angkun was elected by the Seventh National People's Congress;

National People's Congress--last held NA March 1988 (next to
be held March 1993); results--CCP is the only party;
seats--(2,970 total) CCP 2,970 (indirectly elected)

Communists: about 45,000,000 party members (1986)

Other political or pressure groups: such meaningful opposition as exists
consists of loose coalitions, usually within the party and government
organization, that vary by issue

Member of: ADB, CCC, ESCAP, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO,
ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, ITU, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Diplomatic representation: Ambassador ZHU Qizhen; Chancery at
2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008;
telephone (202) 328-2500 through 2502; there are Chinese Consulates General
in Chicago, Houston, New York, and San Francisco;
US--Ambassador James R. LILLEY; Embassy at Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3,
Beijing (mailing address is FPO San Francisco 96655); telephone p86o (1)
532-3831;
there are US Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang

Flag: red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow
five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag)
in the upper hoist-side corner

- Economy
Overview: Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been
trying to move the economy from the sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned
economy to a more productive and flexible economy with market elements--but
still within the framework of monolithic Communist control. To this
end the authorities have switched to a system of household responsibility
in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority
of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide
variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing,
and opened the foreign economic sector to increased trade and joint
ventures. The most gratifying result has been a strong spurt in production,
particularly in agriculture in the early 1980s. Otherwise, the leadership has
often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism
(bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption) and of capitalism (windfall gains
and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked,
retightening central controls at intervals and thereby undermining the
credibility of the reform process. Open inflation and excess demand continue to
plague the economy, and political repressio