China

### Introduction

China is the most populated country in the world with around 1.3 billion people. China has experienced a major growth in its economy in the last few decades that propelled its economy into the second largest in the world. Even though the economy is strong the standard of living is very poor. Many people are poor and living in poverty. The current President of China has and is trying to better balancing the imports, exports and GDP ratings of China.

### History

China is one of the world's oldest civilized nations, which goes back to 10,000 B.C. In the 5,000 B.C. period is commonly used as the period when China became a large empire. China alternated between several dynasties of political unity and disunity, and was occasionally conquered by external groups of people, some eventually being welcomed into the Chinese population.

In 2012, the fifth generation of Chinese leadership, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keying of China took control over the country. Both the President and Premier coined the phrase "Chinese Dream" as their ideology of the Communist Party of China.

### Standard of Living

China's standard of living is one tick short of a disaster. Although they have high education numbers the amount of families living in poverty is roughly 22 million. That is about 13.4 percent of Chin'a total population and unemployment rates are climbing from 6.5 percent.

China, since 2012 has been trying to improve their economy and standards of living. Unfortunately of those 22 million people who are living in poverty very few people can really benefit from the efforts of improvement. China has the largest working population in the world with 770.4 million people but less than 2 percent earn enough money to pay income taxes. China is also a very polluted country due to the large amount of factories. The pollution makes it difficult to breathe and many people in China are developing breathing problems like asthma. Many people in China wear masks to try and filter out the soot and pollutants in the air. This also makes the investment in health and wellness increase causing less money to spend on daily necessities. Most people in China barley get by with the income they have so when they have to spend it on making sure their families are healthy it makes it even more difficult to get by.

### Imports and Exports

China is the world’s second largest trading nation, leading the world in exports and in second for imports. The top imports of China are mechanical and electrical products that make up 34 percent of total imports and high tech products which makes up 23 percent of total imports. The country is one of the biggest consumers of raw materials in the world. The biggest demand is for crude oil, iron ore, copper and aluminum. China’s main import partners are: the European Union, ASEAN countries, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the U.S., and Australia.

The top exports of China are mechanical and electrical products that make up 41 percent of total exports and high tech products that make up 20 percent of total exports. Other exports are labor-intensive industries for example, clothing, shoes, furniture, plastic products and ceramics, motors, generators, and integrated circuits. All which make up for about 26 percent of China's total exports. China’s main export partners are the United States, Hong Kong, the European Union, ASEAN countries, Japan, South Korea, and India.

### GDP per capita and GDP

China's GDP per capita is 13.4k compared to the U.S which is 54.6K.

1. ↑ Local Histories
2. ↑ Focus Economics
3. ↑ US - China Today
4. ↑ US-China Today
5. ↑ Trading Economics
6. ↑ Trading Economics
7. ↑ The Observatory of Economic Complexity