China, Country Information
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China, Country Information CHINA COUNTRY ASSESSMENT April 2003 Country Information and Policy Unit I SCOPE OF DOCUMENT II GEOGRAPHY III ECONOMY IV HISTORY V STATE STRUCTURES VIA HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES VIB HUMAN RIGHTS: SPECIFIC GROUPS VIC HUMAN RIGHTS: OTHER ISSUES ANNEX A: CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS ANNEX B: POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS ANNEX C: PROMINENT PEOPLE ANNEX D: GLOSSARIES ANNEX E: CHECKLIST OF CHINA INFORMATION PRODUCED BY CIPU ANNEX F: REFERENCES TO SOURCE MATERIAL 1. SCOPE OF DOCUMENT 1.1 This assessment has been produced by the Country Information and Policy Unit, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Home Office, from information obtained from a wide variety of recognised sources. The document does not contain any Home Office opinion or policy. 1.2 The assessment has been prepared for background purposes for those involved in the asylum / human rights determination process. The information it contains is not exhaustive. It concentrates on the issues most commonly raised in asylum / human rights claims made in the United Kingdom. 1.3 The assessment is sourced throughout. It is intended to be used by caseworkers as a signpost to the source material, which has been made available to them. The vast majority of the source material is readily available in the public domain. 1.4 It is intended to revise the assessment on a six-monthly basis while the country remains within the top 35 asylum-seeker producing countries in the United Kingdom. 2. GEOGRAPHY file:///V|/vll/country/uk_cntry_assess/apr2003/0403_China.htm[10/21/2014 9:56:46 AM] China, Country Information Geographical Area 2.1. The People's Republic of China (PRC) covers 9,571,300 sq km of eastern Asia, with Mongolia and Russia to the north; Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan to the north-west; Afghanistan and Pakistan to the west; India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to the south; and Korea in the north-east. It has a long coastline on the Pacific Ocean. There are 4 municipalities - Beijing (Peking) (the capital), Shanghai, Tianjin (Tientsin) and Chongqing - and 22 provinces, of which the largest (by population) are Henan (Honan), Sichuan (Szechwan), Shandong (Shantung), Jiansu (Kiangsu) and Guangdong (Kwangtung). There are 5 autonomous regions - Guangxi Zhuang (Kwangsi Chuang), Nei Monggol (Inner Mongolia), Xinjiang Uygur (Singkiang Uighur), Ningxia Hui (Ninghsia Hui) and Xizang (Tibet) - as well as, from 1 July 1997, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong, and from 20 December 1999, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Macau. [1a] 2.2. Under Article 30 of the Contitution the Provinces and Autonomous Regions are further divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and cities; and the counties and autonomous counties are sub-divided into townships, nationality townships, and towns. [1a] Population 2.3. The total population was estimated in 1998 at 1.251 billion. The official population growth rate is 0.93%, with an average life expectancy of 70 years. Han Chinese make up 91.9% of the population. [2f] In January 2001, a national census was taken but the results are yet to be published. The year 2000 population estimate was of 1.261 billion people. [2j] No further available numbers to date (March 2003). Names, surnames and clan names 2.4. One website of unknown provenance gives the following. Surnames often but not exclusively, according to Chinese tradition, follow the maternal line. They denote family or close village ties, and so, traditionally, marriages were not permitted between individuals with the same surname. Traditionally, clan-names are different from surnames, recalling gifts of territories or titles to nobles by the emperor. The clan-name indicates the ancestral home of a person. [16b] 2.5. According to recent statistics (unspecified) the surname Zhang is the most prolific surname with over 100 million individuals with the surname. Zhang and the other top 9 surnames account for 40% of the Chinese population (in 1977 statistics). The next 10 most popular surnames account for a further 10%, and the following 10, a further 10%. An additional 15 surnames mean that a total of 45 surnames account for about 70% of the population. The remaining 30% are comparatively rare. [16b] Naming conventions 2.6. Traditional Chinese naming convention work on the basis of Clan-name (usually monosyllable) then Personal name (usually two syllables), for instance Deng Xiaoping, father of Deng Pufang. Lin Yutang, an old authority but the only provider of an explanation found to date, rails against the splitting of the syllables of the personal name, arguing that such a splitting is as disrespectful as the splitting of Latinate or other names, eg. Yu Tang is as demeaning as writing Nicaragua as Ni Ca Ra Gua. [5o] Various non-PRC Chinese communities have developed traditions, such as adoption (often imposition) of British type conventions in Hong Kong, prior to handover in 1997. Hence, names such as Michael Lee or Belinda Peng (Personal then Clan-name) and a growing fashion for amalgams such Regina Ip Lau Sukyee. The Chinese communities worldwide have seen a trend, particularly amongst young people, towards adopting a western name as a consequence of cultural globalisation.[9ch] Languages 2.7. The principal language is putonghua (Standard Chinese/Northern Chinese/Mandarin). Local dialects are spoken in the south and south-east. The Tibetans, Uygurs, Mongols and other groups have their own languages. Putonghua is taught in the schools throughout China, but local dialects are commonly spoken. 2.8. For example, Fuzhou (capital of Fujian province) has its own dialect, quite different from the national language, and different again from the dialect in southern Fujian. Cantonese, and subdialects of Cantonese, is commonly spoken in Guangdong province. 2.9. The main official language, Modern Standard Chinese, is based on the main dialect of Chinese, Mandarin Chinese. Known as Putonghua - "the common tongue, i.e. used by everyone", also known as Hanyu - "the language of the Han people", it is spoken by 890 million people worldwide, and understood by the majority of PRC's 2.1 billion population. [20a] 2.10. The number of languages listed in one source for China is 206; 205 living languages, and 1 extinct. [20a] Apart from other file:///V|/vll/country/uk_cntry_assess/apr2003/0403_China.htm[10/21/2014 9:56:46 AM] China, Country Information indigenous languages, Chinese itself is divided into different dialects. The dialects are mutually unintelligible to different dialect speakers, differing mainly in pronunciation and vocabulary, with few grammatical differences. [20c] 2.11. The official written language is Modern Standard Chinese, with dictionaries listing as many as 40,000 separate characters. Standard core characters number about 10,000. Knowledge of about 2,000 characters is needed to be functionally literate. [20b] The literacy rate was estimated to be 82.2% in 1996, according to an official sample survey. [1] The transcription of Chinese ideographs into the Roman alphabet leads to significant variances in spelling, although China does have a standard system, pinyin, which is used both in China and internationally.[1a][2a]. Regional language in Fujian Province 2.12. Languages in Fujian basically fall into three particular levels, namely "Mandarin" = Standard Modern Chinese for the purposes of official communication and instruction; Hokkien, (related to Minnan group of languages) the regional language of Fujian, Taiwan island, and all along the eastern coastal areas of China; and Hokchiu Oe or Fuzhouese spoken by people from the Fuzhou metropolitan area. [20l] Hokkien / Hokchiu speakers, in the main and particularly if literate, are held to be adequately bilingual in Modern Standard Chinese, as all formal education is given in Modern Standard Chinese. [20a] 3. ECONOMY General overview 3.1. Since China's entry into the World Trade Organization in September 2001, the pace of economic restructuring that began in earnest a decade ago has quickened. [9fe] [9fi] The promise of new industrial development is starting to emerge, but mainly in the eastern coastal provinces, centred around Shanghai [9fe] [4vx], with Shanghai developing commercial growth to rival and soon to outstrip Hong Kong. [4vx] The old State industries of the north east are facing further problems as the State withdraws support, and are increasingly seen to be unprofitable and in terminal decline. [9fe] The disparity of decline and growth has lead many commentators to talk of "Two Chinas". [9fk] The agricultural sector is also liable to be effected adversely as import tariffs are abandoned as part of WTO trade agreements. [4vw] The Government however is however investing heavily in alternative industrial strategies, and poverty alleviation schemes in the northeast. [4vw] Economic restructuring 3.2. Jiang Zemin's implementation of Deng Xiaoping's Theory of a socialist market economy is intended to restructure thousands of state owned non-viable enterprises through bankruptcy, merger and privatisation. Failing enterprises have used tactics to mask unemployment, such as reduced or minimal wages and forced early retirement.[9c][16a][10c] Further millions of jobs are to be lost in the slimming-down of the state bureaucracy and the army[4o]; one report of official statistics indicates a 17 percent unemployment rate in 1999 (11 percent urban, 5 percent rural).[4t] Economic reforms are raising living standards for many, strengthening entrepreneurs, diminishing central control over