China Pestle Case Study

China PESTLE

Overview

China is the third largets country in the world, with an area of 9,596,960 sq Km with a population of 1.33 billion, the average life expectancy is 73.47 years. GDP per capita, adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP) is $6500. China's major exports are, machinery and equipment, plastics, optical and medical equipment, iron and steel. Imports are oil and mineral fuels, plastics, data processing equipment, optical and medical equipment and organic chemicals. (CIA)

The chinese government, a one party communist state, has renewed its efforts to form new international relationships and continues to strengthen relationships within the Asia-Pacific co-operation (APEC). In January 2010 a free trade agreement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was signed, meaning that up to 90% of products were subject to zero trading tarrifs. As a result the trade volume between China and ASEAN was $21.48 billio, up 80% year on year.

China has maintained a strong economic growth with an average GDP of 10.3% during 2003-09. In 2009, china's economic output was up by more than 10% to $2.8 trillion. The credit crunch and the global econominc downturn caused China's growth rate to dip to 8.99% in 2008, the cinese government responded by injecting $586 billion into infrastructure, this cash injection helped China to remain in positive growth of 8.3% in 2009, during a period when the major western economies were all in recession.

China conitinues to have a problem with its growing population, even though a one child per family was introduced, this policy has caused a gender inbalance. The growing number of students continue to give the communist party cause for concern as the pro-democracy protests were led by students.

Political

The communist party of China is the ruling party and has been in power since 1949, with over 70 million members the CPC is the largest poitival party in the world and is responsible for governing down to provincial level. The CPC has branches in areas of government, industry, military and schools. Originally the CPC was set up to mirror the ideology of Soviet Communism but the CPC now follows an ideological mix of both democracy and communism. The CPC constitution stipulates that all citizens over 18 years should accept the programme and constitution of the CPC and be willing to join one of the parties organizations, paying membership dues regularly.

Since 1946, the economic, 'open door' policy adopted by the CPC has helped to drive the economy of China. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, continue to focus on continued economic development and social equality.

Economic

The economic reforms implemented