China is situated in eastern part of Asia, on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. It has a total land area of 9.6 million square kilometers, about 6.5% of world’s total.

China has the largest population in the world: 1.3 billion, accounting for approximately 22 % of the world’s total.

According to the Constitution, China is divided for administrative purposes as follows:

1.     The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government;

2.     The provinces and autonomous regions are divided into prefectures, autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, and municipalities;

3.     The counties and autonomous counties are divided into township, Ethnic Township, and towns. Autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties are autonomous places of various ethnic groups.

At present there are four municipalities directly under the central government: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing; 23 provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichun, Guizhou, Yunan, Gansu, Qinghai, Liaoning and Taiwan;

Five autonomous regions are: Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia, and Xinjiang;

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was established on July 1, 1997. The Macao Special Administrative Region was established in December 20, 1999.

II. China’s economy

Since 1979, the opening of China to the outside world, China’s economy has maintained a fast and sustained growth. From 1979 to 2003, China’s Social productivity and its general national power have greatly stridden forward.  Its GDP reached a new high of US$1400 billion while it was US$147 Billion in 1979. China now is the 6th largest economy in the world. From 2001 to 2005, Chinese economy predicts to grow 7% per year in average. China has become one of the countries that enjoy the highest economic growth speed in the world. China's WTO accession provides unprecedented opportunities to the healthy development of China's economy; it will also make new contribution to the prosperity of world economy.

III. China’s foreign trade

China has established trade links with more than 200 countries and regions. China is now the fourth biggest trading powers in the world, while in 1979 China only ranked 32nd and its foreign trade volume amounted for US$20.6 billion only. According to Chinese Customs statistics in 2003, the total flows of merchandise trade set a record high, hitting US$ 851.20 billion, an increase of 37.1% over 2002, of which the import was US$ 412.83 billion, a increase of 39.9%, the export was US$ 438.37 billion, a increase of 34.6%. China’s Export volume ranks the Fourth and import volume ranks third in the world. China’s foreign trade value now accounts for about 33% of China’s GDP, a fairly high level among major world economies by the end of 2003.

China’s foreign exchange reserves have exceeded US$ 403.3 billion in the year 2003 while in 1979, it wasUS$ 0.16 billion.

IV. China’s utilization of foreign direct investment

Since 1993, China has been the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) destination among the developing countries, Second only to USA the world over. In 2002, China was the largest FDI utilization country in the world, surpassing USA for the first time. More than 170 countries and regions have made investments in China. From 1979 until the end of 2003, the accumulative foreign direct investment in China reached over 943 billion US dollars, with over 465,277 approved projects, and the accumulative actual utilization of foreign direct investment reached 679.6 billion US dollars. From 2001 to 2005, China will try to attract annually US$ 40 billion foreign investments.

V. China’s trade and economic cooperation with EU

China has attached much emphasis on developing economic and trade relations with the European countries. Now EU has become the third biggest trading partner of China with total volume of trade only next to Japan and the United State. According to the statistics of Chinese Customs, the bilateral trade volume reached over US$ 162 billion in 2003, an increase of 37% over 2002, among which China’s exports rose by 52% while imports increased by 34%. In 2003, China imported 1508 technique projects from EU with US$ 5 billion. By the end of 2003, the total number of investment projects established in China by EU member nations reached 14,086, with the real investment amounting to US$ 34 billion. In 2002, EU has provided US$ 400 million development assistance projects to China. In addition, considerable progress has been made on personnel training as well as scientific and technology cooperation. Since China and EU countries are different in level of development and highly complementary in some economic areas, there is broad space for economic and technological cooperation and exchange.

For further detailed information of China’s economy and economic situations on investment and trade sectors, please visit our Internet websites as follows:

http://www.mofcom.gov.cn, http://www.ccpit.org