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Fact file: China at a glance
October 15, 2016, 11:00 am

China is moving from an export-based economy to one that is driven by domestic products and services [Xinhua]

China is moving from an export-based economy to one that is driven by domestic products and services [Xinhua]


Type of Government: One-party Communist state
Current Leader: Xi Jin Ping
Population: 1,373,541,278 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Mandarin, Cantonese
Ethnicities: Han Chinese 91.6%, Zhuang 1.3%, other (includes Hui, Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai and other nationalities) 7.1%
Religions: Buddhist 18.2%, Christian 5.1%, Muslim 1.8%, folk religion 21.9%, Hindu < 0.1%, Jewish < 0.1%, other 0.7% (includes Daoist (Taoist)), unaffiliated 52.2%

Capital City: Beijing
Main Cities/Provinces: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hangzhou
Area: 9,596,960 km2

Major Industries: mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, coal; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products, including footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing; transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships, aircraft and other vehicles; telecommunication and industrial equipment; machinery; heavy engineering; commercial space launch vehicles, satellites, manufacturing

Major Imports: Electrical and other machinery, oil and mineral fuels, optical and medical equipment, metal ores, plastics, and organic chemicals

Major Exports: Electrical and other machinery, including data processing equipment, apparel, textiles, iron and steel, optical and medical equipment as well as almost every single category of industrial products.

Currency: Yuan
GDP [PPP]: $20.853 trillion (IMF April 2016) [world #1] / per capita $15,095