enditures:

2.7% of GDP (2006)

Transnational Issues
Chile

Disputes - international:

Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reinvigorated claim to restore the
Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile has offered
instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile
to Bolivian gas and other commodities; Chile rejects Peru's
unilateral legislation to change its latitudinal maritime boundary
with Chile to an equidistance line with a southwestern axis favoring
Peru, in October 2007, Peru took its maritime complaint with Chile
to the ICJ; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic
Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British claims; the
joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in
2001, has yet to map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the
inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur)

Illicit drugs:

transshipment country for cocaine destined for Europe and the
region; economic prosperity and increasing trade have made Chile
more attractive to traffickers seeking to launder drug profits,
especially through the Iquique Free Trade Zone, but a recent
anti-money-laundering law improves controls; imported precursors
passed on to Bolivia; domestic cocaine consumption is rising, making
Chile a significant consumer of cocaine

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

======================================================================

@China

Introduction
China

Background:

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the
rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and
early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major
famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War
II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic
socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed
strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of
millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and
other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by
2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living
standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal
choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

Geography
China

Location:

Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea,
and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam