success of this concept has created favourable conditions and practical experience for the resolution of the Taiwan question, and provided a successful example for other countries to follow in resolving issues left from history by peaceful means. In the past 20 years, in spite of drastic changes in the international situation, China has followed Deng's ideas on diplomacy and scored great achievements in diplomacy: It has withstood the effects of the drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, and the pressure and sanctions imposed on China by some Western countries; It has successfully safeguarded its sovereignty and national dignity; It resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and pushed forward its great cause of peaceful reunification of the motherland; It has promoted good-neighborly friendships, and developed friendship and co-operation with its neighboring countries; It has strengthened unity and co-operation with most other developing countries; On the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence, it has developed relations with Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and improved its relations with Western countries; it has created a good international environment for continuing its reform, opening-up, and modernization drive by expanding economic, trade, and technology exchanges and co-operation, and cultural and other exchanges with other countries; it has taken an active part in international and regional diplomacy, playing a unique role in diplomatic activities, promoting the development of multi-polarization, and making a great contribution to world peace and stability. 18 Foreign Policy at present However, currently China may be said to be passing through a period of transition and adjustment. In the short- and mid-term, China may pay special attention to improving its relations with developed countries, particularly the United States, and with its neighboring countries. These two aspects of China's external relations are of great significance to creating external conditions favorable for its modernization programme and building an all-round well-off society by 2020. In the light of great discrepancy between China's major power status and its actual capabilities the only effective way of enhancing China's global and regional standing is to stay with existing policy. This has been clear in China's position on the Iraqi War. Guided by the "Three Represents" (Representing the interests of the majority of the Chinese people, advanced Chinese culture, and advanced productivity of the country) the new Chinese leadership is expected to make foreign policy facilitate China's modernisation programme. 19 China has also to adjust its foreign policy stance to the realities of the new "post-9/11" world situation. The United States has emerged out of an overwhelming victory over the Iraqi War and become even more dominant and assertive. European countries headed by Germany and France are striving for a bigger say in international affairs and are criticizing the United States for its unilateralism. Russia is trying hard at finding a bigger role in world affairs. China must work with all the existing and potential major powers and have a say in international institutions and in the world order. In addition, the new Chinese leadership has to balance domestic factors and foreign policy goals. There are both traditional and non-traditional challenges down the road awaiting the new Chinese leadership as well. The biggest traditional challenges include, among others, Sino-U.S. relations, the international factors in the question of Taiwan, and Asian security issues. Sino-U.S. relations in the coming decade will undergo many significant changes. While the two countries will still bicker over their perennial differences on trade deficits, human rights, the Tibetan issue, etc., this bilateral relationship will be more characteristic of readjusting relationship between an established sole superpower and a rising power. China and the United States will give a much broader vision and perspective to this bilateral relationship. They will have to deal with more global and regional issues too. In short, both China and the United States need to build a new framework of cooperation. The new Chinese leadership should and will display its political wisdom and diplomatic competence in doing its part to keep Sino-U.S. relations on a stable and right track. 20 The non-traditional challenges include war on the terrorism, the struggle against trafficking, and environment protection. This new leadership will also face the challenges arising from China's hosting the Olympics in 2008 and Shanghai's World Expo in 2010. On the one hand, these two major events will provide China with great opportunities to enhance its international standing and recognition. They will also boost China's modernization program. On the other hand, they can be great challenges for the new leadership in coping with the accompanying economic, social and political demands both at home and abroad. Number of words. 4649 References Aizenman & Marion, (2003), "Foreign Exchange Reserve in East Asia: Why the High Demand", Pacific Basin Notes, Centre for Pacific Basin and Monetary Studies, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Alexander L. 1993 George Bridging the Gap: Theory and Practice in Foreign Policy U.S. Institute of Peace Press China's latest constitution (2004), Asian Economic News, April 5, 2004 China's Relations with Its Neighbours. (2006). In Britannica Book of the Year, 2006. Retrieved November29,2006, from Encyclopdia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9403620 Dingli Shen, 2004 China's Foreign Policy, The Cases of Iraq and North Korea, Centre for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China; dlshen@fudan.ac.cn Foreign Affairs - China's New Diplomacy - Evan S. Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel, retrieved from foreignaffairs.org/.../china-s-new-diplomacy.htmlmode=print - (FDI) Foreign Investment in China: www.uschina.org/info/chops/2006/fdi.html Funke, Michael, and Ralf Ruhwedel, (2001), "Export Variety and Export Performance: Empirical Evidence from East Asia," Journal of Asian Economics, vol. 12, December. (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcselm.cfmG=2001 (http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/11/23/wto.germany.role/index.html International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP) Bulletin 22 - Nuclear Policy, Terrorism, and Missile Defence IMF (International Monetary Fund) www.imf.org/external/pubind.htm - also (http://www.chinability.com/GDP.html) John Chan, World Socialist Web Site (2004) Chinese regime amends constitution to protect private ownership at http://www.wsws.org/indes.shtml/ Kochhar, Kalpana, Loungani Prakash and Stone R. Mark, 1998, "The East Asian Crisis: Macroeconomics Developments and Policy Lessons", International Monetary Fund, www.img.org/external/pubs/ Lardy, Nicholas, (2004b), "The Outlook for China's Economy," Presentation for Toyota Motor Corporation, Tokyo, May 13. Lum, T & Nanto, D, (2006), "China's Trade with the United States and the World", CRS Report for Congress, [online] retrieved 15 August 2006 from: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row Maddison (2005), at http://www.ggdc.net./maddison/china_book/tables/pdf.html Morales-Daz, Enrique, and Gabriel Aquino, and Michael Sletcher (2006) 'Ethnicity', in Michael Sletcher, ed., New England, (Westport, CT, 2004). Palmer, Glenn, Dueck, Colin, Morgan, T. Clifton, 2006 A Theory of Foreign Policy Princeton Univ Press: Feb 2006, Population Growth Research (PGR), 2006: population growth: Retrieved November 29, 2006, from Online library: http://www.questia.com/ Religions in china: at http://www.chineseculture.info/culture/religions.htm www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.phpstory_id=3373 Subhash Kapila, 2005 China's Foreign Policy Challenges, South Asia Analysis Group. UCLA International Institute, Center for Chinese Studies (2004): webmaster@international.ucla.edu WTO, World Trade Organisation and China (WTO), www.uschina.org/public/wto - Appendix The 56 ethnic groups are: Han Chinese Zhuang Manchu Hui(Chinese Muslims) Miao Uyghur Yi Tujia Mongolian Tibetan Buyei Dong Yao Korean Bai Akha Li Kazak Dai She Lisu Gelao Lahu Dongxiang Va Shui Nakhi Qiang Tu Xibe Mulao Kyrgyz Daur Jingpo Salar Blang Maonan Tajik Pumi Achang Nu Ewenki Vietnamese Jino De'ang Uzbeks Russian Yugur Bonan Monba Oroqen Derung Tatars Hezhen Lhoba Taiwanese Aboriginal US Trade with China: 2006 NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars. Month Exports Imports Balance January 2006 3,494.1 21,404.9 -17,910.9 February 2006 4,087.0 17,926.5 -13,839.5 March 2006 4,955.4 20,526.1 -15,570.7 April 2006 4,343.7 21,377.2 -17,033.5 May 2006 4,542.0 22,253.6 -17,711.6 June 2006 4,347.0 24,052.4 -19,705.4 July 2006 5,064.6 24,639.6 -19,574.9 August 2006 4,764.3 26,723.4 -21,959.0 September 2006 4,637.5 27,596.8 -22,959.3 TOTAL 40,235.7 206,500.5 -166,264.8 'TOTAL' may not add due to rounding. Table reflects only those months for which there was trade. CONTACT: Data Dissemination Branch, U.S. Census Bureau, (301) 763-2311 SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, Data Dissemination Branch, Washington, D.C. 20233 Read More