and Khabarovsk areas); a short section of
the boundary with North Korea is indefinite; Hong Kong is
scheduled to become a Special Administrative Region in 1997; Portuguese
territory of Macau is scheduled to become a Special Administrative
Region in 1999; sporadic border clashes with Vietnam; involved in a
complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with Malaysia, Philippines,
Taiwan, and Vietnam; maritime boundary dispute with Vietnam in the Gulf of
Tonkin; Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and
Taiwan; claims Japanese-administered Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands)

Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains,
deltas, and hills in east

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, crude oil, mercury, tin, tungsten,
antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead,
zinc, uranium, world's largest hydropower potential

Land use: 10% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 31% meadows and
pastures; 14% forest and woodland; 45% other; includes 5% irrigated

Environment: frequent typhoons (about five times per year along southern
and eastern coasts), damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes; deforestation; soil
erosion; industrial pollution; water pollution; desertification

Note: world's third-largest country (after USSR and Canada)

- People
Population: 1,118,162,727 (July 1990), growth rate 1.4% (1990)

Birth rate: 22 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 7 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 34 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 67 years male, 69 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 2.3 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun--Chinese (sing., pl.); adjective--Chinese

Ethnic divisions: 93.3% Han Chinese; 6.7% Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi,
Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities

Religion: officially atheist, but traditionally pragmatic and eclectic;
most important elements of religion are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism;
about 2-3% Muslim, 1% Christian

Language: Standard Chinese (Putonghua) or Mandarin (based on the Beijing
dialect); also Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan
(Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and minority languages (see
ethnic divisions)

Literacy: over 75%

Labor force: 513,000,000; 61.1% agri