small parties controlled by CCP

Political pressure groups and leaders: no meaningful political
opposition groups exist

International organization participation: AfDB, APEC, AsDB, BIS,
CCC, CDB (non-regional), ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,
Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MINURSO, NAM
(observer), OPCW, PCA, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNOMSIL, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WHO, WIPO,
WMO, WToO, WTrO (applicant)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador LI Zhaoxing
chancery: 2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and
San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador James R. SASSER
embassy: Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, 100600 Beijing
mailing address: PSC 461, Box 50, FPO AP 96521-0002
consulate(s) general: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang

Flag description: 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

Economy--overview: Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership
has been trying to move the economy from a sluggish Soviet-style
centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented economy but
still within a rigid political framework of Communist Party control.
To this end the authorities 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 economy to
increased foreign trade and investment. The result has been a
quadrupling of GDP since 1978. Agricultural output doubled in the
1980s, and industry also posted major gains, especially in coastal
areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment
helped spur output of both domestic and export goods. On the darker
side, 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