China is situated in eastern Asia on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean, with an area of 9.6 million square kilometers. China's continental coastline extends for about 18,000 kilometers, and its vast sea surface is studded with more than 5,000 islands.

As the word's most populous country, it has a population exceeding 1.2 billion, which makes up 22 percent of the world total. To bring population growth under control, the country has followed a family planning policy since the 1970s. China is a multiracial country with 56 ethnic groups. The Han people account for 92 percent of the population.  

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount source of power. At the national and regional levels, Party members hold almost all top government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with members of the Politburo.  Leaders stress the need to maintain stability and social order and are committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. The Party's authority rests primarily on the Government's ability to maintain social stability, appeals to nationalism and patriotism, Party control of personnel, media, and the security apparatus, and the continued improvement in the living standards of most of the country's almost 1.3 billion citizens.  

Socialism continues to provide the theoretical underpinning of Chinese politics, but Marxist ideology has given way to economic pragmatism in recent years, and economic decentralization has increased the authority of regional officials.  

The past two decades and more have witnessed the sustained, sound and rapid growth of China's economy thanks to its reform and opening up policy. Today, some people are saying that China's GDP is the second or third largest in the world. Others are saying that China will overtake the U.S. to become the number one economy by 2020.

For over ten years, since the beginning of reform and the opening up, China has enjoyed a double-digit growth rate. In 1998, it grew at a rate of 7.8 percent, and in 1999 its GDP growth rate stood at 7.1 percent. However, problems and difficulties have erupted over the past two decades' reform and opening up. These problems include the disparity of income distribution, the uneven and unbalanced development between coastal regions and inland areas in Central and Western China, the difficulties faced by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the course of their reform and restructuring, environmental pollution and degradation, and the corruption of government officials.

In fact, corruption is has been disturbing China's reform and economic development in recent years. Cases involving millions and even billions have been unearthed; high-ranking, corrupted officials at ministerial level have been indicted and prosecuted. The rampant corruption in China is mainly the result of the transition from the planned economy to the market economic structure. While acknowledging that corruption cannot be eradicated for the time being, the Chinese government is determined to deal with this vice according to the law with the most serious manner. In the meantime, efforts have also been made to strengthen laws and regulations, to plug loopholes and to educate officials at various levels to uphold integrity and ethics in government.  

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Women in politics, governance and decision-making
The Government places no restrictions on the participation of women or minority groups in the political process; however, they are underrepresented in government and politics.  Women freely exercise their right to vote in village committee elections, but only a small fraction of elected members are women.  The Government and Party organizations include approximately 12 million female officials out of 61 million Party members.  Women constitute 21.81 percent of the National People's Congress. However, women still hold few positions of significant influence at the highest rungs of the Party or government structure.  One alternate member of the 22-member Politburo is a woman, and women hold 2 of 29 ministerial-level positions. 

The Government has made gender equality a policy objective since 1949.  The Constitution states "women enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life."  The 1992 Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests provides for equality in ownership of property, inheritance rights, and access to education.  Women's economic and political influence has increased.  Nonetheless female activists increasingly are concerned that the progress that has been made by women over the past 50 years is being eroded and that women's status in society regressed during the 1990's.  They assert that the Government appears to have made the pursuit of gender equality a secondary priority as it focuses on economic reform and political stability.  Social and familial pressure also has grown for women to resume their traditional roles as wives and mothers.  A recent study of how women are portrayed in the media revealed that images of a woman's worth increasingly are linked to her ability to attract a wealthy husband and be a good mother. 

In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Women's Coalition on Equal Opportunities reported:

The current election system and social-political atmosphere also block women's participation in politics. For example, the Functional Constituency and Election Committee could give 1 individual with the position as employer and professional 2, if not 3, or even up to 43 votes in the same election. Homemaker does not appear as a 'profession' in the Functional Constituency.  As said earlier, a very high proportion of women work in the unskilled and low pay brackets which means they are very unlikely to have affiliations to 'professional organizations' to be entitled to more votes. And this needs to be changed.”

You may also go to these sites for more information about the situation of Chinese women. Or download this PDF document.

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Important political facts

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