facilities; 768,000 telephones; broadcast stations - 159 AM, no FM,
131 TV, 11 shortwave; satellite ground stations - 2 Atlantic Ocean
INTELSAT and 3 domestic
@Chile, Defense Forces
Branches:
Army of the Nation, National Navy (including Naval Air, Coast Guard,
and Marines), Air Force of the Nation, Carabineros of Chile (National
Police), Investigative Police
Manpower availability:
males age 15–49 3,705,321; fit for military service 2,759,130; reach
military age (19) annually 120,512 (1994 est.)
Defense expenditures:
exchange rate conversion - $1 billion, 3.4% of GDP (1991 est.)
@China
Header Affiliation: (also see separate Taiwan entry)
@China, Geography
Location:
Eastern Asia, between India and Mongolia
Map references:
Asia, Southeast Asia, Standard Time Zones of the World
Area:
total area:
9,596,960 sq km
land area:
9,326,410 sq km
comparative area:
slightly larger than the US
Land boundaries:
total 22,143.34 km, Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km,
Hong Kong 30 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea
1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Macau 0.34 km, Mongolia
4,673 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605
km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km
Coastline:
14,500 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf:
claim to shallow areas of East China Sea and Yellow Sea
territorial sea:
12 nm
International disputes:
boundary with India; bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve
disputed sections of the boundary with Russia; boundary with
Tajikistan in dispute; a short section of the boundary with North
Korea is indefinite; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly
Islands with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly
Brunei; maritime boundary dispute with Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin;
Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan;
claims Japanese-administered Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu
Tai), as does Taiwan
Climate:
extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north
Terrain:
mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and
hills in east
Natural resources:
coal, iron ore, petroleum, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony,
manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc,
uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)
Land use:
arable land:
10%
permanent crops:
0%
meadows and pastures:
31%
forest and woodland:
14%
other:
45%
Irrigated land:
478,220 sq km (1991 - Chinese statistic)
Environment:
current issues:
air pollution from the overwhelming use of coal as a fuel, produces
acid rain which is damaging forests; water pollution from industrial
effluents; many people do not have access to safe drinking water; less
than 10% of sewage receives treatment; deforestation; estimated loss
of one-third of agricultural land since 1957 to soil erosion and
economic development; desertification
natural hazards:
frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern
coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes
international agreements:
party to - Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered
Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone
Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber, Whaling; signed,
but not ratified - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Law of the Sea
Note:
world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada)
@China, People
Population:
1,190,431,106 (July 1994 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.08% (1994 est.)
Birth rate:
18.1 births/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Death rate:
7.35 deaths/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
52.1 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
67.91 years
male:
66.93 years
female:
68.99 years (1994 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.84 children born/woman (1994 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Chinese (singular and plural)
adjective:
Chinese
Ethnic divisions:
Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu,
Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1%
Religions:
Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, Muslim 2%-3%, Christian 1% (est.)
note:
officially atheist, but traditionally pragmatic and eclectic
Languages:
Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing
dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan
(Hokkien-Taiwanese),