Conventional Long Form of Country:People's Republic of China
Capital City: Beijing
Type of Government:Communist state
Date of Independence: October 1, 1949
National Holidays: Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China(October 1)
Description of Executive Branch/Powers:State Council appointed by National People's Congress.President and vice president elected by National People's Congress for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); premier nominated by president, confirmed by National People's Congress
Description of Legislative Branch/Powers:unicameral National People's Congress or Quanguo Renmin Daibiao Dahui (2,987 seats; members elected by municipal, regional, and provincial people's congresses, and People's Liberation Army to serve five-year terms)
Description of Judicial Branch/Powers:Supreme People's Court (consists of over 340 judges including the chief justice, 13 grand justices organized into a civil committee and tribunals for civil, economic, administrative, complaint and appeal, and communication and transportation cases). Chief justice appointed by the People's National Congress; term limited to two consecutive 5-year terms; other justices and judges nominated by the chief justice and appointed by the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Name of Ambassador to the U.S.: Ambassador CUI Tiankai
Location of Embassy in the U.S.: 3505 International Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
Location of consulates in the U.S.: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco
Name of U.S. Ambassador to them: Ambassador Max Sieben
Location of U.S. embassy there: 55 An Jia Lou Lu, 100600 Beijing
Location of U.S. consulate there: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Wuhan
Name of representative to UN: Liu Jieyi
Description of the Symbolism of the flag:the color red represents revolution, while the stars symbolize the four social classes - the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie (capitalists) - united under the Communist Party of China
National Symbols:dragon
Description of Internal Disputes:continuing talks and confidence-building measures work toward reducing tensions over Kashmir; China and India continue their security and foreign policy dialogue; China claims most of India's Arunachal Pradesh;, Burmese forces attempting to dig in to the largely autonomous Shan State; Chinese maps show an international boundary symbol off the coasts of the littoral states of the South China Seas; China asserts sovereignty over Scarborough Reef, Philippines, Taiwan, and the Spratly Islands; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction in the Spratlys; China occupies some of the Paracel Islands; China and Taiwan continue to reject both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto and Japan's unilaterally declared equidistance line in the East China Sea; certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in dispute with North Korea; North Korea and China seek to stem illegal migration to China by North Koreans by building a fence along portions of the border and imprisoning North Koreans deported by China; China and Russia have demarcated the once disputed islands at the Amur and Ussuri confluence and in the Argun River; China and Tajikistan have begun demarcating the revised boundary; Chinese and Hong Kong authorities met to resolve ownership and use of lands recovered in Shenzhen River channelization
Quantity of refugees inside country: 330,896-350,896
Country of origin of refugees: North Korea, Vietnam
Quantity of Internally Displaced Persons: 90,000
Quantity of Stateless Persons: NA
Description of current human trafficking: China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Some Chinese adults and children are forced into prostitution and various forms of forced labor, including begging, stealing, and working in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories
Description of Illicit Drug trafficking/use:major transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia; growing domestic consumption of synthetic drugs, and heroin from Southeast and Southwest Asia; source country for methamphetamine and heroin chemical precursors, despite new regulations on its large chemical industry (2008)