Laptop Battery Shop

New Zealand (Aotearoa in M?ori) is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and theSouth Island) and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ57N Battery

and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Due to its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation New Zealand developed a distinctive fauna dominated by birds, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN Battery

With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing underfoot.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN/C Battery

Polynesians settled New Zealand in 1250–1300 AD and developed a distinctive M?ori culture, and Europeans first made contact in 1642 AD. The introduction of potatoes and muskets triggered upheaval among M?ori early during the 19th century, which led to the inter-tribal Musket Wars.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58N Battery

In 1840 the British and M?ori signed a treaty making New Zealand a colony of the British Empire. Immigrant numbers increased sharply and conflicts escalated into the New Zealand Wars, which resulted in much M?ori land being confiscated in the mid North Island. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ61MN/B Battery

Economic depressions were followed by periods of political reform, with women gaining the vote during the 1890s, and a welfare state being established from the 1930s. After World War II, New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty, although the United States later suspended the treaty after New Zealand banned nuclear weapons. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ61VN/X Battery

New Zealanders enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world in the 1950s, but the 1970s saw a deep recession, worsened by oil shocks and the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community. The country underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ61WN/C Battery

Markets for New Zealand's agricultural exports have diversified greatly since the 1970s, with once-dominant exports of wool being overtaken by dairy products, meat, and recently wine.

The majority of New Zealand's population is of European descent; the indigenous M?ori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and non-M?ori Polynesians. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ640N/B Battery

English, M?ori and New Zealand Sign Language are the official languages, with English predominant. Much of New Zealand's culture is derived from M?ori and early British settlers. Early European art was dominated by landscapes and to a lesser extent portraits of M?ori. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ645P3 Battery

A recent resurgence of M?ori culture has seen their traditional arts of carving, weaving and tattooing become more mainstream. Many artists now combine M?ori and Western techniques to create unique art forms. The country's culture has also been broadened by globalisation and increased immigration from the Pacific Islands and Asia. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ650N/C Battery

New Zealand's diverse landscape provides many opportunities for outdoor pursuits and has provided the backdrop for a number of big budget movies.

New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; these have less autonomy than the country's long defunct provinces did. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ660N/C Battery

Nationally, executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister. Queen Elizabeth II is the country's head of state and is represented by a Governor-General. The Queen's Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau (a dependent territory); theCook Islands and Niue (self-governing but in free association); Sony VAIO VGN-SZ670N/C Battery

and the Ross Dependency, New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Commonwealth of Nations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and the United Nations.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ680ND Battery

Etymology

New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within M?ori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ691N/X Battery

Over the centuries that followed these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as M?ori. The population was divided into iwi (tribes) and hap? (subtribes) which would cooperate, compete and sometimes fight with each other. At some point a group of M?ori migrated to the Chatham Islands (which they named R?kohu) where they developed their distinct Moriori culture.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71E/B Battery

The Moriori population was decimated between 1835 and 1862, largely due to M?ori invasion and enslavement, although European diseases also contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived and the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933.

The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were Dutch explorer Abel Tasman and his crew in 1642.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71VN/X Battery

In a hostile encounter, four crew members were killed and at least one M?ori was hit by canister shot. Europeans did not revisit New Zealand until 1769 when British explorer James Cook mapped almost the entire coastline. Following Cook, New Zealand was visited by numerous European and North American whaling, sealing and trading ships. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71WN/C Battery

They traded food, metal tools, weapons and other goods for timber, food, artefacts, water, and on occasion sex. The introduction of the potato and the musket transformed M?ori agriculture and warfare. Potatoes provided a reliable food surplus, which enabled longer and more sustained military campaigns.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ74B/B Battery

The resulting inter-tribal Musket Wars encompassed over 600 battles between 1801 and 1840, killing between 30,000–40,000 M?ori. From the early 19th century, Christian missionaries began to settle New Zealand, eventually converting most of the M?ori population.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ750N/C Battery

The M?ori population declined to around 40 percent of its pre-contact level during the 19th century; introduced diseases were the major factor.

The British government appointed James Busby as British Resident to New Zealand in 1832 and in 1835, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ75B/B Battery

following an announcement of impending French sovereignty, the nebulous United Tribes of New Zealand sent a Declaration of the Independence to King William IV of the United Kingdom asking for protection. Ongoing unrest and the dubious legal standing of the Declaration of Independence prompted the Colonial Office to send Captain William Hobson to claim sovereignty for the British Crown and negotiate a treaty with the M?ori.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ76 Battery

The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed in the Bay of Islands on 6 February 1840.In response to the commercially run New Zealand Company's attempts to establish an independent settlement in Wellington and French settlers "purchasing" land in Akaroa,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ770N/C Battery

Hobson declared British sovereignty over all of New Zealand on 21 May 1840, even though copies of the Treaty were still circulating.  With the signing of the Treaty and declaration of sovereignty the number of immigrants, particularly from the United Kingdom, began to increase.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ77N Battery

New Zealand, originally part of the colony of New South Wales, became a separate Crown colony in 1841. The colony gained a representative government in 1852and the 1st New Zealand Parliament met in 1854. In 1856 the colony effectively became self-governing, gaining responsibility over all domestic matters other than native policy. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ780 Battery

(Control over native policy was granted in the mid-1860s.) Following concerns that the South Island might form a separate colony, premier Alfred Domett moved a resolution to transfer the capital from Auckland to a locality near the Cook Strait. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ78N Battery

Wellington was chosen due to its harbour and central location, with parliament officially sitting there for the first time in 1865. As immigrant numbers increased, conflicts over land led to the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s and 1870s, resulting in the loss and confiscation of much M?ori land.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ791N/X Battery

In 1893 the country became the first nation in the world to grant all women the right to vote and in 1894 pioneered the adoption of compulsory arbitration between employers and unions.

In 1907 New Zealand declared itself a Dominion within the British Empire and in 1947 the country adopted the Statute of Westminster, making New Zealand aCommonwealth realm.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84NS Battery

New Zealand was involved in world affairs, fighting alongside the British Empire in the first and second World Wars and suffering through the Great Depression. The depression led to the election of the first Labour government and the establishment of a comprehensive welfare state and a protectionisteconomy.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84PS Battery

New Zealand experienced increasing prosperity following World War II and M?ori began to leave their traditional rural life and move to the cities in search of work. A M?ori protest movement developed, which criticised Eurocentrism and worked for greater recognition of M?ori culture and the Treaty of Waitangi.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84S Battery

In 1975, a Waitangi Tribunal was set up to investigate alleged breaches of the Treaty, and it was enabled to investigate historic grievances in 1985. The government has negotiated settlements of these grievances with many iwi, although M?ori claims to the foreshore and seabed have proved controversial in the 2000s.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84US Battery

Government

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy, although its constitution is not codified. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealandand the head of state.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85NS Battery

The Queen is represented by the Governor-General, whom she appoints on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Governor-General can exercise the Crown's prerogative powers (such as reviewing cases of injustice and making appointments of Cabinet ministers, ambassadors and other key public officials) and in rare situations, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85S Battery

the reserve powers (the power to dismiss a Prime Minister, dissolve Parliament or refuse the Royal Assent of a bill into law). The powers of the Queen and the Governor-General are limited by constitutional constraints and they cannot normally be exercised without the advice of Cabinet.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85US Battery

The Parliament of New Zealand holds legislative power and consists of the Sovereign (represented by the Governor-General) and the House of Representatives. It also included an upper house, the Legislative Council, until this was abolished in 1950.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94NS Battery

The supremacy of the House over the Sovereign was established in England by the Bill of Rights 1689 and has been ratified as law in New Zealand. The House of Representatives is democratically elected and a Government is formed from the party or coalition with the majority of seats.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94PS Battery

If no majority is formed a minority government can be formed if support from other parties during confidence and supply votes is assured. The Governor-General appoints ministers under advice from the Prime Minister, who is by convention the Parliamentary leader of the governing party or coalition.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94S Battery

Cabinet, formed by ministers and led by the Prime Minister, is the highest policy-making body in government and responsible for deciding significant government actions. By convention, members of cabinet are bound by collective responsibility to decisions made by cabinet.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94US Battery

Judges and judicial officers are appointed non-politically and under strict rules regarding tenure to help maintain constitutional independence from the government. This theoretically allows the judiciary to interpret the law based solely on the legislation enacted by Parliament without other influences on their decisions.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95NS Battery

The Privy Council in London was the country's final court of appeal until 2004, when it was replaced with the newly established Supreme Court of New Zealand. The judiciary, headed by the Chief Justice, includes the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and subordinate courts.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95S Battery

Almost all parliamentary general elections between 1853 and 1996 were held under the first past the post voting system. The elections since 1930 have been dominated by two political parties, National and Labour. Since 1996, a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) has been used.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95US Battery

Under the MMP system each person has two votes; one is for the 65 electoral seats (including seven reserved for M?ori), and the other is for a party. The remaining 55 seats are assigned so that representation in parliament reflects the party vote, although a party has to win one electoral seat or 5 percent of the total party vote before it is eligible for these seats.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ121 Battery

Between March 2005 and August 2006 New Zealand became the only country in the world in which all the highest offices in the land (Head of State, Governor-General, Prime Minister, Speaker and Chief Justice) were occupied simultaneously by women.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ13 Battery

Foreign relations and the military

Early colonial New Zealand allowed the British Government to determine external trade and be responsible for foreign policy. The 1923 and 1926 Imperial Conferences decided that New Zealand should be allowed to negotiate their own political treaties,Sony VAIO VGN-TZ130N/B Battery

with the first successful commercial treaty being with Japan in 1928. Despite this independence New Zealand readily followed Britain in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939 with then Prime Minister Michael Savage proclaiming, "Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand."Sony VAIO VGN-TZ131 Battery

In 1951 the United Kingdom became increasingly focused on its European interests, while New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in theANZUS security treaty.The influence of the United States on New Zealand weakened following protests over the Vietnam War,Sony VAIO VGN-TZ132/N Battery

the failure of the United States to admonish France after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues and New Zealand's nuclear-free policy.Despite the USA's suspension of ANZUS obligations the treaty remained in effect between New Zealand and Australia, whose foreign policy has followed a similar historical trend.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ132N Battery

Close political contact is maintained between the two countries, with free trade agreements and travel arrangements that allow citizens to visit, live and work in both countries without restrictions.Currently over 500,000 New Zealanders live in Australia and 65,000 Australians live in New Zealand.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N/B Battery

New Zealand has a strong presence among the Pacific Island countries. A large proportion of New Zealand's aid goes to these countries and many Pacific people migrate to New Zealand for employment.Permanent migration is regulated under the 1970 Samoan Quota Scheme and the 2002 Pacific Access Category,Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N/N Battery

which allow up to 1,100 Samoan nationals and up to 750 other Pacific Islanders respectively to become permanent New Zealand residents each year. A seasonal workers scheme for temporary migration was introduced in 2007 and in 2009 about 8,000 Pacific Islanders were employed under it.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ160CB Battery

New Zealand is involved in the Pacific Islands Forum, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (including the East Asia Summit).New Zealand is also a member of the United Nations,the Commonwealth of Nations,Sony VAIO VGN-TZ160N/B Battery

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Five Powers Defence Arrangements.

The New Zealand Defence Force has three branches: the Royal New Zealand Navy, the New Zealand Army and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16GN/B Battery

New Zealand's national defence needs are modest due to the unlikelihood of direct attack, although it does have a global presence. The country fought in both world wars, with notable campaigns in Gallipoli, Crete, El Alamein and Cassino. The Gallipoli campaign played an important part in fostering New Zealand's national identity and strengthened the ANZAC tradition it shares with Australia.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16N Battery

According to Mary Edmond-Paul, "World War I had left scars on New Zealand society, with nearly 18,500 in total dying as a result of the war, more than 41,000 wounded, and others affected emotionally, out of an overseas fighting force of about 103,000 and a population of just over a million."Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16N/B Battery

New Zealand also played key parts in the naval Battle of the River Plate and the Battle of Britain air campaign. During World War II, the United States had more than 400,000 American military personnel stationed in New Zealand.

In addition to Vietnam and the two world wars, New Zealand fought in the Korean War, the Second Boer War,Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17/N Battery

the Malayan Emergency,the Gulf Warand the Afghanistan War. It has contributed forces to several regional and global peacekeeping missions, such as those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran–Iraq border, Bougainville, East Timor, and the Solomon Islands.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ170N/B Battery

New Zealand also sent a unit of army engineers to help rebuild Iraqi infrastructure for one year during the Iraq War.

Local government and external territories

The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces, which had a degree of autonomy.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ170N/N Battery

Due to financial pressures and the desire to consolidate railways, education, land sales and other policies, government was centralised and the provinces were abolished in 1876.As a result, New Zealand now has no separately represented subnational entities. The provinces are remembered in regional public holidays and sporting rivalries.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17GN/B Battery

Since 1876, various councils have administered local areas under legislation determined by the central government. In 1989, the government reorganised local government into the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17N Battery

The 249 municipalities that existed in 1975 have now been consolidated into 67 territorial authorities and 11 regional councils.The regional councils' role is to regulate "the natural environment with particular emphasis onresource management",while territorial authorities are responsible for sewage, water, local roads, building consents and other local matters.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18/N Battery

Five of the territorial councils are unitary authorities and also act as regional councils. The territorial authorities consist of 13 city councils, 53 district councils, and the Chatham Islands Council. While officially the Chatham Islands Council is not a unitary authority, it undertakes many functions of a regional council.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ180N/RC Battery

The Realm of New Zealand is one of 16 realms within the commonwealth and comprises New Zealand, Tokelau, theRoss Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ185N/WC Battery

The New Zealand Parliament cannot pass legislation for these countries, but with their consent can act on behalf of them in foreign affairs and defence. Tokelau is a non-self-governing territory that uses the New Zealand flag and anthem, but is administered by a council of three elders (one from each Tokelauan atoll).Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18GN/X Battery

The Ross Dependency is New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica, where it operates the Scott Base research facility. New Zealand citizenship law treats all parts of the realm equally, so most people born in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency before 2006 are New Zealand citizens. Further conditions apply for those born from 2006 onwards.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18N Battery

Geography

New Zealand is made up of two main islands and a number of smaller islands, located near the centre of the water hemisphere. The main North and South Islands are separated by the Cook Strait, 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ190N/B Battery

Besides the North and South Islands, the five largest inhabited islands are Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island (in the Hauraki Gulf), d'Urville Island (in the Marlborough Sounds) and Waiheke Island (about 22 km (14 mi) from central Auckland).Sony VAIO VGN-TZ190N/BC Battery

The country's islands lie between latitudes 29° and 53°S, and longitudes 165° and 176°E.

New Zealand is long (over 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) along its north-north-east axis) and narrow (a maximum width of 400 kilometres (250 mi)), with approximately 15,134 km (9,404 mi) of coastline and a total land area of 268,021 square kilometres (103,483 sq mi) Due to its far-flung outlying islands and long coastline, the country has extensive marine resources. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ191N/XC Battery

Its Exclusive Economic Zone, one of the largest in the world, covers more than 15 times its land area.

The South Island is the largest land mass of New Zealand, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps. There are 18 peaks over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft), the highest of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook at 3,754 metres (12,316 ft).Sony VAIO VGN-TZ195N/XC Battery

Fiordland's steep mountains and deep fiords record the extensive ice age glaciation of this south-western corner of the South Island.The North Island is less mountainous but is marked by volcanism. The highly active Taupo volcanic zone has formed a large volcanic plateau, punctuated by the North Island's highest mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres (9,177 ft)). Sony VAIO VGN-TZ198N/RC Battery

The plateau also hosts the country's largest lake, Lake Taupo, nestled in the caldera of one of the world's most active supervolcanoes.

The country owes its varied topography, and perhaps even its emergence above the waves, to the dynamic boundary it straddles between the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/B Battery

New Zealand is part of Zealandia, a microcontinent nearly half the size of Australia that gradually submerged after breaking away from the Gondwanan supercontinent. About 25 million years ago, a shift in plate tectonic movements began to contort and crumple the region. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/N Battery

This is now most evident in the Southern Alps, formed bycompression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault. Elsewhere the plate boundary involves the subduction of one plate under the other, producing the Puysegur Trench to the south, the Hikurangi Trench east of the North Island, and the Kermadec and Tonga Trenches  further north.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/P Battery

Climate

New Zealand has a mild and temperate maritime climate with mean annual temperatures ranging from 10 °C (50 °F) in the south to 16 °C (61 °F) in the north.Historical maxima and minima are 42.4 °C (108.3 °F) in Rangiora, Canterbury and ?25.6 °C (?14.08 °F) in Ranfurly, Otago.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ27/N Battery

Conditions vary sharply across regions from extremely wet on the West Coast of the South Island to almost semi-arid in Central Otago and the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical inNorthland.Of the seven largest cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving on average only 640 millimetres (25 in) of rain per year and Auckland the wettest, receiving almost twice that amount.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ270N/B Battery

Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all receive a yearly average in excess of 2,000 hours of sunshine. The southern and south-western parts of the South Island have a cooler and cloudier climate, with around 1,400–1,600 hours; the northern and north-eastern parts of the South Island are the sunniest areas of the country and receive approximately 2,400–2,500 hours.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ27N Battery

Biodiversity

New Zealand's geographic isolation for 80 million years  and island biogeography is responsible for the country's unique species of flora and fauna. They have eitherevolved from Gondwanan wildlife or the few organisms that have managed to reach the shores flying, swimming or being carried across the sea.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ28/N Battery

About 82 percent of New Zealand's indigenous vascular plants^{[n 9]} are endemic, covering 1,944 species across 65 genera and includes a single family. The two main types of forest are those dominated by broadleaf trees with emergent podocarps, or by southern beech in cooler climates.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ285N/RC Battery

The remaining vegetation types consist of grasslands, the majority of which are tussock.

Before the arrival of humans an estimated 80 percent of the land was covered in forest, with only high alpine, wet, infertile and volcanic areas without trees.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ28N Battery

Massive deforestation occurred after humans arrived, with around half the forest cover lost to fire after Polynesian settlement. Much of the remaining forest fell after European settlement, being logged or cleared to make room for pastoral farming, leaving forest occupying only 23 percent of the land.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAB Battery

The forests were dominated by birds, and the lack of mammalian predators led to some like the kiwi, kakapo and takah? evolving flightlessness. The arrival of humans, associated changes to habitat, and the introduction of rats, ferrets and other mammals led to the extinction of many bird species, including large birds like the moa and Haast's eagle.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAN Battery

Other indigenous animals are represented by reptiles (tuataras, skinks and geckos),  frogs, spiders (katipo), insects (weta) and snails. Some, such as the wrens and tuatara, are so unique that they have been called living fossils. Three species of bats (one since extinct) Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAP Battery

were the only sign of native land mammals in New Zealand until the 2006 discovery of bones from a unique, mouse-sized land mammal at least 16 million years old. Marine mammals however are abundant, with almost half the world's cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) and large numbers of fur seals reported in New Zealand waters.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ295N/XC Battery

Many seabirds breed in New Zealand, a third of them unique to the country. More penguin species are found in New Zealand than in any other country.

Since human arrival almost half of the country's vertebrate species have become extinct, including at least fifty one birds, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, four plant species, and one bat.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ298N/XC Battery

Others are endangered or have had their range severely reduced. However New Zealand conservationists have pioneered several methods to help threatened wildlife recover, including island sanctuaries, pest control, wildlife translocation, fostering, and ecological restoration of islands and other selected areas.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/B Battery

Economy

New Zealand has a modern, prosperous and developed market economy with an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of roughly US$28,250.^{[n 10]} TheNew Zealand dollar, informally known as the "Kiwi dollar", is the currency of New Zealand. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/N Battery

It also circulates in the Cook Islands (see Cook Islands dollar), Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. New Zealand was ranked the 3rd "most developed" country in 2010 according to the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index, 4th in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/W Battery

Historically, extractive industries have contributed strongly to New Zealand's economy, focussing at different times on sealing, whaling, flax, gold, kauri gum, and native timber. With the development of refrigerated shipping in the 1880s meat and dairy products were exported to Britain, a trade which provided the basis for strong economic growth in New Zealand.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/B Battery

High demand for agricultural products from the United Kingdom and the United States helped New Zealanders achieve higher living standards than both Australia and Western Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1973 New Zealand's export market was reduced when the United Kingdom joined the European Community  and other compounding factors, such as the 1973 oil and 1979 energy crisis, led to a severe economic depression.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/N Battery

Living standards in New Zealand fell behind those of Australia and Western Europe, and by 1982 New Zealand had the lowest per-capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank.Since 1984, successive governments engaged in majormacroeconomic restructuring (known first as Rogernomics and then Ruthanasia), Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/P Battery

rapidly transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist economy to a liberalised free-trade economy.

Unemployment peaked above 10 percent in 1991 and 1992, following the 1987 share market crash, but eventually fell a record low of 3.4 percent in 2007 (ranking fifth from twenty-seven comparable OECD nations).Sony VAIO VGN-TZ370N/B Battery

The global financial crisis that followed however had a major impact on New Zealand with the GDP shrinking for five consecutive quarters, the longest recession in over thirty years, and unemployment rising back to 7 percent in late 2009. The unemployment rate for youth was 17.4 percent in the June 2011 quarter.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ37N/G Battery

New Zealand has experienced a series of "brain drains" since the 1970s that still continue today. Nearly one quarter of highly-skilled workers live overseas, most in Australia and Britain, the most from any developed nation. In recent years, however, a "brain gain" has brought in educated professionals from Europe and lesser developed countries.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ37N/P Battery

Trade

New Zealand is heavily dependent on international trade, particularly in agricultural products. Exports account for a high 24 percent of its output, making New Zealand vulnerable to international commodity prices and global economic slowdowns. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ37N/R Battery

Its principal export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing, forestry and mining, which make up about half of the country's exports. Its major export partners are Australia, United States, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom. On 7 April 2008, New Zealand and China signed the New Zealand China Free Trade Agreement, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ37N/X Battery

the first such agreement China has signed with a developed country. The service sector is the largest sector in the economy, followed by manufacturing and construction and then farming and raw material extraction. Tourism plays a significant role in New Zealand's economy, contributing $15.0 billion to New Zealand’s total GDP and supporting 9.6 percent of the total workforce in 2010.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ38N/X Battery

International visitors to New Zealand increased by 3.1 percent in the year to October 2010 and are expected to increase at a rate of 2.5 percent annually up to 2015.

Wool was New Zealand’s major agricultural export during the late 19th century.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ398U/XC Battery

Even as late as the 1960s it made up over a third of all export revenues, but since then its price has steadily dropped relative to other commodities  and wool is no longer profitable for many farmers. In contrast dairy farming increased, with the number of dairy cows doubling between 1990 and 2007, to become New Zealand's largest export earner.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ50B Battery

In the year to June 2009, dairy products accounted for 21 percent ($9.1 billion) of total merchandise exports, and the country's largest company, Fonterra, controls almost one-third of the international dairy trade.Other agricultural exports in 2009 were meat 13.2 percent, wool 6.3 percent, fruit 3.5 percent and fishing 3.3 percent.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ90HS Battery

New Zealand's wine industry has followed a similar trend to dairy, the number of vineyards doubling over the same period, overtaking wool exports for the first time in 2007.

Infrastructure

In 2008, oil, gas and coal generated approximately 69 percent of New Zealand's gross energy supply and 31 percent was generated from renewable energy, primarily hydroelectric power and geothermal power.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ90NS Battery

New Zealand's transport network includes 93,805 kilometres (58,288 mi) of roads, worth 23 billion dollars,and 4,128 kilometres (2,565 mi) of railway lines. Most major cities and towns are linked by bus services, although the private car is the predominant mode of transport.Sony VAIO VGN-TZ90S Battery

The railways were privatised in 1993, then re-purchased by the government in 2004 and vested into a state owned enterprise. Railways run the length of the country, although most lines now carry freight rather than passengers.Sony VAIO VPC CW2MFX/PU Battery

Most international visitors arrive via air and New Zealand has seven international airports, although currently only theAuckland and Christchurch airports connect directly with countries other than Australia or Fiji. The New Zealand Post Office had a monopoly over telecommunications until 1989 when Telecom New Zealand was formed,Sony VAIO VPC S11V9E/B Battery

initially as a state-owned enterprise and then privatised in 1990. Telecom still owns the majority of the telecommunications infrastructure, but competition from other providers has increased.

Demography

The population of New Zealand is approximately 4.4 million.Sony VAIO VPCB119GJ/B Battery

New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 72 percent of the population living in 16 main urban areas and 53 percent living in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton.New Zealand cities generally rank highly on international livability measures.Sony VAIO VPCB11AGJ Battery

For instance, in 2010 Auckland was ranked the world's 4th mostliveable city and Wellington the 12th by the Mercer Quality of Life Survey^.

The life expectancy of a New Zealand child born in 2008 was 82.4 years for females, and 78.4 years for males.Sony VAIO VPCB11AVJ Battery

Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase from 80 years to 85 years in 2050 and infant mortality is expected to decline. In 2050 the population is forecast to reach 5.3 million, the median age to rise from 36 years to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older to rise from 18 percent to 29 percent.Sony VAIO VPCB11V9E Battery

Ethnicity and immigration

In the 2006 census, 67.6 percent identified ethnically as European and 14.6 percent as M?ori. Other major ethnic groups include Asian(9.2 percent) and Pacific peoples (6.9 percent), while 11.1 percent identified themselves simply as a "New Zealander" (or similar) and 1 percent identified with other ethnicities.Sony VAIO VPCB11X9E Battery

This contrasts with 1961, when the census reported that the population of New Zealand was 92 percent European and 7 percent M?ori, with Asian and Pacific minorities sharing the remaining 1 percent.While the demonym for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal "Kiwi" is commonly used both internationally and by locals.Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/P Battery

The M?ori loanword P?keh? usually refers to New Zealanders of European descent, although some reject this appellation, and some M?ori use it to refer to all non-Polynesian New Zealanders.

The M?ori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers. Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/R Battery

Following colonisation, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia due to restrictive policies similar to the white Australian policies. There was also significant Dutch, Dalmatian, Italian, and German immigration together with indirect European immigration through Australia, North America, South America and South Africa.Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/W Battery

Following the Great Depressionpolicies were relaxed and migrant diversity increased. In 2009–10, an annual target of 45,000–50,000 permanent residence approvals was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service—more than one new migrant for every 100 New Zealand residents.Sony VAIO VPCCW19FJ/W Battery

Twenty-three percent of New Zealand's population were born overseas, most of whom live in the Auckland region.While most have still come from the United Kingdom and Ireland (29 percent), immigration from East Asia (mostly mainland China, but with substantial numbers also from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong)Sony VAIO VPCCW1AFJ Battery

is rapidly increasing the number of people from those countries.The number of fee-paying international students increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions in 2002.

Language

English is the predominant language in New Zealand, spoken by 98 percent of the population.Sony VAIO VPCCW1AHJ Battery

New Zealand English is similar to Australian English and many speakers from the Northern Hemisphere are unable to tell the accents apart.After the Second World War, M?ori were discouraged from speaking their own language (te reo M?ori) in schools and workplaces and it existed as a community language only in a few remote areas.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E Battery

It has recently undergone a process of revitalisation, being declared one of New Zealand's official languages in 1987, and is spoken by 4.1 percent of the population.  There are now M?ori language immersion schools and two M?ori Television channels, the only nationwide television channels to have the majority of their prime-time content delivered in M?ori.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/B Battery

Many places have officially been given dual Maori and English names in recent years. Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.3 percent),^{[n 12]} followed by French, Hindi, Yue and Northern Chinese. New Zealand Sign Language is used by approximately 28,000 people and was made New Zealand's third official language in 2006.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/L Battery

Primary and secondary schooling is compulsory for children aged 6 to 16, with the majority attending from the age of 5. There are 13 school years and attendingpublic schools is free. New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent, and over half of the population aged 15 to 29 hold a tertiary qualification.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/P Battery

There are five types of government-owned tertiary institutions: universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, specialist colleges, and w?nanga, and also private training establishments. In the adult population 14.2 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher, 30.4 percent have some form of secondary qualification as their highest qualification and 22.4 percent have no formal qualification.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/R Battery

Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand. In the 2006 Census, 55.6 percent of the population identified themselves as Christians, while another 34.7 percent indicated that they had no religion (up from 29.6 percent in 2001) and around 4 percent affiliated with other religions.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/W Battery

The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, Presbyterianism and Methodism. There are also significant numbers of Christians who identify themselves withPentecostal, Baptist, and Latter-day Saint churches and the New Zealand-based Ratana church has adherents among M?ori. Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/B Battery

According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

Culture

Early M?ori adapted the tropically-based east Polynesian culture in line with the challenges associated with a larger and more diverse environment, eventually developing their own distinctive culture. Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/L Battery

Social organisation was largely communal with families (whanau), sub-tribes (hapu) and tribes (iwi) ruled by a chief (rangatira) whose position was subject to the community's approval.The British and Irish immigrants brought aspects of their own culture to New Zealand and also influenced M?ori culture,particularly with the introduction of Christianity.Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/R Battery

However, M?ori still regard their allegiance to tribal groups as a vital part of their identity, and M?ori kinship roles resemble those of other Polynesian peoples.More recently American, Australian, Asian and other European cultures have exerted influence on New Zealand. Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/W Battery

Non-M?ori Polynesian cultures are also apparent, with Pasifika, the world's largest Polynesian festival, now an annual event in Auckland.

The largely rural life in early New Zealand led to the image of New Zealanders being rugged, industrious problem solvers.Sony VAIO VPCCW26EC Battery

Modesty was expected and enforced through the "tall poppy syndrome", where high achievers received harsh criticism. At the time New Zealand was not known as an intellectual country.From the early 20th century until the late 1960s M?ori culture was suppressed by the attempted assimilation of M?ori into British New Zealanders.Sony VAIO VPCCW26FX/B Battery

In the 1960s, as higher education became more available and cities expanded urban culture began to dominate. Even though the majority of the population now lives in cities, much of New Zealand's art, literature, film and humour has rural themes.Sony VAIO VPCCW28EC Battery

Art

As part of the resurgence of M?ori culture, the traditional crafts of carving and weaving are now more widely practised and M?ori artists are increasing in number and influence.Most M?ori carvings feature human figures, generally with three fingers and either a natural-looking, detailed head or a grotesque head.Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/P Battery

Surface patterns consisting of spirals, ridges, notches and fish scales decorate most carvings. The pre-eminent M?ori architecture consisted of carved meeting houses (wharenui) decorated with symbolic carvings and illustrations. These buildings were originally designed to be constantly rebuilt, changing and adapting to different whims or needs.Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/R Battery

M?ori decorated the white wood of buildings, canoes and cenotaphs using red (a mixture of red ochre and shark fat) and black (made from soot) paint and painted pictures of birds, reptiles and other designs on cave walls.M?ori tattoos (moko) consisting of coloured soot mixed with gum were cut into the flesh with a bone chisel.Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/W Battery

Since European arrival paintings and photographs have been dominated by landscapes, originally not as works of art but as factual portrayals of New Zealand. Portraits of M?ori were also common, with early painters often portraying them as "noble savages", exotic beauties or friendly natives.Sony VAIO VPCCW29FJ/W Battery

The country's isolation delayed the influence of European artistic trends allowing local artists to developed their own distinctive style of regionalism. During the 1960s and 70s many artists combined traditional M?ori and Western techniques, creating unique art forms.Sony VAIO VPCCW2AFJ Battery

New Zealand art and craft has gradually achieved an international audience, with exhibitions in the Venice Biennale in 2001 and the "Paradise Now" exhibition in New York in 2004.

M?ori cloaks are made of fine flax fibre and patterned with black, red and white triangles, diamonds and other geometric shapes.Sony VAIO VPCCW2AHJ Battery

Greenstone was fashioned into earrings and necklaces, with the most well-known design being the hei-tiki, a distorted human figure sitting cross-legged with its head tilted to the side. Europeans brought English fashion etiquette to New Zealand, and until the 1950s most people dressed up for social occasions.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E Battery

Standards have since relaxed and New Zealand fashion has received a reputation for being casual, practical and lacklustre.However, the local fashion industry has grown significantly since 2000, doubling exports and increasing from a handful to about 50 established labels, with some labels gaining international recognition.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/B Battery

Literature

M?ori quickly adopted writing as a means of sharing ideas, and many of their oral stories and poems were converted to the written form. Most early English literature was obtained from Britain and it was not until the 1950s when local publishing outlets increased that New Zealand literature started to become widely known.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/L Battery

Although still largely influenced by global trends (modernism) and events (the Great Depression), writers in the 1930s began to develop stories increasingly focused on their experiences in New Zealand. During this period literature changed from a journalistic activity to a more academic pursuit.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/P Battery

Participation in the world wars gave some New Zealand writers a new perspective on New Zealand culture and with the post-war expansion of universities local literature flourished.

Entertainment

New Zealand music has been influenced by blues, jazz, country, rock and roll and hip hop, with many of these genres given a unique New Zealand interpretation.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/R Battery

M?ori developed traditional chants and songs from their ancient South-East Asian origins, and after centuries of isolation created a unique "monotonous" and "doleful" sound. Flutes and trumpets were used as musical instruments or as signalling devices during war or special occasions.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/W Battery

Early settlers brought over their ethnic music, with brass bands and choral music being popular, and musicians began touring New Zealand in the 1860s. Pipe bands became widespread during the early 20th century. The New Zealand recording industry began to develop from 1940 onwards and many New Zealand musicians have obtained success in Britain and the USA.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S5C CN1 Battery

Some artists release M?ori language songs and the M?ori tradition-based art of kapa haka (song and dance) has made a resurgence.

Radio first arrived in New Zealand in 1922 and television in 1960, while the number of New Zealand films significantly increased during the 1970s.Sony VAIO VPCF112FX/B Battery

In 1978 the New Zealand Film Commission started assisting local film-makers and many films attained a world audience, some receiving international acknowledgement. Deregulation in the 1980s saw a sudden increase in the numbers of radio and television stations.Sony VAIO VPCF115FG/B Battery

New Zealand television primarily broadcasts American and British programming, along with a large number of Australian and local shows. The country's diverse scenery and compact size, plus government incentives, have encouraged some producers to film big budget movies in New Zealand.Sony VAIO VPCF116FGBI Battery

The New Zealand media industry is dominated by a small number of companies, most of which are foreign-owned, although the state retains ownership of some television and radio stations. Between 2003 and 2008, Reporters Without Borders consistently ranked New Zealand's press freedom in the top twenty.Sony VAIO VPCF117FJ/W Battery

Sports

Most of the major sporting codes played in New Zealand have English origins. Golf, netball, tennis and cricket are the four top participatory sports, soccer is the most popular among young people and rugby union attracts the most spectators.Sony VAIO VPCF117HG/BI Battery

Victorious rugby tours to Australia and the United Kingdom in thelate 1880s and the early 1900s played an early role in instilling a national identity, although the sport's influence has since declined. Horse racing was also a popular spectator sport and became part of the "Rugby, Racing and Beer" culture during the 1960s.Sony VAIO VPCF118FJ/W Battery

M?ori participation in European sports was particularly evident in rugby and the country's team performs a haka (traditional M?ori challenge) before international matches.

New Zealand has competitive international teams in rugby union, netball, cricket, rugby league, and softball and has traditionally done well in triathlons, rowing, yachting and cycling.Sony VAIO VPCF119FC Battery

The country has performed well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. New Zealand is known for its extreme sports, adventure tourism  and strong mountaineering tradition. Other outdoor pursuits such as cycling, fishing, swimming, running, tramping, canoeing, hunting, snowsports and surfing are also popular.Sony VAIO VPCF119FC/BI Battery

The Polynesian sport of waka ama racing has increased in popularity and is now an international sport involving teams from all over the Pacific.

New Zealand has a market economy which is greatly dependent on international trade, mainly with Australia, the European Union, the United States, China, and Japan. Sony VAIO VPCF119FJ/BI Battery

It has only small manufacturing and high-tech sectors, being strongly focused on tourism and primary industries like agriculture. Economic free-market reforms of the last decades have removed many barriers to foreign investment, and the World Bank in 2005 praised New Zealand as being the most business-friendly country in the world, before Singapore.Sony VAIO VPCF11AFJ Battery

Profile

Traditionally, New Zealand's economy was built upon on a narrow range of primary products, such as wool, meat and dairy products. As an example, from approximately 1920 to the late 1930s, the dairy export quota was usually around 35% of the total exports, and in some years made up almost 45% of all New Zealand's exports.Sony VAIO VPCF11AGJ Battery

Due to the high demand for these primary products – such as the New Zealand wool boom of 1951 – New Zealand enjoyed high standards of living. However, commodity prices for these exports declined, and New Zealand lost its preferential trading position with the United Kingdom in 1973, due to the latter joining theEuropean Economic Community. Sony VAIO VPCF11AHJ Battery

Partly as a result, from 1970 to 1990, the relative New Zealand purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita declined from about 115% of the OECD average to 80%.

Liberalisation

Since 1984, the government of New Zealand has undertaken major economic restructuring, moving an agrarian economy dependent on concessionary British market access toward a more industrialised, free market economy that can compete globally. Sony VAIO VPCF11JFX/B Battery

This growth has boosted real incomes, broadened and deepened the technological capabilities of the industrial sector, and contained inflationary pressures. Inflation remains among the lowest in the industrial world. Per capita GDP has been moving up towards the levels of the big West European economies since the trough in 1990, but the gap remains significant. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E Battery

New Zealand's heavy dependence on trade leaves its growth prospects vulnerable to economic performance in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

New Zealand's economy has traditionally been based on a foundation of exports from its very efficient agricultural system. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H Battery

Leading agricultural exports include meat, dairy products, forest products, fruit and vegetables, fish, and wool. New Zealand was a direct beneficiary of many of the reforms achieved under the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, with agriculture in general and the dairy sector in particular enjoying many new trade opportunities in the long term. Sony VAIO VPCF11MFX/B Battery

The country has substantial hydroelectric power and sizeable reserves of natural gas, much of which is exploited due primarily to major Keynesian import substitution-oriented industrial projects (See Think Big). Leading manufacturing sectors are food processing, metal fabrication, and wood and paper products.Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E Battery

Some manufacturing industries, many of which had only been established in a climate of import substitution with high tariffs and subsidies, such as car assembly, have completely disappeared, and manufacturing's importance in the economy is in a general decline.Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B Battery

Outlook and challenges

The New Zealand economy has recently been perceived as successful. However, the generally positive outlook includes some challenges. New Zealand income levels, which used to be above much of Western Europe prior to the deep crisis of the 1970s, have never recovered in relative terms. Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E Battery

The New Zealand GDP per capita is for instance less than that of Spain and about 60% that of the United States. Income inequality has increased greatly, implying that significant portions of the population have quite modest incomes. Further, New Zealand has a very large current account deficit of 8–9% of GDP.Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E/BI Battery

However, despite this, its public debt stands at only 21.2% (2006 est.) of the total GDP, which is small compared to many developed nations. However, between 1984 and 2006, net foreign debt increased 11-fold, to NZ$182 billion, NZ$45,000 for each person.Sony VAIO VPCF11ZHJ Battery

The combination of a modest public debt and a large net foreign debt reflects that most of the net foreign debt is held by the private sector. At 31 December 2010, net foreign debt was NZ$253 billion, or 132% of GDP. At 31 March 2011, net international debt was $148.2 billion.Sony VAIO VPCF127HGBI Battery

New Zealand's persistent current account deficits have two main causes. The first is that earnings from agricultural exports and tourism have failed to cover the imports of advanced manufactured goods and other imports (such as imported fuels) required to sustain the New Zealand economy. Sony VAIO VPCF137HG/BI Battery

Secondly, there has been an investment income imbalance or net outflow for debt-servicing of external loans. The proportion of the current account deficit that is attributable to the investment income imbalance (a net outflow to the Australian-owned banking sector) grew from one third in 1997 to roughly 70% in 2008.Sony VAIO VPCS111FM/S Battery

1900s–1970s – Regulation and welfare state

Historically, New Zealand had a highly protected, regulated and subsidised economy. This stemmed at least partly from trends started in the first half of the 20th century, Sony VAIO VPCS115EC Battery

when the First Liberal Government and later the First Labour Government introduced both social security systems with for the time very wide-ranging scope (from state pensions to unemployment benefits and free education and health care), while also regulating industry, mandating trade unionism and industrial arbitration. Sony VAIO VPCS115FG Battery

Imports were also heavily regulated. While called 'welfare statism' by some^[who?], it was accepted that until at least the 1950s, both main parties (Labour and National) generally supported this trend, even though critics pointed to negative effects on the general economy and argued that increasing emigration could be blamed to a large degree on these policies.Sony VAIO VPCS117GG Battery

By the 1960s, the New Zealand economy's terms of trade began to decline. This was largely due to the decline in export receipts from the United Kingdom, which in 1955 took 65.3 percent of New Zealand's exports. By the year ended June 1973, during which Britain formally entered the European Economic Community, this had fallen to 26.8 percent. Sony VAIO VPCS117GGB Battery

By the year ended June 1990 its share had fallen to 7.2 percent and in the year ended June 2000 its share was 6.2 percent.

To a substantial degree, the economic restrictions remained in place or were even sometimes extended in the early second half of the 20th century. However, reforms in the 1980s and early 1990s were then to turn this situation into its opposite.Sony VAIO VPCS118EC Battery

1980s–1990s – Reform and liberalisation

Since 1984, government subsidies including those for agriculture have been eliminated; import regulations have been liberalised; exchange rates have been freely floated; controls on interest rates, wages, and prices have been removed; and marginal rates of taxation reduced. Sony VAIO VPCS119FJ/B Battery

Tight monetary policy and major efforts to reduce the government budget deficit brought the inflation rate down from an annual rate of more than 18% in 1987. The deregulation of government-owned enterprises in the 1980s and 1990s reduced government's role in the economy and permitted the retirement of some public debt, Sony VAIO VPCS119GC Battery

but simultaneously massively increased the necessity for greater welfare spending and has led to considerably higher rates of unemployment than were standard in New Zealand in earlier decades.

Deregulation created a very business-friendly regulatory framework. Sony VAIO VPCS11AFJ Battery

A 2008 study and survey ranked it 99.9% in "Business freedom", and 80% overall in "Economic freedom", noting amongst other things that it only takes 12 days to establish a business in New Zealand on average, compared with a worldwide average of 43 days. Other indicators measured were property rights, Sony VAIO VPCS11AGJ Battery

labour market conditions, government controls and corruption, the last being considered "next to non-existent" in the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal study.

In its 'Doing Business 2008' survey, the World Bank (which in that year rated New Zealand as the second-most business-friendly country worldwide), ranked New Zealand 13th out of 178 in the business-friendliness of its hiring laws.Sony VAIO VPCS11AHJ Battery

The 1990s liberalisations also had a number of significant negative effects for New Zealand. One of them was the leaky homes crisis, where the liberalisation of building standards (in the expectation that market forces would assure quality) led to many thousands of severely deficient buildings (mostly residential homes and apartments) being constructed over a period of a decade. Sony VAIO VPCS11AVJ Battery

The costs of fixing the damage has been estimated at over NZ$11 billion.

2000s – Recent trends

Economic growth, which had slowed in 1997 and 1998 due to the negative effects of the Asian financial crisis and two successive years of drought, rebounded in 1999.Sony VAIO VPCS11J7E/B Battery

A low New Zealand dollar, favourable weather, and high commodity prices boosted exports, and the economy is estimated to have grown by 2.5% in 2000. Growth resumed at a higher level from 2001 onwards due primarily to the lower value of the New Zealand dollar which made exports more competitive.Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery

The return of substantial economic growth led the unemployment rate to drop from 7.8% in 1999 to 3.4% in late 2005, the lowest rate in nearly 20 years.

Although New Zealand enjoyed low unemployment rates in the years immediately prior to the financial crisis beginning in 2007,Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery

subsequent unemployment rose and according to Statistics New Zealand"In seasonally adjusted terms", New Zealand’s unemployment rate stood at 6.8% percent during the December 2010 quarter".

New Zealand's large current account deficit, which stood at more than 6.5% of GDP in 2000, has been a constant source of concern for New Zealand policymakers and hit 9% as of March 2006.Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery

The rebound in the export sector is expected to help narrow the deficit to lower levels, especially due to decreases in the exchange rate of the New Zealand dollar during 2008.

Foreign business relations

New Zealand's economy has been helped by strong economic relations with Australia. Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E/B Battery

Australia and New Zealand are partners in "Closer Economic Relations" (CER), which allows for free trade in goods and most services. Since 1990, CER has created a single market of more than 25 million people, and this has provided new opportunities for New Zealand exporters.Sony VAIO VPCS123FGB Battery

Australia is now the destination of 19% of New Zealand's exports, compared to 14% in 1983. Both sides also have agreed to consider extending CER to product standardisation and taxation policy. New Zealand initiated afree trade agreement with Singapore in September 2000 which was extended in 2005 to include Chile and Brunei and is now known as the P4 agreement.Sony VAIO VPCS125EC Battery

New Zealand is seeking other bilateral/regional trade agreements in the Pacific area.

U.S. goods and services have been competitive in New Zealand, though the then-strong U.S. dollar created challenges for U.S. exporters in 2001. The market-led economy offers many opportunities for U.S. exporters and investors. Sony VAIO VPCS128EC Battery

Investment opportunities exist in chemicals, food preparation, finance, tourism, and forest products, as well as in franchising. The best sales prospects are for medical equipment, information technology, and consumer goods. On the agricultural side, the best prospects are for fresh fruit, snack foods, specialised grocery items (e.g. organic foods), and soybean meal. Sony VAIO VPCS129GC Battery

A number of U.S. companies have subsidiary branches in New Zealand. Many operate through local agents, with some joint venture associations. The American Chamber of Commerce is active in New Zealand, with its main office in Auckland and a branch committee in Wellington.Sony VAIO VPCS12C7E/B Battery

However, as of the 2010s, China is now New Zealand's second-largest trading partner, behind Australia.^[22][23] On 17 June 2010, Xi Jinping, China's vice-president, travelled to Auckland, New Zealand for a three-day visit, along with more than 100 senior business leaders.Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B Battery

New Zealand welcomes and encourages foreign investment without discrimination. The Overseas Investment Commission (OIC) must however give consent to foreign investments that would control 25% or more of businesses or property worth more than NZ$50 million. Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B Battery

Restrictions and approval requirements also apply to certain investments in land and in the commercial fishing industry. In practice, OIC approval requirements have not hindered investment. OIC consent is based on a national interest determination, but no performance requirements are attached to foreign direct investment after consent is given. Sony VAIO VPCY115FGS Battery

Full remittance of profits and capital is permitted through normal banking channels.

This free investment by foreign capital has also been criticised. Groups like Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) consider that New Zealand's economy is substantially overseas-owned,Sony VAIO VPCY115FX/BI Battery

noting that direct ownership of New Zealand companies by foreign parties increased from $9.7 billion in 1989 to $83 billion in 2007 (an over 700% increase), while 41% of the New Zealand sharemarket valuation is now overseas-owned, compared to 19% in 1989. Around 7% of all New Zealand agriculturally productive land is also foreign-owned. Sony VAIO VPCY115FXBI Battery

CAFCA considers that the effect of such takeovers has generally been negative in terms of jobs and wages.

Unemployment

Prior to the economic shocks which occurred upon Britain's joining the EEC in the 1970s and closing as a primary New Zealand export market, measured unemployment in New Zealand was very low. Sony VAIO VPCY118EC Battery

In 1959 and 1960, for example, the country was officially at full employment. One Labour party representative recently joked in a speech that the Prime Minister of the day knew the name of every unemployed person.

In the middle 2000s, the national unemployment rate stood at 3.4% (December 2007), its historically lowest level since the current method of surveying began in 1986. Sony VAIO VPCY118GX/BI Battery

This gave the country the 5th-best ranking in the OECD (with an OECD average at the time of 5.5%). The low numbers correlated with a robust economy and a large backlog of job positions at all levels.Its worth noting, however, that unemployment numbers are not always directly comparable between OECD nations, Sony VAIO VPCY119FJ/S Battery

as they do not all measure voluntary and involuntary separation from the labour market in the same way.

The percentage of the population employed also increased in recent years, to 68.8% of all inhabitants, with full-time jobs increasing slightly, and part-time occupations decreasing in turn. Sony VAIO VPCY11AFJ Battery

The increase in the working population percentage is attributed to increasing wages and higher costs of living moving more people into employment. The low unemployment also had some disadvantages, with many companies unable to fill jobs.Sony VAIO VPCY11AGJ Battery

In the late 2000s, mainly as a result of the global financial crisis, unemployment numbers rose to a 10-year high of 6% in mid-2009, with the job losses being especially hard amongst women. Seasonally adjusted employment levels fell 0.4 per cent to 2.17 million people, while the number of unemployed rose to 138,000 people.Sony VAIO VPCY11AHJ Battery

Taxation

As of 2010, New Zealand had the second-lowest personal tax burden in the OECD, once all compulsory effects (such as superannuation and other mandatory deductions) were included in the tax-take. Only Mexico's citizens had a higher percentage-wise "take home" proportion of their salaries.Sony VAIO VPCY11AVJ Battery

There is an ongoing political debate between left-leaning and right-leaning political parties as to whether further lowering taxes is appropriate. One of the most contentious questions is whether to adjust the relative tax burden of the highest-income earners.Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E/S Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY11S1E Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY11V9E/S Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/BI Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/G Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/L Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/P Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/P Battery,Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/SI Battery,Sony VAIO VPCCW2S5C CN1 Battery

Topic : laptop battery
Genre : Computer/Internet

Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: ????? ???? Bauddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (P?li/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). Sony VAIO VGN-G118CN Battery

The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.^[1] He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end ignorance (avidy?) of dependent origination, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.Sony VAIO VGN-G118GN/B Battery

Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle"). Theravada has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana is found throughout East Asia and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism,Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai) and Shinnyo-en.Sony VAIO VGN-G118GN/T Battery

In some classifications Vajrayana—as practiced mainly in Tibet and Mongolia —is recognized as a third branch, while others classify it as a part of Mahayana. The are other categorisations of these 3 Vehicles or Yanas .Sony VAIO VGN-G118TN/B Battery

While Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now found throughout the world. Estimates of Buddhists worldwide vary significantly depending on the way Buddhist adherence is defined. Lower estimates are between 350–500 million.Sony VAIO VGN-G118TN/S Battery

Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. The cardinal doctrine of dependent origination is the only doctrine that is common to all Buddhist teachings from Theravada toDzogchen to the extinct schools.Sony VAIO VGN-G11VN/T Battery

The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community). Taking "refuge in the triple gem" has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist.Sony VAIO VGN-G11VN/TC Battery

Other practices may include following ethical precepts, support of the monastic community,renouncing conventional living and becoming a monastic, the development of mindfulness and practice of meditation, cultivation of higher wisdom and discernment, study of scriptures, devotional practices, ceremonies, and in the Mahayana tradition, invocation of buddhas and bodhisattvas.Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B Battery

Life of the Buddha

The evidence of the early texts^[which?] suggests that the Buddha was born in a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE.Sony VAIO VGN-G1AAPS Battery

It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch.

According to the Theravada Tipitaka scriptures^[which?] (from Pali, meaning "three baskets"), the Buddha was born in Lumbini in modern-dayNepal, around the year 563 BCE, and raised in Kapilavastu.Sony VAIO VGN-G1AAPSA Battery

According to this narrative, shortly after the birth of young prince Siddhartha Gautama, an astrologer visited the young prince's father—King?uddhodana—and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man, depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace walls.Sony VAIO VGN-G1AAPSB Battery

?uddhodana was determined to see his son become a king, so he prevented him from leaving the palace grounds. But at age 29, despite his father's efforts, Siddhartha ventured beyond the palace several times. In a series of encounters—known in Buddhist literature as the four sights—Sony VAIO VGN-G1AAPSC Battery

he learned of the suffering of ordinary people, encountering an old man, a sick man, a corpse and, finally, an ascetic holy man, apparently content and at peace with the world. These experiences prompted Gautama to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest.Sony VAIO VGN-G1ABNS Battery

Gautama first went to study with famous religious teachers of the day, and mastered the meditative attainments they taught. But he found that they did not provide a permanent end to suffering, so he continued his quest. He next attempted an extreme asceticism, which was a religious pursuit common among the Shramanas, a religious culture distinct from the Vedic one. Sony VAIO VGN-G1KAP Battery

Gautama underwent prolonged fasting, breath-holding, and exposure to pain. He almost starved himself to death in the process. He realized that he had taken this kind of practice to its limit, and had not put an end to suffering. So in a pivotal moment he accepted milk and rice from a village girl and changed his approach. Sony VAIO VGN-G1KBN Battery

He devoted himself to anapanasati meditation, through which he discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way (Skt. madhyam?-pratipad^[12]): a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

Gautama was now determined to complete his spiritual quest. Sony VAIO VGN-G1KBNA Battery

At the age of 35, he famously sat in meditation under a sacred fig tree — known as the Bodhi tree — in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, and vowed not to rise before achieving enlightenment. After many days, he finally destroyed the fetters of his mind, thereby liberating himself from the cycle of suffering and rebirth, and arose as a fully enlightened being (Skt. samyaksa?buddha).Sony VAIO VGN-G1LAP Battery

Soon thereafter, he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the path of awakening he had discovered, traveling throughout the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, and died at the age of 80 (483 BCE) in Kushinagar, India. Sony VAIO VGN-G1LBN Battery

The south branch of the original fig tree only available in Anuradhapura Sri Lanka known as Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.

The above narrative draws on the Nid?nakath? biography of the Therav?da sect in Sri Lanka, which is ascribed to Buddhagho?a in the 5th century CE. Sony VAIO VGN-G218LN/T Battery

Earlier biographies such as the Buddhacarita, the Lokottarav?din Mah?vastu, and the Mah?y?na / Sarv?stiv?da Lalitavistara S?tra, give different accounts.

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order but do not consistently accept all of the details contained in his biographies.Sony VAIO VGN-G218N/B Battery

According to author Michael Carrithers, while there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, "the outline of the life must be true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death."

In writing her biography of Buddha, Karen Armstrong noted,Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP/B Battery

"It is obviously difficult, therefore, to write a biography of the Buddha that will meet modern criteria, because we have very little information that can be considered historically sound... [but] we can be reasonably confident Siddhatta Gotama did indeed exist and that his disciples preserved the memory of his life and teachings as well as they could."Sony VAIO VGN-G2AANS Battery

Karma

Karma (from Sanskrit: "action, work") in Buddhism is the force that drives sa?s?ra—the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Good, skillful deeds (P?li: "kusala") and bad, unskillful (P?li: "akusala") actions produce "seeds" in the mind which come to fruition either in this life or in a subsequent rebirth.Sony VAIO VGN-G2AAPS Battery

The avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions is called ??la (from Sanskrit: "ethical conduct").

In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions (of body, speech, and mind) that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and which bring about a consequence (or fruit, "phala") or result ("vip?ka").Sony VAIO VGN-G2AAPSA Battery

In Theravada Buddhism there can be no divine salvation or forgiveness for one's karma, since it is a purely impersonal process that is a part of the makeup of the universe. Some Mahayana traditions hold different views. For example, the texts of certain Mahayana sutras (such as the Lotus Sutra, the Angulimaliya Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra)Sony VAIO VGN-G2AAPSB Battery

claim that reciting or merely hearing their texts can expunge great swathes of negative karma. Some forms of Buddhism (for example, Vajrayana) regard the recitation of mantras as a means for cutting off previous negative karma. The Japanese Pure Land teacher Genshin taught that Amida Buddha has the power to destroy the karma that would otherwise bind one in sa?s?ra.Sony VAIO VGN-G2AAPSC Battery

Rebirth

Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms ofsentient life, each running from conception to death. Buddhism rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity. Sony VAIO VGN-G2KAN Battery

According to Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self independent from the rest of the universe (the doctrine of anatta). Rebirth in subsequent existences must be understood as the continuation of a dynamic, ever-changing process of "dependent arising" ("prat?tyasamutp?da")Sony VAIO VGN-G2KANA Battery

determined by the laws of cause and effect (karma) rather than that of one being, transmigrating or incarnating from one existence to the next.

Each rebirth takes place within one of five realms according to Theravadins, or six according to other schools.^[26][27] These are further subdivided into 31 planes of existence:Sony VAIO VGN-G2KBNA Battery

1. Naraka beings: those who live in one of many Narakas (Hells)


2. Preta: sometimes sharing some space with humans, but invisible to most people; an important variety is the hungry ghost^[29]


3. Animals: sharing space with humans, but considered another type of life


4. Human beings: one of the realms of rebirth in which attaining Nirvana is possible  Sony VAIO VGN-NR160E/S Battery


5. Asuras: variously translated as lowly deities, demons, titans, antigods; not recognized by Therav?da (Mahavihara) tradition as a separate realm


6. Devas including Brahmas: variously translated as gods, deities, spirits, angels, or left untranslated Sony VAIO VGN-NR160E/T Battery

Rebirths in some of the higher heavens, known as the ?uddh?v?sa Worlds (Pure Abodes), can be attained only by skilled Buddhist practitioners known as an?g?mis (non-returners). Rebirths in thearupa-dhatu (formless realms) can be attained only by those who can meditate on the ar?pajh?nas, the highest object of meditation.Sony VAIO VGN-NR160E/W Battery

According to East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, there is an intermediate state (Tibetan "Bardo") between one life and the next. The orthodox Theravada position rejects this; however there are passages in the Samyutta Nikaya of the Pali Canon (the collection of texts on which the Theravada tradition is based), that seem to lend support to the idea that the Buddha taught of an intermediate stage between one life and the next. Sony VAIO VGN-NR180E/S Battery

Sa?s?ra

Sentient beings crave pleasure and are averse to pain from birth to death. In being controlled by these attitudes, they perpetuate the cycle of conditioned existence and suffering (sa?s?ra), and produce the causes and conditions of the next rebirth after death. Sony VAIO VGN-NR180E/T Battery

Each rebirth repeats this process in an involuntary cycle, which Buddhists strive to end by eradicating these causes and conditions, applying the methods laid out by the Buddha and subsequent Buddhists.

Nature of existence

Buddhist scholars have produced a remarkable quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and world view concepts (see, for example, Abhidharma,Buddhist philosophy and Reality in Buddhism). Sony VAIO VGN-NR290E/S Battery

Some schools of Buddhism discourage doctrinal study, and some regard it as essential, but most regard it as having a place, at least for some persons at some stages in Buddhist practice.

In the earliest Buddhist teachings, shared to some extent by all extant schools, the concept of liberation (Nirvana)—the goal of the Buddhist path—is closely related to the correct understanding of how the mind causes stress.Sony VAIO VGN-NR290E/T Battery

In awakening to the true nature of clinging, one develops dispassion for the objects of clinging, and is liberated from suffering (dukkha) and the cycle of incessant rebirths (sa?s?ra). To this end, the Buddha recommended viewing things as characterized by the three marks of existence.Sony VAIO VGN-NR298E/S Battery

Three Marks of Existence

The Three Marks of Existence are impermanence, suffering, and not-self.

Impermanence (P?li: anicca) expresses the Buddhist notion that all compounded or conditioned phenomena (all things and experiences) are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Sony VAIO VGN-NR460E/L Battery

Everything we can experience through our senses is made up of parts, and its existence is dependent on external conditions. Everything is in constant flux, and so conditions and the thing itself are constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be.Sony VAIO VGN-NR460E/P Battery

Since nothing lasts, there is no inherent or fixed nature to any object or experience. According to the doctrine of impermanence, life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of rebirth (sa?s?ra), and in any experience of loss. The doctrine asserts that because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile and leads to suffering (dukkha).Sony VAIO VGN-NR498E/L Battery

Suffering (P?li: ????? dukkha; Sanskrit ???? du?kha) is also a central concept in Buddhism. The word roughly corresponds to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration.Sony VAIO VGN-NR498E/S Battery

Although the term is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being disturbed. As such, "suffering" is too narrow a translation with "negative emotional connotations" which can give the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism,Sony VAIO VGN-NR498E/T Battery

but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic. In English-language Buddhist literature translated from P?li, "dukkha" is often left untranslated, so as to encompass its full range of meaning.

Not-self (P?li: anatta; Sanskrit: an?tman) is the third mark of existence. Sony VAIO VGN-NR498E/W Battery

Upon careful examination, one finds that no phenomenon is really "I" or "mine"; these concepts are in fact constructed by the mind. In the Nikayas anatta is not meant as a metaphysical assertion, but as an approach for gaining release from suffering. Sony VAIO VGN-NR50 Battery

In fact, the Buddha rejected both of the metaphysical assertions "I have aSelf" and "I have no Self" as ontological views that bind one to suffering. When asked if the self was identical with the body, the Buddha refused to answer. By analyzing the constantly changing physical and mental constituents (skandhas) of a person or object, Sony VAIO VGN-NR50B Battery

the practitioner comes to the conclusion that neither the respective parts nor the person as a whole comprise a self.

Dependent arising

The doctrine of prat?tyasamutp?da (Sanskrit; Pali: paticcasamupp?da; Tibetan: rten.cing.'brel.bar.'byung.ba; Chinese: ??) is an important part of Buddhist metaphysics. Sony VAIO VGN-NR51 Battery

It states that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect. It is variously rendered into English as "dependent origination", "conditioned genesis", "dependent co-arising", "interdependent arising", or "contingency".

The best-known application of the concept of prat?tyasamutp?da is the scheme of Twelve Nid?nas (from P?li "nid?na" meaning "cause, foundation, source or origin"), which explain the continuation of the cycle of suffering and rebirth (sa?s?ra) in detail.Sony VAIO VGN-NR51B Battery

Emptiness

Mahayana Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nagarjuna (perhaps c. 150–250 CE), arguably the most influential scholar within the Mahayana tradition. Nagarjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy was the systematic exposition of the concept of ??nyat?, or "emptiness", widely attested in the Prajñ?p?ramit? sutras which were emergent in his era.Sony VAIO VGN-NR52 Battery

The concept of emptiness brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and prat?tyasamutp?da (dependent origination), to refute the metaphysics of Sarvastivada and Sautrantika (extinct non-Mahayana schools). For Nagarjuna, it is not merely sentient beings that are empty of ?tman;Sony VAIO VGN-NR52B Battery

all phenomena (dharmas) are without any svabhava (literally "own-nature" or "self-nature"), and thus without any underlying essence; they are "empty" of being independent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism. Sony VAIO VGN-NR71B Battery

Nagarjuna's school of thought is known as the M?dhyamaka. Some of the writings attributed to Nagarjuna made explicit references to Mahayana texts, but his philosophy was argued within the parameters set out by the agamas. He may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the Canon.Sony VAIO VGN-NR71B2 Battery

In the eyes of Nagarjuna the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the M?dhyamaka system.

Sarvastivada teachings—which were criticized by N?g?rjuna—were reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asanga and were adapted into the Yogacara (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school. Sony VAIO VGN-NR72B Battery

While the M?dhyamaka school held that asserting the existence or non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some exponents of Yogacara asserted that the mind and only the mind is ultimately real (a doctrine known as cittamatra). Not all Yogacarins asserted that mind was truly existent; Vasubandhu and Asanga in particular did not.Sony VAIO VGN-NS10E/S Battery

These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form the basis of subsequent Mahayana metaphysics in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.

Besides emptiness, Mahayana schools often place emphasis on the notions of perfected spiritual insight (prajñ?p?ramit?) and Buddha-nature (tath?gatagarbha).Sony VAIO VGN-NS10J/S Battery

There are conflicting interpretations of the tath?gatagarbha in Mah?y?na thought. The idea may be traced to Abhidharma, and ultimately to statements of the Buddha in the Nik?yas. In Tibetan Buddhism, according to the Sakya school, tath?gatagarbha is the inseparability of the clarity and emptiness of one's mind.Sony VAIO VGN-NS10L/S Battery

In Nyingma, tath?gatagarbha also generally refers to inseparability of the clarity and emptiness of one's mind. According to the Gelug school, it is the potential for sentient beings to awaken since they are empty (i.e. dependently originated). According to the Jonang school, it refers to the innate qualities of the mind which expresses itself in terms of omniscience etc.Sony VAIO VGN-NS110E/L Battery

when adventitious obscurations are removed. The "Tath?gatagarbha Sutras" are a collection of Mahayana sutras which present a unique model of Buddha-nature. Even though this collection was generally ignored in India,^[54] East Asian Buddhism provides some significance to these texts.Sony VAIO VGN-NS110E/S Battery

Nirvana

An important development in the Mahayana [was] that it came to separate nirvana from bodhi ('awakening' to the truth, Enlightenment), and to put a lower value on the former (Gombrich, 1992d). Originally nirvana and bodhi refer to the same thing; they merely use different metaphors for the experience. Sony VAIO VGN-NS110E/W Battery

But the Mahayana tradition separated them and considered that nirvana referred only to the extinction of craving (passion and hatred), with the resultant escape from the cycle of rebirth. This interpretation ignores the third fire, delusion: the extinction of delusion is of course in the early texts identical with what can be positively expressed as gnosis, Enlightenment.Sony VAIO VGN-NS115N/S Battery

Theravada

In Theravada doctrine, a person may awaken from the "sleep of ignorance" by directly realizing the true nature of reality; such people are called arahants and occasionally buddhas. After numerous lifetimes of spiritual striving, they have reached the end of the cycle of rebirth, no longer reincarnating as human, animal, ghost, or other being.Sony VAIO VGN-NS11ER/S Battery

The commentaries to the Pali Canon classify these awakened beings into three types:

• Sammasambuddha, usually just called Buddha, who discovers the truth by himself and teaches the path to awakening to others


• Paccekabuddha, who discovers the truth by himself but lacks the skill to teach others


• Savakabuddha, who receive the truth directly or indirectly from a Sammasambuddha  Sony VAIO VGN-NS11E/S Battery

Bodhi and nirvana carry the same meaning, that of being freed from craving, hate, and delusion. In attaining bodhi, the arahant has overcome these obstacles. As a further distinction, the extinction of only hatred and greed (in the sensory context) with some residue of delusion, is called anagami.Sony VAIO VGN-NS11J/S Battery

Mahayana

In the Mahayana, the Buddha tends not to be viewed as merely human, but as the earthly projection of a beginningless and endless, omnipresent being (see Dharmakaya) beyond the range and reach of thought. Sony VAIO VGN-NS11L/S Battery

Moreover, in certain Mahayana sutras, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are viewed essentially as One: all three are seen as the eternal Buddha himself.

Celestial Buddhas are individuals who no longer exist on the material plane of existence, but who still aid in the enlightenment of all beings.Sony VAIO VGN-NS11MR/S Battery

Nirvana came to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate,implying that delusion was still present in one who attained Nirvana. Bodhi became a higher attainment that eradicates delusion entirely.Thus, the Arahant attains Nirvana but not Bodhi, thus still being subject to delusion, while the Buddha attains Bodhi. Sony VAIO VGN-NS11M/S Battery

The method of self-exertion or "self-power"—without reliance on an external force or being—stands in contrast to another major form of Buddhism, Pure Land, which is characterised by utmost trust in the salvific "other-power" of Amitabha Buddha.Sony VAIO VGN-NS11SR/S Battery

Pure Land Buddhism is a very widespread and perhaps the most faith-orientated manifestation of Buddhism and centres upon the conviction that faith in Amitabha Buddha and the chanting of homage to his name will liberate one at death into the Blissful (??), Pure Land (??) of Amitabha Buddha. Sony VAIO VGN-NS11S/S Battery

This Buddhic realm is variously construed as a foretaste of Nirvana, or as essentially Nirvana itself. The great vow of Amitabha Buddha to rescue all beings from samsaric suffering is viewed within Pure Land Buddhism as universally efficacious, if only one has faith in the power of that vow or chants his name.Sony VAIO VGN-NS11ZR/S Battery

Buddha eras

Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha was the first to achieve enlightenment in this Buddha era and is therefore credited with the establishment of Buddhism. A Buddha era is the stretch of history during which people remember and practice the teachings of the earliest known Buddha. Sony VAIO VGN-NS11Z/S Battery

This Buddha era will end when all the knowledge, evidence and teachings of Gautama Buddha have vanished. This belief therefore maintains that many Buddha eras have started and ended throughout the course of human existence. The Gautama Buddha, then, is the Buddha of this era, who taught directly or indirectly to all other Buddhas in it (see types of Buddhas).Sony VAIO VGN-NS12M/S Battery

In addition, Mahayana Buddhists believe there are innumerable other Buddhas in other universes. A Theravada commentary says that Buddhas arise one at a time in this world element, and not at all in others. The understandings of this matter reflect widely differing interpretations of basic terms, such as "world realm", between the various schools of Buddhism.Sony VAIO VGN-NS12M/W Battery

The idea of the decline and gradual disappearance of the teaching has been influential in East Asian Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism holds that it has declined to the point where few are capable of following the path, so it may be best to rely on the power of the Amitabha Buddha.Sony VAIO VGN-NS12S/S Battery

Bodhisattvas

Bodhisattva means "enlightenment being", and generally refers to one who is on the path to buddhahood, typically as a fully enlightened buddha (Skt. samyaksa?buddha). Theravada Buddhism primarily uses the term in relation to Gautama Buddha's previous existences, but has traditionally acknowledged and respected the bodhisattva path as well. Sony VAIO VGN-NS21M/P Battery

Mah?y?na Buddhism is based principally upon the path of a bodhisattva. According to Jan Nattier, the term Mah?y?na ("Great Vehicle") was originally even an honorary synonym for Bodhisattvay?na, or the "Bodhisattva Vehicle." The A??as?hasrik? Prajñ?p?ramit? S?tra,Sony VAIO VGN-NS21M/W Battery

an early and important Mah?y?na text, contains a simple and brief definition for the term bodhisattva, and this definition is the following?Because he has enlightenment as his aim, a bodhisattva-mah?sattva is so called.

Mah?y?na Buddhism encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. Sony VAIO VGN-NS21S/S Battery

With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all beings by practicing six perfections (Skt. p?ramit?).  According to the Mah?y?na teachings, these perfections are: giving, discipline, forbearance, effort, meditation, and transcendent wisdom.Sony VAIO VGN-NS21S/W Battery

Devotion

Devotion is an important part of the practice of most Buddhists.Devotional practices include bowing, offerings, pilgrimage, and chanting. In Pure Land Buddhism, devotion to the Buddha Amitabha is the main practice. In Nichiren Buddhism, devotion to the Lotus Sutra is the main practice.Sony VAIO VGN-NS21Z/S Battery

Yoga

Buddhism traditionally incorporates states of meditative absorption (Pali: jh?na; Skt: dhy?na).  The most ancient sustained expression of yogic ideas is found in the early sermons of the Buddha. One key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must be combined with liberating cognition.Sony VAIO VGN-NS31M/P Battery

The difference between the Buddha's teaching and the yoga presented in early Brahminic texts is striking. Meditative states alone are not an end, for according to the Buddha, even the highest meditative state is not liberating. Instead of attaining a complete cessation of thought, some sort of mental activity must take place: a liberating cognition, based on the practice of mindful awareness.Sony VAIO VGN-NS31M/W Battery

Meditation was an aspect of the practice of the yogis in the centuries preceding the Buddha. The Buddha built upon the yogis' concern with introspection and developed their meditative techniques, but rejected their theories of liberation.Sony VAIO VGN-NS31S/S Battery

In Buddhism, mindfulness and clear awareness are to be developed at all times, in pre-Buddhist yogic practices there is no such injunction. A yogi in the Brahmanical tradition is not to practice while defecating, for example, while a Buddhist monastic should do so.Sony VAIO VGN-NS31Z/P Battery

Another new teaching of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must be combined with a liberating cognition.

Religious knowledge or "vision" was indicated as a result of practice both within and outside of the Buddhist fold.Sony VAIO VGN-NS31Z/S Battery

According to the Samaññaphala Sutta this sort of vision arose for the Buddhist adept as a result of the perfection of "meditation" coupled with the perfection of "discipline" (Pali. s?la; Skt. ??la). Some of the Buddha's meditative techniques were shared with other traditions of his day,Sony VAIO VGN-NS31Z/W Battery

but the idea that ethics are causally related to the attainment of "transcendent wisdom" (Pali. paññ?; Skt. prajñ?) was original.

The Buddhist texts are probably the earliest describing meditation techniques. They describe meditative practices and states which had existed before the Buddha as well as those which were first developed within Buddhism.Sony VAIO VGN-NS38M/P Battery

Two Upanishads written after the rise of Buddhism do contain full-fledged descriptions of yoga as a means to liberation.

While there is no convincing evidence for meditation in pre-Buddhist early Brahminic texts, Wynne argues that formless meditation originated in the Brahminic or Shramanic tradition, based on strong parallels between Upanishadic cosmological statements and the meditative goals of the two teachers of the Buddha as recorded in the early Buddhist texts.Sony VAIO VGN-NS38M/W Battery

He mentions less likely possibilities as well. Having argued that the cosmological statements in the Upanishads also reflect a contemplative tradition, he argues that the Nasadiya Sukta contains evidence for a contemplative tradition, even as early as the late Rig Vedic period.Sony VAIO VGN-NS130E/L Battery

Refuge in the Three Jewels

Traditionally, the first step in most Buddhist schools requires taking refuge in the Three Jewels (Sanskrit: tri-ratna, P?li: ti-ratana)  as the foundation of one's religious practice. The practice of taking refuge on behalf of young or even unborn children is mentioned in the Majjhima Nikaya, recognized by most scholars as an early text (cf. Infant baptism). Sony VAIO VGN-NS130E/S Battery

Tibetan Buddhism sometimes adds a fourth refuge, in the lama. In Mahayana, the person who chooses thebodhisattva path makes a vow or pledge, considered the ultimate expression of compassion. In Mahayana, too, the Three Jewels are perceived as possessed of an eternal and unchanging essence and as having an irreversible effect: Sony VAIO VGN-NS130E/W Battery

"The Three Jewels have the quality of excellence. Just as real jewels never change their faculty and goodness, whether praised or reviled, so are the Three Jewels (Refuges), because they have an eternal and immutable essence. These Three Jewels bring a fruition that is changeless, for once one has reached Buddhahood, there is no possibility of falling back to suffering."Sony VAIO VGN-NS140E/L Battery

The Three Jewels are:

• The Buddha. This is a title for those who have attained Nirvana. See also the Tath?gata and Gautama Buddha. The Buddha could also be represented as a concept instead of a specific person: Sony VAIO VGN-NS140E/S Battery


• the perfect wisdom that understands Dharma and sees reality in its true form. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha can be viewed as the supreme Refuge: "Buddha is the Unique Absolute Refuge. Buddha is the Imperishable, Eternal, Indestructible and Absolute Refuge." Sony VAIO VGN-NS140E/W Battery


• The Dharma. The teachings or law of nature as expounded by the Gautama Buddha. It can also, especially in Mahayana, connote the ultimate and sustaining Reality which is inseparable from the Buddha. Further, from some Mahayana perspectives,Sony VAIO VGN-NS190J/L Battery


• the Dharma embodied in the form of a great sutra (Buddhic scripture) can replace the need for a personal teacher and can be a direct and spontaneous gateway into Truth (Dharma). This is especially said to be the case with the Lotus Sutra. Dr. Hiroshi Kanno writes of this view of the Lotus Sutra: Sony VAIO VGN-NS190J/S Battery


• "it is a Dharma-gate of sudden enlightenment proper to the Great Vehicle; it is a Dharma-gate whereby one awakens spontaneously, without resorting to a teacher".

• The Sangha. Those who have attained to any of the Four stages of enlightenment, or simply the congregation of monastic practitioners.Sony VAIO VGN-NS190J/W Battery

According to the scriptures, Gautama Buddha presented himself as a model. The Dharma offers a refuge by providing guidelines for the alleviation of suffering and the attainment of Nirvana. The Sangha is considered to provide a refuge by preserving the authentic teachings of the Buddha and providing further examples that the truth of the Buddha's teachings is attainable.Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/L Battery

Buddhist ethics

??la (Sanskrit) or s?la (P?li) is usually translated into English as "virtuous behavior", "morality", "ethics" or "precept". It is an action committed through the body, speech, or mind, and involves an intentional effort. It is one of the three practices (sila, samadhi, and panya) and the second p?ramit?. Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/P Battery

It refers to moral purity of thought, word, and deed. The four conditions of ??la are chastity, calmness, quiet, and extinguishment.

??la is the foundation of Samadhi/Bh?vana (Meditative cultivation) or mind cultivation. Keeping the precepts promotes not only the peace of mind of the cultivator, which is internal, but also peace in the community, which is external. Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/S Battery

According to the Law of Karma, keeping the precepts are meritorious and it acts as causes which would bring about peaceful and happy effects. Keeping these precepts keeps the cultivator from rebirth in the four woeful realms of existence.

??la refers to overall principles of ethical behavior. There are several levels of sila, which correspond to "basic morality" (five precepts), Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/W Battery

"basic morality with asceticism" (eight precepts), "novice monkhood" (ten precepts) and "monkhood" (Vinaya or Patimokkha). Lay people generally undertake to live by the five precepts, which are common to all Buddhist schools. If they wish, they can choose to undertake the eight precepts, which add basic asceticism.Sony VAIO VGN-NS240E/L Battery

Monastic life

Vinaya is the specific moral code for monks and nuns. It includes the Patimokkha, a set of 227 rules for monks in the Theravadin recension. The precise content of the vinayapitaka (scriptures on Vinaya) differ slightly according to different schools, and different schools or subschools set different standards for the degree of adherence to Vinaya.Sony VAIO VGN-NS290J/L Battery

Novice-monks use the ten precepts, which are the basic precepts for monastics.

Regarding the monastic rules, the Buddha constantly reminds his hearers that it is the spirit that counts. On the other hand, the rules themselves are designed to assure a satisfying life, and provide a perfect springboard for the higher attainments. Sony VAIO VGN-NS290J/S Battery

Monastics are instructed by the Buddha to live as "islands unto themselves". In this sense, living life as the vinaya prescribes it is, as one scholar puts it: "more than merely a means to an end: it is very nearly the end in itself."

In Eastern Buddhism, there is also a distinctive Vinaya and ethics contained within the Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra Sony VAIO VGN-NS50B/L Battery

(not to be confused with the Pali text of that name) for Bodhisattvas, where, for example, the eating of meat is frowned upon and vegetarianism is actively encouraged (see vegetarianism in Buddhism). In Japan, this has almost completely displaced the monastic vinaya, and allows clergy to marry.Sony VAIO VGN-NS50B/W Battery

Meditation

Buddhist meditation is fundamentally concerned with two themes: transforming the mind and using it to explore itself and other phenomena. According to Theravada Buddhism the Buddha taught two types of meditation, samatha meditation (Sanskrit: ?amatha) and vipassan? meditation (Sanskrit: vipa?yan?). Sony VAIO VGN-NS51B/L Battery

In Chinese Buddhism, these exist (translated chih kuan), but Chan (Zen) meditation is more popular. According to Peter Harvey, whenever Buddhism has been healthy, not only monks, nuns, and married lamas, but also more committed lay people have practiced meditation.Sony VAIO VGN-NS51B/P Battery

According to Routledge's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, in contrast, throughout most of Buddhist history before modern times, serious meditation by lay people has been unusual. The evidence of the early texts suggests that at the time of the Buddha, many male and female lay practitioners did practice meditation, Sony VAIO VGN-NS51B/W Battery

some even to the point of proficiency in all eight jh?nas (see the next section regarding these).

Sam?dhi (meditative cultivation): samatha meditation

In the language of the Noble Eightfold Path, samyaksam?dhi is "right concentration". The primary means of cultivating sam?dhi is meditation. Upon development of sam?dhi, one's mind becomes purified of defilement, calm, tranquil, and luminous.Sony VAIO VGN-NS52JB/L Battery

Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration (jh?na, Sanskrit ????? dhy?na), his mind is ready to penetrate and gain insight (vipassan?) into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering. The cultivation of mindfulness is essential to mental concentration, which is needed to achieve insight.Sony VAIO VGN-NS52JB/P Battery

Samatha meditation starts from being mindful of an object or idea, which is expanded to one's body, mind and entire surroundings, leading to a state of total concentration and tranquility (jh?na) There are many variations in the style of meditation, from sitting cross-legged or kneeling to chanting or walking. Sony VAIO VGN-NS52JB/W Battery

The most common method of meditation is to concentrate on one's breath (anapanasati), because this practice can lead to both samatha and vipassana'.

In Buddhist practice, it is said that while samatha meditation can calm the mind, only vipassan? meditation can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, Sony VAIO VGN-NS70B/W Battery

which is what leads to knowledge (jñ?na; P?li ñ??a) and understanding (prajñ? P?li paññ?), and thus can lead to nirv??a (P?li nibb?na). When one is in jhana, all defilements are suppressed temporarily. Only understanding (prajñ? orvipassana) eradicates the defilements completely. Jhanas are also states which Arahants abide in order to rest.Sony VAIO VGN-NS71B/W Battery

In Therav?da

In Therav?da Buddhism, the cause of human existence and suffering is identified as craving, which carries with it the various defilements. These various defilements are traditionally summed up as greed, hatred and delusion. These are believed to be deeply rooted afflictions of the mind that create suffering and stress. Sony VAIO VGN-NS72JB/W Battery

In order to be free from suffering and stress, these defilements need to be permanently uprooted through internal investigation, analyzing, experiencing, and understanding of the true nature of those defilements by using jh?na, a technique which is part of the Noble Eightfold Path. Sony VAIO VGN-NS90HS Battery

It will then lead the meditator to realize the Four Noble Truths, Enlightenment and Nibbana. Nibbana is the ultimate goal of Theravadins.

Prajñ? (Wisdom): vipassana meditation

Prajñ? (Sanskrit) or paññ? (P?li) means wisdom that is based on a realization of dependent origination, The Four Noble Truths and the three marks of existence.Sony VAIO VGN-NS92JS Battery

Prajñ? is the wisdom that is able to extinguish afflictions and bring about bodhi. It is spoken of as the principal means of attaining nirv??a, through its revelation of the true nature of all things as dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anicca(impermanence) and anatta (not-self). Prajñ? is also listed as the sixth of the six p?ramit?s of the Mahayana.Sony VAIO VGN-NS92XS Battery

Initially, prajñ? is attained at a conceptual level by means of listening to sermons (dharma talks), reading, studying, and sometimes reciting Buddhist texts and engaging in discourse. Once the conceptual understanding is attained, it is applied to daily life so that each Buddhist can verify the truth of the Buddha's teaching at a practical level. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery

Notably, one could in theory attain Nirvana at any point of practice, whether deep in meditation, listening to a sermon, conducting the business of one's daily life, or any other activity.

Zen

Zen Buddhism (?), pronounced chán in Chinese, seon in Korean or zen in Japanese Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

(derived from the Sanskrit term dhy?na, meaning "meditation") is a form of Buddhism that became popular in China, Korea and Japan and that lays special emphasis on meditation. Zen places less emphasis on scriptures than some other forms of Buddhism and prefers to focus on direct spiritual breakthroughs to truth.Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/S Battery

Zen Buddhism is divided into two main schools: Rinzai (???) and S?t? (???), the former greatly favouring the use in meditation on the koan (??, a meditative riddle or puzzle) as a device for spiritual break-through, and the latter (while certainly employing koans) focusing more on shikantaza or "just sitting".Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/T Battery

Zen Buddhist teaching is often full of paradox, in order to loosen the grip of the ego and to facilitate the penetration into the realm of the True Self or Formless Self, which is equated with the Buddha himself.According to Zen master, Kosho Uchiyama, when thoughts and fixation on the little 'I' are transcended, an Awakening to a universal, non-dual Self occurs:Sony VAIO VGN-NW21EF/S Battery

' When we let go of thoughts and wake up to the reality of life that is working beyond them, we discover the Self that is living universal non-dual life (before the separation into two) that pervades all living creatures and all existence.'. Thinking and thought must therefore not be allowed to confine and bind one.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21JF Battery

Vajrayana and Tantra

Though based upon Mahayana, Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism is one of the schools that practice Vajray?na or "Diamond Vehicle" (also referred to as Mantray?na, Tantray?na, Tantric Buddhism, oresoteric Buddhism). Sony VAIO VGN-NW21MF Battery

It accepts all the basic concepts of Mah?y?na, but also includes a vast array of spiritual and physical techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice. Tantric Buddhism is largely concerned with ritual and meditative practices.One component of the Vajray?na is harnessing psycho-physical energy through ritual, Sony VAIO VGN-NW21MF/W Battery

visualization, physical exercises, and meditation as a means of developing the mind. Using these techniques, it is claimed that a practitioner can achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime, or even as little as three years. In the Tibetan tradition, these practices can include sexual yoga, though only for some very advanced practitioners.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21ZF Battery

Philosophical roots

Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of ancient India during the second half of the first millennium BCE.That was a period of social and religious turmoil, as there was significant discontent with the sacrifices and rituals of Vedic Brahmanism.Sony VAIO VGN-NW31EF/W Battery

It was challenged by numerous newascetic religious and philosophical groups and teachings that broke with the Brahmanic tradition and rejected the authority of the Vedas and the Brahmans.These groups, whose members were known as shramanas, were a continuation of a non-Vedic strand of Indian thought distinct from Indo-Aryan Brahmanism.Sony VAIO VGN-NW31JF Battery

Scholars have reasons to believe that ideas such as samsara, karma (in the sense of the influence of morality on rebirth), andmoksha originated in the shramanas, and were later adopted by Brahmin orthodoxy.This view is supported by a study of the region in which these notions originated. Sony VAIO VGN-NW320F/B Battery

Buddhism arose in Greater Magadha, which stretched from Sravasti, the capital of Kosala in the north-west, to Rajagrha in the south east. This land, to the east of aryavarta, the land of the Aryas, was recognised as non-Vedic. Other Vedic texts reveal a dislike of the people of Magadha, in all probability because the Magadhas at this time were not Brahmanised.Sony VAIO VGN-NW320F/TC Battery

It was not until the 2nd or 3rd centuries BCE that the eastward spread of Brahmanism into Greater Magadha became significant. Ideas that developed in Greater Magadha prior to this were not subject to Vedic influence. These include rebirth and karmic retribution which can be found in a number of movements in Greater Magadha, including Buddhism. Sony VAIO VGN-NW35E Battery

These movements inherited notions of rebirth and karmic retribution from an earlier culture At the same time, these movements were influenced by, and in some respects continued, philosophical thought within the Vedic tradition as reflected e.g. in the Upanishads.Sony VAIO VGN-NW380F/S Battery

These movements included, besides Buddhism, variousskeptics (such as Sanjaya Belatthiputta), atomists (such as Pakudha Kaccayana), materialists (such as Ajita Kesakambali), antinomians (such as Purana Kassapa); the most important ones in the 5th century BCE were the Ajivikas,Sony VAIO VGN-NW380F/T Battery

who emphasized the rule of fate, the Lokayata (materialists), the Ajnanas(agnostics) and the Jains, who stressed that the soul must be freed from matter.

Many of these new movements shared the same conceptual vocabulary - atman ("Self"), buddha ("awakened one"), dhamma ("rule" or "law"), karma("action"), nirvana ("extinguishing"), samsara ("eternal recurrence") and yoga ("spiritual practice").Sony VAIO VGN-NW50JB Battery

The shramanas rejected the Veda, and the authority of the brahmans, who claimed to be in possession of revealed truths not knowable by any ordinary human means; moreover, they declared that the entire Brahmanical system was fraudulent:Sony VAIO VGN-NW51FB/N Battery

a conspiracy of the brahmans to enrich themselves by charging exorbitant fees for the performance of bogus rites and the giving of futile advice. A particular criticism of the Buddha's was Vedic animal sacrifice. The Buddha declared that priests reciting the Vedas were like the blind leading the blind.Sony VAIO VGN-NW51FB/W Battery

According to him, those priests who had memorized the Vedas really knew nothing. He also mocked the Vedic "hymn of the cosmic man". He declared that the primary goal of Upanishadic thought, the Atman, was in fact non-existent, and, having explained that Brahminical attempts to achieve liberation at death were futile, proposed his new idea of liberation in life.Sony VAIO VGN-NW70JB Battery

At the same time, the traditional Brahminical religion itself gradually underwent profound changes, transforming it into what is recognized as early Hinduism.In particular, the brahmans thus developed "philosophical systems of their own, meeting the new ideas with adaptations of their doctrines".Sony VAIO VGN-NW71FB/N Battery

Indian Buddhism

The history of Indian Buddhism may be divided into five periods: Early Buddhism (occasionally called Pre-sectarian Buddhism), Nikaya Buddhism or Sectarian Buddhism: The period of the Early BuddhSony VAIO VGN-NW71FB/W Batteryist schools, Early Mahayana Buddhism, Later Mahayana Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism (also calledVajrayana Buddhism).

Pre-sectarian Buddhism

Pre-sectarian Buddhism is the earliest phase of Buddhism, recognized by nearly all scholars. Its main scriptures are the Vinaya Pitaka and the four principalNikayas or Agamas. Certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout the early texts, Sony VAIO VGN-NW91FS Battery

so most scholars conclude that Gautama Buddha must have taught something similar to the Three marks of existence, the Five aggregates, Dependent origination, Karma and Rebirth, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Nirvana. Some scholars disagree, and have proposed many other theories.Sony VAIO VGN-NW91GS Battery

Early Buddhist schools

According to the scriptures, soon after the parinirv??a (from Sanskrit: "highest extinguishment") of Gautama Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held. As with any ancient Indian tradition, transmission of teaching was done orally.Sony VAIO VGN-NW91VS Battery

The primary purpose of the assembly was to collectively recite the teachings to ensure that no errors occurred in oral transmission. In the first council,?nanda, a cousin of the Buddha and his personal attendant, was called upon to recite the discourses (s?tras, P?li suttas) of the Buddha, and, according to some sources, the abhidhamma. Sony VAIO VGN-SR11M Battery

Up?li, another disciple, recited the monastic rules (vinaya). Scholars regard the traditional accounts of the council as greatly exaggerated if not entirely fictitious.

According to most scholars, at some period after the Second Council the Sangha began to break into separate factions.Sony VAIO VGN-SR11MR Battery

The various accounts differ as to when the actual schisms occurred. According to the Dipavamsa of the P?li tradition, they started immediately after the Second Council, the Puggalavada tradition places it in 137 AN, the Sarvastivada tradition of Vasumitra says it was in the time of Asoka and the Mahasanghika tradition places it much later, nearly 100 BCE.Sony VAIO VGN-SR140D Battery

The root schism was between the Sthaviras and the Mah?s??ghikas. The fortunate survival of accounts from both sides of the dispute reveals disparate traditions. The Sthavira group offers two quite distinct reasons for the schism. The Dipavamsa of the Therav?da says that the losing party in the Second Council dispute broke away in protest and formed the Mahasanghika. Sony VAIO VGN-SR140D/B Battery

This contradicts the Mahasanghikas' own vinaya, which shows them as on the same, winning side. The Mah?s??ghikas argued that the Sthaviras were trying to expand the vinaya and may also have challenged what they perceived to be excessive claims or inhumanly high criteria for arhatship. Both parties, therefore, appealed to tradition.Sony VAIO VGN-SR140D/P Battery

The Sthaviras gave rise to several schools, one of which was the Therav?da school. Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over vinaya, and monks following different schools of thought seem to have lived happily together in the same monasteries, but eventually, by about 100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal disagreements too.Sony VAIO VGN-SR140D/S Battery

Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Sa?gha started to accumulate an Abhidharma, a detailed scholastic reworking of doctrinal material appearing in the Suttas, according to schematic classifications. These Abhidharma texts do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or numerical lists. Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E Battery

Scholars generally date these texts to around the 3rd century BCE, 100 to 200 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore the seven Abhidharma works are generally claimed not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of disciples and great scholars.Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E/B Battery

Every school had its own version of the Adhidharma, with different theories and different texts. The different Adhidharmas of the various schools did not agree with each other. Scholars disagree on whether the Mahasanghika school had an Abhidhamma Pitaka or not.Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E/P Battery

Early Mahayana Buddhism

The origins of Mah?y?na are still not completely understood. The earliest views of Mah?y?na Buddhism in the West assumed that it existed as a separate school in competition with the so-called "H?nay?na" schools. Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E/S Battery

Due to the veneration of buddhas and bodhisattvas, Mah?y?na was often interpreted as a more devotional, lay-inspired form of Buddhism, with supposed origins in st?pa veneration, or by making parallels with the history of the EuropeanProtestant Reformation. Sony VAIO VGN-SR140N/S Battery

These views have been largely dismissed in modern times in light of a much broader range of early texts that are now available. The old views of Mah?y?na as a separate lay-inspired and devotional sect are now largely dismissed as misguided and wrong on all counts.Sony VAIO VGN-SR165E/B Battery

There is no evidence that Mah?y?na ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas. Paul Williams has also noted that the Mah?y?na never had nor ever attempted to have a separate Vinaya or ordination lineage from the early schools of Buddhism, and therefore each bhik?u or bhik?u?? adhering to the Mah?y?na formally belonged to an early school. Sony VAIO VGN-SR165E/P Battery

This continues today with the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage in East Asia, and the M?lasarv?stiv?da ordination lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore Mah?y?na was never a separate rival sect of the early schools. From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mah?y?na and non-Mah?y?na monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.Sony VAIO VGN-SR165E/S Battery

The Chinese monk Yijing who visited India in the 7th century CE, distinguishes Mah?y?na from H?nay?na as follows:

Both adopt one and the same Vinaya, and they have in common the prohibitions of the five offences, and also the practice of the Four Noble Truths. Sony VAIO VGN-SR190EBJ Battery

Those who venerate the bodhisattvas and read the Mah?y?na s?tras are called the Mah?y?nists, while those who do not perform these are called the H?nay?nists.

Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mah?y?na comes from early Chinese translations of Mah?y?na texts. Sony VAIO VGN-SR190EBQ Battery

These Mah?y?na teachings were first propagated into China by Lokak?ema, the first translator of Mah?y?na s?tras into Chinese during the 2nd century CE. Some scholars have traditionally considered the earliest Mah?y?na s?tras to include the very first versions of the Prajñ?p?ramit? series, Sony VAIO VGN-SR190EEJ/C Battery

along with texts concerning Ak?obhya Buddha, which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.

Late Mahayana Buddhism

During the period of Late Mahayana Buddhism, four major types of thought developed: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha, and Buddhist Logic as the last and most recent.Sony VAIO VGN-SR190NAB Battery

In India, the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were the Madhyamaka and the later Yogacara.According to Dan Lusthaus, Madhyamaka and Yogacara have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism. There were no great Indian teachers associated with tathagatagarbha thought.Sony VAIO VGN-SR190NBB Battery

Vajrayana (Esoteric Buddhism)

Scholarly research concerning Esoteric Buddhism is still in its early stages and has a number of problems which make research difficult:

1. Vajrayana Buddhism was influenced by Hinduism, and therefore the research has to include research on Hinduism as well.Sony VAIO VGN-SR190NDB Battery


2. The scriptures of Vajrayana have not yet been put in any kind of order.


3. Ritual has to be examined as well, not just doctrine.

The early development of Buddhism

Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, who was a public supporter of the religion.Sony VAIO VGN-SR190NEB Battery

The support of A?oka and his descendants led to the construction of more st?pas(Buddhist religious memorials) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands—particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India. Sony VAIO VGN-SR190NGB Battery

These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Therav?da Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.Sony VAIO VGN-SR190PAB Battery

This period marks the first known spread of Buddhism beyond India. According to the edicts of A?oka, emissaries were sent to various countries west of India in order to spread Buddhism (Dharma), particularly in eastern provinces of the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean. Sony VAIO VGN-SR190PCB Battery

It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries.

The gradual spread of Buddhism into adjacent areas meant that it came into contact with new ethnical groups. Sony VAIO VGN-SR190PFB Battery

During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, to changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions—themselves influenced by Buddhism. Striking examples of this syncretistic development can be seen in the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Sony VAIO VGN-SR19VN Battery

and in the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandh?ra. A Greek king, Menander, has even been immortalized in the Buddhist canon.

The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka and Thailand and Burma and later also Indonesia.Sony VAIO VGN-SR19VN Battery

The Dharmagupta school spread (also in 3rd century BCE) north to Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria (Afghanistan).

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to question.Sony VAIO VGN-SR19VRN Battery

The first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin.

In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese.Sony VAIO VGN-SR19XN Battery

During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.

Buddhism today

By the late Middle Ages, Buddhism had become virtually extinct in India, and although it continued to exist in surrounding countries, its influence was no longer expanding. Sony VAIO VGN-SR19XN Battery

It is now again gaining strength in India and elsewhere. Estimates of the number of Buddhist followers by scholars range from 230 million to 1.691 billion. Most scholars classify similar numbers of people under a category they call "Chinese folk" or "traditional" religion, an amalgam of various traditions that includes Buddhism.Sony VAIO VGN-SR210J/S Battery

Formal membership varies between communities, but basic lay adherence is often defined in terms of a traditional formula in which the practitioner takes refuge in The Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community).Sony VAIO VGN-SR21M/S Battery

Estimates are uncertain for several reasons:

• difficulties in defining who counts as a Buddhist;


• syncretism among the Eastern religions. Buddhism is practiced by adherents alongside many other religious traditions- including Taoism, Confucianism,Shinto, traditional religions, shamanism, and animism- throughout East and Southeast Asia. Sony VAIO VGN-SR21RM/H Battery


• difficulties in estimating the number of Buddhists who do not have congregational memberships and often do not participate in public ceremonies;


• official policies on religion in several historically Buddhist countries that make accurate assessments of religious adherence more difficult; Sony VAIO VGN-SR21RM/S Battery


• most notablyChina, Vietnam and North Korea. In many current and former Communist governments in Asia, government policies may discourage adherents from reporting their religious identity, or may encourage official counts to underestimate religious adherence.Sony VAIO VGN-SR220J/B Battery

Demographics

According to one analysis, Buddhism is the fourth-largest religion in the world behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The monks' order (Sangha), which began during the lifetime of the Buddha, is among the oldest organizations on earth. Sony VAIO VGN-SR220J/H Battery

Buddhism was the first world religion and was the world's largest religion in the first half of the 20th century, in 1951 Buddhism was the world's largest religion with 520 million adherents. By comparison, the second largest was Christianity with 500 million adherents .Sony VAIO VGN-SR240J/B Battery

• Therav?da Buddhism, using P?li as its scriptural language, is the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, andBurma. The Dalit Buddhist movement in India (inspired by B. R. Ambedkar) also practices Theravada. Approximately 124 million adherents.Sony VAIO VGN-SR240N/B Battery


• East Asian forms of Mahayana Buddhism that use Chinese scriptures are dominant in most of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore andVietnam as well as such communities within Indochina, Southeast Asia and the West. Approximately 500 million to one billion  .Sony VAIO VGN-SR290JTH Battery


• Tibetan Buddhism is found in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, areas of India, China, Nepal that border those countries, plus the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation. Approximately 20 million adherents.

Most Buddhist groups in the West are at least nominally affiliated with one of these three traditions.Sony VAIO VGN-SR290JTJ Battery

At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. While in the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East it is regarded as familiar and traditional. Sony VAIO VGN-SR290JTQ Battery

Buddhists in Asia are frequently well organized and well funded. In a number of countries, it is recognized as an official religion and receives state support. Modern influences increasingly lead to new forms of Buddhism that significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.Sony VAIO VGN-SR290JVB/C Battery

Overall there is an overwhelming diversity of recent forms of Buddhism.

Schools and traditions

Buddhists generally classify themselves as either Theravada or Mahayana. This classification is also used by some scholars and is the one ordinarily used in the English language.Sony VAIO VGN-SR290JVH/C Battery

An alternative scheme used by some scholars divides Buddhism into the following three traditions or geographical or cultural areas: Theravada, East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.

Some scholars use other schemes. Buddhists themselves have a variety of other schemes. Sony VAIO VGN-SR290NTB Battery

Hinayana (literally "lesser vehicle") is used by Mahayana followers to name the family of early philosophical schools and traditions from which contemporary Theravada emerged, but as this term is rooted in the Mahayana viewpoint and can be considered derogatory, Sony VAIO VGN-SR29VN/S Battery

a variety of other terms are increasingly used instead, including ?r?vakay?na, Nikaya Buddhism, early Buddhist schools, sectarian Buddhism, conservative Buddhism, mainstream Buddhism and non-Mahayana Buddhism.

Not all traditions of Buddhism share the same philosophical outlook, or treat the same concepts as central. Sony VAIO VGN-SR29XN/S Battery

Each tradition, however, does have its own core concepts, and some comparisons can be drawn between them. For example, according to one Buddhist ecumenical organization, several concepts common to both major Buddhist branches:

• Both accept the Buddha as their teacher. Sony VAIO VGN-SR2RVN/S Battery


• Both accept the Middle way, Dependent origination, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Three marks of existence.


• Both accept that members of the laity and of the sangha can pursue the path toward enlightenment (bodhi).


• Both consider buddhahood to be the highest attainment. Sony VAIO VGN-SR390NAB Battery

Theravada school

Therav?da ("Doctrine of the Elders", or "Ancient Doctrine") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It is relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism. This school is derived from the Vibhajjav?da grouping which emerged amongst the older Sthavira group at the time of the Third Buddhist Council (c. 250 BCE). Sony VAIO VGN-SR390NAH Battery

This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive.

The Theravada school bases its practice and doctrine exclusively on the P?li Canon and its commentaries. Sony VAIO VGN-SR41M/P Battery

After being orally transmitted for a few centuries, its scriptures, the Pali Canon, were finally committed to writing in the 1st century BCE, in Sri Lanka, at what the Theravada usually reckon as the fourth council. It is also one of the first Buddhist schools to commit the complete set of its canon into writing.Sony VAIO VGN-SR41M/S Battery

The Sutta collections and Vinaya texts of the P?li Canon (and the corresponding texts in other versions of the Tripitaka), are generally considered by modern scholars to be the earliest Buddhist literature, and they are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism.Sony VAIO VGN-SR49VN/H Battery

Therav?da is primarily practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia as well as small portions of China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bangladesh. It has a growing presence in Europe and America.

Mahayana traditions

Mahayana Buddhism flourished in India from the 5th century CE onwards, during the dynasty of the Guptas. Sony VAIO VGN-SR51B/P Battery

Mah?y?na centres of learning were established, the most important one being the N?land? University in north-eastern India.

Mahayana schools recognize all or part of the Mahayana Sutras. Some of these sutras became for Mahayanists a manifestation of the Buddha himself, and faith in and veneration of those texts are stated in some sutras (e.g. the Lotus Sutra and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) to lay the foundations for the later attainment of Buddhahood itself.Sony VAIO VGN-SR51B/S Battery

Native Mahayana Buddhism is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, parts of Russia and most of Vietnam (also commonly referred to as "Eastern Buddhism"). The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahayana in origin, but will be discussed below under the heading of Vajrayana (also commonly referred to as "Northern Buddhism".Sony VAIO VGN-SR51MF Battery

There are a variety of strands in Eastern Buddhism, of which "the Pure Land school of Mahayana is the most widely practised today.". In most of this area however, they are fused into a single unified form of Buddhism. In Japan in particular, they form separate denominations with the five major ones being:Sony VAIO VGN-SR51MF/P Battery

Nichiren, peculiar to Japan; Pure Land; Shingon, a form of Vajrayana; Tendai; and Chan/Zen. In Korea, nearly all Buddhists belong to the Chogye school, which is officially Son (Zen), but with substantial elements from other traditions.

Vajrayana traditions

The Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism spread to China, Mongolia, and Tibet.Sony VAIO VGN-SR51MF/S Battery

In Tibet, Vajrayana has always been a main component of Tibetan Buddhism, while in China it formed a separate sect. However, Vajrayana Buddhism became extinct in China but survived in elements of Japan's Shingon and Tendai sects.

There are differing views as to just when Vajray?na and its tantric practice started. Sony VAIO VGN-SR51MF/W Battery

In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical ??kyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are esoteric teachings, they were passed on orally first and only written down long after the Buddha's other teachings. N?land? University became a center for the development of Vajray?na theory and continued as the source of leading-edge Vajray?na practices up through the 11th century.Sony VAIO VGN-SR51MR Battery

These practices, scriptures and theories were transmitted to China, Tibet, Indochina and Southeast Asia. China generally received Indian transmission up to the 11th century including tantric practice, while a vast amount of what is considered to be Tibetan Buddhism (Vajray?na) stems from the late (9th–12th century) N?land? tradition.Sony VAIO VGN-SR59VG Battery

In one of the first major contemporary academic treatises on the subject, Fairfield University professor Ronald M. Davidson argues that the rise of Vajrayana was in part a reaction to the changing political climate in India at the time. With the fall of the Gupta dynasty, Sony VAIO VGN-SR59VG/H Battery

in an increasingly fractious political environment, institutional Buddhism had difficulty attracting patronage, and the folk movement led by siddhas became more prominent. After perhaps two hundred years, it had begun to get integrated into the monastic establishment.Sony VAIO VGN-SR70B/S Battery

Vajrayana combined and developed a variety of elements, a number of which had already existed for centuries.In addition to the Mah?y?na scriptures, Vajray?na Buddhists recognise a large body of Buddhist Tantras, some of which are also included in Chinese and Japanese collections of Buddhist literature, and versions of a few even in the Pali Canon.Sony VAIO VGN-SR72B/P Battery

Buddhist texts

Buddhist scriptures and other texts exist in great variety. Different schools of Buddhism place varying levels of value on learning the various texts. Some schools venerate certain texts as religious objects in themselves, while others take a more scholastic approach.Sony VAIO VGN-SR72B/S Battery

Buddhist scriptures are written in these languages: P?li, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, along with some texts that still exist inSanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.

Unlike many religions, Buddhism has no single central text that is universally referred to by all traditions. Sony VAIO VGN-SR73JB/S Battery

However, some scholars have referred to the Vinaya Pitaka and the first four Nikayas of theSutta Pitaka as the common core of all Buddhist traditions. This could be considered misleading, as Mah?y?na considers these merely a preliminary, and not a core, teaching. Sony VAIO VGN-SR74FB/S Battery

The Tibetan Buddhists have not even translated most of the ?gamas (though theoretically they recognize them) and they play no part in the religious life of either clergy or laity in China and Japan. Other scholars say there is no universally accepted common core.Sony VAIO VGN-SR90FS Battery

The size and complexity of the Buddhist canons have been seen by some (including Buddhist social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar) as presenting barriers to the wider understanding of Buddhist philosophy.Sony VAIO VGN-SR90NS Battery

The followers of Therav?da Buddhism take the scriptures known as the P?li Canon as definitive and authoritative, while the followers of Mah?y?na Buddhism base their faith and philosophy primarily on the Mah?y?na s?tras and their own vinaya. The P?li sutras, along with other, closely related scriptures, are known to the other schools as the ?gamas.Sony VAIO VGN-SR90S Battery

Over the years, various attempts have been made to synthesize a single Buddhist text that can encompass all of the major principles of Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, condensed 'study texts' were created that combined popular or influential scriptures into single volumes that could be studied by novice monks. Sony VAIO VGN-SR90US Battery

Later in Sri Lanka, the Dhammapada was championed as a unifying scripture.

Dwight Goddard collected a sample of Buddhist scriptures, with the emphasis on Zen, along with other classics of Eastern philosophy, such as the Tao Te Ching, into his 'Buddhist Bible' in the 1920s. Sony VAIO VGN-SR91NS Battery

More recently, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to create a single, combined document of Buddhist principles in "The Buddha and His Dhamma". Other such efforts have persisted to present day, but currently there is no single text that represents all Buddhist traditions.Sony VAIO VGN-SR91PS Battery

P?li Tipitaka

The P?li Tipitaka, which means "three baskets", refers to the Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The Vinaya Pitaka contains disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as explanations of why and how these rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification. Sony VAIO VGN-SR91S Battery

The Sutta Pitaka contains discourses ascribed to Gautama Buddha. The Abhidhamma Pitaka contains material often described as systematic expositions of the Gautama Buddha's teachings.

The P?li Tipitaka is the only early Tipitaka (Sanskrit: Tripi?aka) to survive intact in its original language, but a number of early schools had their own recensions of the Tipitaka featuring much of the same material. Sony VAIO VGN-SR91US Battery

We have portions of the Tipitakas of the S?rv?stiv?da, Dharmaguptaka, Sammitya, Mah?sa?ghika, K??yap?ya, and Mah???saka schools, most of which survive in Chinese translation only. According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas.Sony VAIO VGN-SR92NS Battery

According to the scriptures, soon after the death of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held; a monk named Mah?k??yapa (P?li: Mah?kassapa) presided. The goal of the council was to record the Buddha's teachings. Up?li recited the vinaya. ?nanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, was called upon to recite the dhamma. Sony VAIO VGN-SR92PS Battery

These became the basis of the Tripitaka. However, this record was initially transmitted orally in form of chanting, and was committed to text in the last century BCE. Both the s?tras and the vinaya of every Buddhist school contain a wide variety of elements including discourses on the Dharma,Sony VAIO VGN-SR92S Battery

commentaries on other teachings, cosmological and cosmogonical texts, stories of the Gautama Buddha's previous lives, and various other subjects.

Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically "Theravadin", but is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from the early, non-sectarian body of teachings.Sony VAIO VGN-SR92US Battery

According to Peter Harvey, it contains material which is at odds with later Theravadin orthodoxy. He states: "The Theravadins, then, may have added texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period."Sony VAIO VGN-SR93DS Battery

Mahayana sutras

The Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that the Mahayana Buddhist tradition holds are original teachings of the Buddha. Some adherents of Mahayana accept both the early teachings (including in this the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, Sony VAIO VGN-SR93JS Battery

which was criticized by Nagarjuna and is in fact opposed to early Buddhist thought) and the Mahayana sutras as authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha, and claim they were designed for different types of persons and different levels of spiritual understanding.Sony VAIO VGN-SR93PS Battery

The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path. That path is explained as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings from unhappiness. Hence the name Mah?y?na (lit., the Great Vehicle).Sony VAIO VGN-SR93YS Battery

According to Mahayana tradition, the Mahayana sutras were transmitted in secret, came from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or were preserved in non-human worlds because human beings at the time could not understand them:

Some of our sources maintain the authenticity of certain other texts not found in the canons of these schools (the early schools).Sony VAIO VGN-SR94FS Battery

These texts are those held genuine by the later school, not one of the eighteen, which arrogated to itself the title of Mahayana, 'Great Vehicle'. According to the Mahayana historians these texts were admittedly unknown to the early schools of Buddhists. However, they had all been promulgated by the Buddha.Sony VAIO VGN-SR94GS Battery

[The Buddha's] followers on earth, the sravakas ('pupils'), had not been sufficiently advanced to understand them, and hence were not given them to remember, but they were taught to various supernatural beings and then preserved in such places as the Dragon World.Sony VAIO VGN-SR94HS Battery

Approximately six hundred Mahayana sutras have survived in Sanskrit or in Chinese or Tibetan translations. In addition, East Asian Buddhism recognizes some sutras regarded by scholars to be of Chinese rather than Indian origin.

Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures were composed from the 1st century CE onwards:Sony VAIO VGN-SR94VS Battery

"Large numbers of Mahayana sutras were being composed in the period between the beginning of the common era and the fifth century", five centuries after the historical Gautama Buddha. Some of these had their roots in other scriptures composed in the 1st century BCE. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ35B/B Battery

It was not until after the 5th century CE that the Mahayana sutras started to influence the behavior of mainstream Buddhists in India: "But outside of texts, at least in India, at exactly the same period, very different—in fact seemingly older—ideas and aspirations appear to be motivating actual behavior, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ54B/B Battery

and old and established Hinnayana groups appear to be the only ones that are patronized and supported." These texts were apparently not universally accepted among Indian Buddhists when they appeared; the pejorative label hinayana was applied by Mahayana supporters to those who rejected the Mahayana sutras.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ55B/B Battery

Only the Theravada school does not include the Mahayana scriptures in its canon. As the modern Theravada school is descended from a branch of Buddhism that diverged and established itself in Sri Lanka prior to the emergence of the Mahayana texts, debate exists as to whether the Theravada were historically included in the hinayana designation; Sony VAIO VGN-SZ55GN/B Battery

in the modern era, this label is seen as derogatory, and is generally avoided.

Comparative studies

Buddhism provides many opportunities for comparative study with a diverse range of subjects. For example, dependent origination can be considered one of Buddhism's contributions to metaphysics.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ56 Battery

Additionally, Buddhism's emphasis on the Middle way not only provides a unique guideline for ethics but has also allowed Buddhism to peacefully coexist with various differing beliefs, customs and institutions in countries in which it has resided throughout its history. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ561N Battery

Also, its moral and spiritual parallels with other systems of thought—for example, with various tenets of Christianity—have been subjects of close study.Sony VAIO VGN-SZ562N Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ57N Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN/C Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58N Battery

Topic : laptop battery
Genre : Computer/Internet

The economy of Japan is the third largest in the world after the United States and the People's Republic of China, and ahead of Germany at 4th. According to the International Monetary Fund, the country's per capita GDP?PPP?was at $33,805 or the 24th highest in 2010.Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B Battery

For three decades from 1960, Japan experienced rapid economic growth, which was referred to as the Japanese post-war economic miracle. With average growth rates of 10% in the 1960s, 5% in the 1970s, and 4% in the 1980s, Japan was able to establish and maintain itself as the world's second largest economy from 1968 until 2010, when it was supplanted by the People's Republic of China.Sony VAIO VGN-CR11S/L Battery

However, in the second half of the 1980s, rising stock and real estate prices caused the Japanese economy to overheat in what was later to be known as the Japanese asset price bubble. The economic bubble came to an abrupt end as the Tokyo Stock Exchange crashed in 1990–92 and real estate prices peaked in 1991. Sony VAIO VGN-CR11S/P Battery

Growth in Japan throughout the 1990s at 1.5% was slower than growth in other major developed economies, giving rise to the term Lost Decade.

The problems of the 1990s may have been exacerbated by domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets.Sony VAIO VGN-CR11S/W Battery

With government efforts to revive economic growth throughout the 1990s unsuccessful, Junichiro Koizumi adopted policies to promote exports, effectively raising GDP on an average of 2.1% annually from 2003 to 2007. Subsequently, the global financial crisis and a collapse in domestic demand saw the economy shrink 1.2% in 2008 and 5.0% in 2009.Sony VAIO VGN-CR11Z/R Battery

Japan has the world's highest gross sovereign debtamounting at 225% of GDP or US$10.55 trillion.

A mountainous, volcanic island country, Japan has inadequate natural resources to support its growing economy and large population.Sony VAIO VGN-CR120E/L Battery

Although many kinds of minerals were extracted throughout the country, most mineral resources had to be imported in the postwar era. Local deposits of metal-bearing ores were difficult to process because they were low grade. The nation's large and varied forest resources, which covered 70 percent of the country in the late 1980s, were not utilized extensively.Sony VAIO VGN-CR120E/P Battery

Because of political decisions on local, prefectural, and nation levels, Japan decided not to exploit its forest resources for economic gain. Domestic sources only supplied between 25 and 30 percent of the nation's timber needs. Agriculture and fishing were the best developed resources, but only through years of painstaking investment and toil. Sony VAIO VGN-CR120E/R Battery

The nation therefore built up the manufacturing and processing industries to convert raw materials imported from abroad. This strategy of economic development necessitated the establishment of a strong economic infrastructure to provide the needed energy, transportation, communications, and technological know-how.Sony VAIO VGN-CR120E/W Battery

Deposits of gold, magnesium, and silver meet current industrial demands, but Japan is dependent on foreign sources for many of the minerals essential to modern industry. Iron ore, copper, bauxite, and alumina must be imported, as well as many forest products.Sony VAIO VGN-CR125E/B Battery

In 2010 GDP Growth in the final three months was -2.9% but total GDP Growth for 2010 was 4.0%, one of the highest growth rates for about 20 years. But Japan's economy was disrupted in March 2011 due to the earthquake and the effect of the tsunami. GDP contracted by 3.5% in Q1 of 2011. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13/B Battery

As Japan's economy has suffered two quarterly contractions in a row, Japan reentered recession. In 2008-09 the economy had contracted 6.4%. However, output is expected to bounce back in the second half of 2011, as supply constraints ease and reconstruction accelerates.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13/L Battery

From 1992 up until now Japan has had economic problems with an average GDP growth of 1%-2% growth. 2011 GDP is expected to Contract 0.7%, 2012 GDP Growth is expected to be at 2.9%, according to the OECD.

Economic history

The economic history of Japan is one of the most studied economies for its spectacular growth in three different periods. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13/P Battery

First was the foundation of Edo (in 1603) to whole inland economical developments, second was the Meiji Restoration (in 1868) to be the first non European power, third was after the defeat of World War II (in 1945) when the island nation rose to become the world's second largest economy.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13/R Battery

First contacts with Europe (16th century)

Japan was considered as a country immensely rich in precious metals, mainly owing to Marco Polo's accounts of gilded temples and palaces, but also due to the relative abundance of surface ores characteristic of a massive huge volcanic country,Sony VAIO VGN-CR13/W Battery

before large-scale deep-mining became possible in Industrial times. Japan was to become a major exporter of copper and silver during the period.

Renaissance Japan was also perceived as a sophisticated feudal society with a high culture and a strong pre-industrial technology. It was densely populated and urbanized. Sony VAIO VGN-CR131E/L Battery

Prominent European observers of the time seemed to agree that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well" (Alessandro Valignano, 1584, "Historia del Principo y Progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias Orientales).Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G Battery

Early European visitors were amazed by the quality of Japanese craftsmanship and metalsmithing. This stems from the fact that Japan itself is rather poor in natural resources found commonly in Europe, especially iron. Thus, the Japanese were famously frugal with their consumable resources; what little they had they used with expert skill.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G/B Battery

The cargo of the first Portuguese ships (usually about 4 smaller-sized ships every year) arriving in Japan almost entirely consisted of Chinese goods (silk, porcelain). The Japanese were very much looking forward to acquiring such goods, but had been prohibited from any contacts with the Emperor of China, as a punishment for Wak? pirate raids. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G/L Battery

The Portuguese (who were called Nanban, lit. Southern Barbarians) therefore found the opportunity to act as intermediaries in Asian trade.

Edo period (1603–1868)

The beginning of the Edo period coincides with the last decades of the Nanban trade period, during which intense interaction with European powers, on the economic and religious plane, took place.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G/P Battery

It is at the beginning of the Edo period that Japan built her first ocean-going Western-style warships, such as theSan Juan Bautista, a 500-ton galleon-type ship that transported a Japanese embassy headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas, which then continued to Europe. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G/R Battery

Also during that period, the bakufu commissioned around 350 Red Seal Ships, three-masted and armed trade ships, for intra-Asian commerce. Japanese adventurers, such as Yamada Nagamasa, were active throughout Asia.

In order to eradicate the influence of Christianization, Japan entered in a period of isolation called sakoku, during which its economy enjoyed stability and mild progress.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13G/W Battery

Economic development during the Edo period included urbanization, increased shipping of commodities, a significant expansion of domestic and, initially, foreign commerce, and a diffusion of trade and handicraft industries. The construction trades flourished, along with banking facilities and merchantassociations. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13T/L Battery

Increasingly, han authorities oversaw the rising agricultural production and the spread of rural handicrafts.

By the mid-eighteenth century, Edo had a population of more than 1 million and Osaka and Kyoto each had more than 400,000 inhabitants. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13T/P Battery

Many other castle towns grew as well. Osaka and Kyoto became busy trading and handicraft production centers, while Edo was the center for the supply of food and essential urban consumer goods.

Rice was the base of the economy, as the daimyo collected the taxes from the peasants in the form of rice. Sony VAIO VGN-CR13T/R Battery

Taxes were high, about 40% of the harvest. The rice was sold at the fudasashi market inEdo. To raise money, the daimyo used forward contracts to sell rice that was not even harvested yet. These contracts were similar to modern futures trading.Sony VAIO VGN-CR13T/W Battery

During the period, Japan progressively studied Western sciences and techniques (called rangaku, literally "Dutch studies") through the information and books received through the Dutch traders inDejima. The main areas that were studied included geography, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, Sony VAIO VGN-CR15/B Battery

physical sciences such as the study of electrical phenomena, and mechanical sciences as exemplified by the development of Japanese clockwatches, or wadokei, inspired from Western techniques.

Prewar period (1868–1945)

Since the mid-19th century, after the Meiji restoration, the country was opened up to Western commerce and influence and Japan has gone through two periods of economic development. Sony VAIO VGN-CR150E/B Battery

The first began in earnest in 1868 and extended through to World War II; the second began in 1945 and continued into the mid-1980s.

Economic developments of the prewar period began with the “Rich State and Strong Army Policy” by the Meiji government. Sony VAIO VGN-CR190 Battery

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan (Oyatoi gaikokujin). Sony VAIO VGN-CR190E/L Battery

The government also built railroads, improved road, and inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country for further development.

To promote industrialization, the government decided that, while it should help private business to allocate resources and to plan, the public sector was best equipped to stimulate economic growth.Sony VAIO VGN-CR190E/P Battery

The greatest role of government was to help provide the economic conditions in which business could flourish. In short, government was to be the guide and business the producer. In the early Meiji period, the government built factories and shipyards that were sold to entrepreneurs at a fraction of their value. Sony VAIO VGN-CR190E/R Battery

Many of these businesses grew rapidly into the larger conglomerates. Government emerged as chief promoter of private enterprise, enacting a series of probusiness policies.

In the mid 1930s, the Japanese nominal wage rates were 10 times less than the one of the U.S (based on mid-1930s exchange rates), while the price level is estimated to have been about 44% the one of the U.S.Sony VAIO VGN-CR190E/W Battery

Postwar period (1945–present)

From the 1960s to the 1980s, overall real economic growth has been called a "miracle": a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s and a 4% average in the 1980s. By the late Eighties, Japan had moved from being a low-wage to a high-wage economy.Sony VAIO VGN-CR19VN/B Battery

Growth slowed markedly in the late 1990s also termed the Lost Decade, largely due to the Bank of Japan's failure to cut interest rates quickly enough to counter after-effects of over-investment during the late 1980s. Some economists believe that because the Bank of Japan failed to cut rates quickly enough, Japan entered a liquidity trap. Sony VAIO VGN-CR19XN/B Battery

Therefore, to keep its economy afloat, Japan ran massive budget deficits (added trillions in Yen to Japanese financial system) to finance large public works programs.

By 1998, Japan's public works projects still could not stimulate demand enough to end the economy's stagnation.Sony VAIO VGN-CR20 Battery

In desperation, the Japanese government undertook "structural reform" policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Unfortunately, these policies led Japan into deflation on numerous occasions between 1999 and 2004.Sony VAIO VGN-CR21/B Battery

In his 1998 paper, Japan's Trap, Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman argued that based on a number of models, Japan had a new option. Krugman's plan called for a rise in inflation expectations to, in effect, cut long-term interest rates and promote spending.Sony VAIO VGN-CR21E/L Battery

Japan used another technique, somewhat based on Krugman's, called Quantitative easing. As opposed to flooding the money supply with newly printed money, the Bank of Japan expanded the money supply internally to raise expectations of inflation. Initially, the policy failed to induce any growth, but it eventually began to affect inflationary expectations. Sony VAIO VGN-CR21E/P Battery

By late 2005, the economy finally began what seems to be a sustained recovery. GDP growth for that year was 2.8%, with an annualized fourth quarter expansion of 5.5%, surpassing the growth rates of the US and European Union during the same period. Sony VAIO VGN-CR21E/W Battery

Unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor of growth.

Despite having interest rates down near zero for a long period of time, the Quantitative easing strategy did not succeed in stopping price deflation.Sony VAIO VGN-CR21S/L Battery

This led some economists, such as Paul Krugman, and some Japanese politicians, to speak of deliberately causing hyperinflation.In July 2006, the zero-rate policy was ended. In 2008, the Japanese Central Bank still has the lowest interest rates in the developed world, deflation has still not been eliminated and the Nikkei 225 has fallen over approximately 50% (between June 2007 and December 2008).Sony VAIO VGN-CR21S/P Battery

The Economist has suggested that improvements to bankruptcy law, land transfer law, and tax laws will aid Japan's economy.

In recent years, Japan has been the top export market for almost 15 trading nations worldwide.Sony VAIO VGN-CR21S/W Battery

Infrastructure

As of 2005, one half of energy in Japan is produced from petroleum, a fifth from coal, and 14% from natural gas. Nuclear power in Japan makes a quarter of electricity production and Japan would like to double it in the next decades.Sony VAIO VGN-CR21Z/N Battery

Japan's road spending has been large.The 1.2 million kilometers of paved road are the main means of transportation.Japan has left-hand traffic. A single network of speed, divided, limited-access toll roads connects major cities and are operated by toll-collecting enterprises. Sony VAIO VGN-CR21Z/R Battery

New and used cars are inexpensive. Car ownership fees and fuel levies are used to promote energy-efficiency.

Dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; for instance, 7 JR enterprises, Kintetsu Corporation,Seibu Railway, and Keio Corporation. Sony VAIO VGN-CR220E/R Battery

Often, strategies of these enterprises contain real estate or department stores next to stations. Some 250 high-speedShinkansen trains connect major cities. All trains are known for punctuality.

There are 176 airports and flying is a popular way to travel between cities. Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/B Battery

The largest domestic airport, Tokyo International Airport, is Asia's busiest airport. The largest international gateways are Narita International Airport (Tokyo area), Kansai International Airport (Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto area), and Ch?bu Centrair International Airport (Nagoya area). The largest ports include Nagoya Port.Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/L Battery

Given its heavy dependence on imported energy, Japan has aimed to diversify its sources. Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, Japan has reduced dependence on petroleum as a source of energy from more than 75% in 1973 to about 57% at present. Other important energy sources are coal, liquefied natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower.Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/N Battery

Demand for oil is also dampened by higher government taxes on automobile engines over 2000 cc, as well as on gasoline itself, currently 54 yen per liter sold retail. Kerosene is also used extensively for home heating in portable heaters, especially farther north. Many taxi companies run their fleets on liquefied gas with tanks in the car trunks. Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/P Battery

A recent success towards greater fuel economy was the introduction of mass-produced Hybrid vehicles. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was working on Japan's economic revival, signed a treaty with Saudi Arabia and UAE about the rising prices of oil.Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/R Battery

Services

Japan's service sector accounts for about three-quarters of its total economic output. Banking, insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries such as Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, NTT, TEPCO, Nomura, Mitsubishi Estate, Tokio Marine, Mitsui Sumitomo, JR East, Seven & I, and Japan Airlines counting as one of the largest companies in the world. Sony VAIO VGN-CR23/W Battery

The Koizumi government set Japan Post, one of the country's largest providers of savings and insurance services for privatization by 2014. The six major keiretsus are the Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Fuyo, Mitsui, Dai-Ichi Kangyo and Sanwa Groups. Japan is home to 326 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 or 16.3% (as of 2006).Sony VAIO VGN-CR240E/B Battery

Industry

Japanese manufacturing is very diversified, with a variety of advanced industries that are highly successful.

Industry is concentrated in several regions, in the following order of importance: the Kant? region surrounding Tokyo, especially the prefectures of Chiba,Kanagawa, Saitama and Tokyo (the Keihin industrial region);Sony VAIO VGN-CR240N/B Battery

the T?kai region, including Aichi, Gifu, Mie, and Shizuoka prefectures (the Chukyo-Tokai industrial region); Kinki (Kansai), including Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, (the Hanshin industrial region); the southwestern part of Honsh? and northern Shikokuaround the Seto Inland Sea (the Setouchi industrial region);Sony VAIO VGN-CR25G/N Battery

and the northern part of Ky?sh? (Kitaky?sh?). In addition, a long narrow belt of industrial centers is found between Tokyo and Fukuoka, established by particular industries, that have developed as mill towns.Sony VAIO VGN-CR290EAL Battery

The fields in which Japan enjoys high technological development include consumer electronics, automobile manufacturing, semiconductormanufacturing, optical fibers, optoelectronics, optical media, facsimile and copy machines, and fermentation processes in food and biochemistry.Sony VAIO VGN-CR290EAN Battery

Agriculture

Only 12% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Due to this lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an overall agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than 56,000 km² (14 million acres) cultivated.Sony VAIO VGN-CR290EAP Battery

Japan's small agricultural sector, however, is also highly subsidized and protected, with government regulations that favor small-scale cultivation instead of large-scale agriculture as practiced in North America.

Imported rice, the most protected crop, is subject to tariffs of 490% and was restricted to a quota of only 7.2% of average rice consumption from 1968 to 1988. Sony VAIO VGN-CR290EAR Battery

Imports beyond the quota are unrestricted in legal terms, but subject to a 341 yen per kilogram tariff. This tariff is now estimated at 490%, but the rate will soar to a massive 778% under new calculation rules to be introduced as part of the Doha Round. Sony VAIO VGN-CR290EAW Battery

Although Japan is usually self-sufficient in rice (except for its use in making rice crackers and processed foods) and wheat, the country must import about 50%  of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops and relies on imports for most of its supply of meat. Sony VAIO VGN-CR29XN/B Battery

Japan imports large quantities of wheat,sorghum, and soybeans, primarily from the United States. Japan is the largest market for EU agricultural exports. Apples are also grown, mostly in Tohokuand Hokkaid?; Pears and Oranges are mainly grown in Shikoku and in Ky?sh?. Sony VAIO VGN-CR305E/RC Battery

Pears and oranges were first introduced by Dutch traders, in Nagasaki in the late 18th century.

Fishery

Japan ranked second in the world behind the People's Republic of China in tonnage of fish caught—11.9 million tons in 1989, up slightly from 11.1 million tons in 1980. Sony VAIO VGN-CR31S/D Battery

After the 1973 energy crisis, deep-sea fishing in Japan declined, with the annual catch in the 1980s averaging 2 million tons. Offshore fisheries accounted for an average of 50 % of the nation's total fish catches in the late 1980s although they experienced repeated ups and downs during that period.Sony VAIO VGN-CR323/W Battery

Coastal fishing by small boats, set nets, or breeding techniques accounts for about one third of the industry's total production, while offshore fishing by medium-sized boats makes up for more than half the total production. Deep-sea fishing from larger vessels makes up the rest.Sony VAIO VGN-CR33 Battery

Among the many species of seafood caught are sardines, skipjack tuna, crab, shrimp, salmon, pollock, squid, clams, mackerel, sea bream, saury, tuna and Japanese amberjack. Freshwater fishing takes up about 30% of Japan's fishing industry. Among the species of fish caught in the rivers of Japan are many different types and some freshwater crustaceans.Sony VAIO VGN-CR382 Battery

Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch, prompting some claims that Japan's fishing is leading to depletion in fish stocks such astuna. Japan has also sparked controversy by supporting quasi-commercial whaling.Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBL Battery

Labor force

The claimed unemployment rate for June 2009 is 5.2% (5.4% male (up 0.1% from May 2009), 4.9% female (up 0.3% from May 2009)).This is regarded as an under-estimate. Even part-time workers with extremely low hours are classified as employed.Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBN Battery

In July 2006, the unemployment rate in Japan was 4.1%, according to the OECD. At the end of February 2009, it stood at 4.4%  This seemingly modest rate however understates the situation. According to The Economist, the ratio of job offers to number of applicants has declined to just 0.59, from almost 1 at the start of 2008, while average work hours also declined. Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBP Battery

Average wages also went down by 2.9% over the 12 months ending in February. In 2008, Japan's labor forceconsisted of some 66 million workers—40% of whom were women—and was rapidly shrinking.

One major long-term concern for the Japanese labor force is a low birthrate. Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBR Battery

In the first half of 2005, the number of deaths in Japan exceeded the number of births, indicating that the decline in population, initially predicted to start in 2007, had already started. While one countermeasure for a declining birthrate would be to remove barriers to immigration, the Japanese government has been reluctant to do so.Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBT Battery

In 1989, the predominantly public sector union confederation, SOHYO (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan), merged with RENGO (Japanese Private Sector Trade Union Confederation) to form the Japanese Trade Union Confederation. Labor union membership is about 12 million.Sony VAIO VGN-CR490EBW Battery

Law and government

Japan ranks 15th of 183 countries in the Ease of Doing Business Index 2010.

Japan has one of the smallest tax rates in the developed world. After deductions, the majority of workers are free from personal income taxes. Value-added tax rate is only 5%, while corporate tax rates are high.Sony VAIO VGN-CR50B/W Battery

Shareholder activism is rare despite the fact that the corporate law gives shareholders strong powers over managers. Recently, more shareholders have stood up against managers.

The government's liabilities include the second largest public debt of any nation. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the situation 'urgent'. Sony VAIO VGN-CR51B/W Battery

Japan's central bank has the second largest foreign-exchange reserves after People's Republic of China.

Overview

Nemawashi (???) in Japanese culture is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. Sony VAIO VGN-CR520E/J Battery

It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides.

Japanese companies are known for management methods such as "The Toyota Way". Kaizen (??, Japanese for "improvement") is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life.Sony VAIO VGN-CR52B/W Battery

When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line workers.By improving standardized activities and processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste (see Lean manufacturing). Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBL Battery

Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses during the country's recovery after World War II, including Toyota, and has since spread to businesses throughout the world. Ironically, Japanese workers work amongst the most hours per day even though kaizen is supposed to improve all aspects of life.Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBN Battery

Some companies have powerful enterprise unions and shunt?.

The Nenko System or Nenko Joretsu as it is called in Japan, is the Japanese system of promoting an employee in order of his or her proximity to retirement. Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBP Battery

The advantage of the system is that it allows older employees to achieve a higher salary level before retirement and that it usually brings more experience to the executive ranks. The disadvantage of the system is that it does not allow new talent to be merged with the experience and those with specialized skills cannot be promoted to the already crowded executive ranks. Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBR Battery

It also does not guarantee or even attempt to bring the "right person for the right job".

Relationships between government bureaucrats and companies are often cozy. Amakudari (??? amakudari^?, "descent from heaven") is the institutionalised practice where Japanese senior bureaucrats retire to high-profile positions in the private and public sectors. Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBT Battery

The practice is increasingly viewed as corrupt and a drag on unfastening the ties between private sector and state which prevent economic and political reforms.

Lifetime employment (shushin koyo) and seniority-based career advancement have been common in the Japanese work environment.Sony VAIO VGN-CR590EBW Battery

Recently, Japan has begun to gradually move away from some of these norms.

Salaryman (?????? Sarar?man^?, salaried man) refers to someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Sony VAIO VGN-CR60B/L Battery

Its frequent use by Japanese corporations, and its prevalence in Japanese manga and anime has gradually led to its acceptance in English-speaking countries as a noun for a Japanese white-collar businessman. The word can be found in many books and articles pertaining to Japanese culture. Sony VAIO VGN-CR60B/P Battery

Immediately following World War II, becoming a salaryman was viewed as a gateway to a stable, middle-class lifestyle. In modern use, the term carries associations of long working hours, low prestige in the corporate hierarchy, absence of significant sources of income other than salary, wage slavery, and kar?shi. The term salaryman refers almost exclusively to males.Sony VAIO VGN-CR60B/R Battery

An office lady, often abbreviated OL (Japanese: ???? ?eru), is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally pink collar tasks such as serving tea and secretarial or clerical work. Like many unmarried Japanese, OLs often live with their parents well into early adulthood. Sony VAIO VGN-CR61B/L Battery

Office ladies are usually full-time permanent staff, although the jobs they do usually have little opportunity forpromotion, and there is usually the tacit expectation that they leave their jobs once they get married.

Freeter (????? fur?t?^?) (other spellings below) is a Japanese expression for people between the age of 15 and 34 who lack full time employment or are unemployed, excluding homemakers and students. Sony VAIO VGN-CR61B/N Battery

They may also be described as underemployed or freelance workers. These people do not start a career after high school or university but instead usually live as parasite singles with their parents and earn some money with low skilled and low paid jobs.Sony VAIO VGN-CR61B/P Battery

The low income makes it difficult for freeters to start a family, and the lack of qualifications makes it difficult to start a career at a later point in life.

Kar?shi (??? kar?shi^?), which can be translated quite literally from Japanese as "death from overwork", is occupational sudden death. The major medical causes of kar?shi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.Sony VAIO VGN-CR61B/R Battery

S?kaiya (??? s?kaiya^?), (sometimes also translated as corporate bouncers, meeting-men, or corporate blackmailers) are a form of specialized racketeer unique to Japan, and often associated with the yakuza that extort money from or blackmail companies by threatening to publicly humiliate companies and their management, usually in their annual meeting (?? s?kai^?).Sony VAIO VGN-CR62B/L Battery

Sarakin (???^?) is a Japanese term for moneylender, or loan shark. It is a contraction of the Japanese words for salaryman and cash. Around 14 million people, or 10% of the Japanese population, have borrowed from a sarakin. In total, there are about 10,000 firms (down from 30,000 a decade ago); however, the top seven firms make up 70% of the market. Sony VAIO VGN-CR62B/N Battery

The value of outstanding loans totals $100 billion. The biggest sarakin are publicly traded and often allied with big banks.

The first "Western-style" department store in Japan was Mitsukoshi, founded in 1904, which has its root as a kimono store called Echigoya from 1673. Sony VAIO VGN-CR62B/P Battery

When the roots are considered, however,Matsuzakaya has an even longer history, dated from 1611. The kimono store changed to a department store in 1910. In 1924, Matsuzakaya store in Ginza allowed street shoes to be worn indoors, something innovative at the time. Sony VAIO VGN-CR62B/R Battery

These former kimono shop department stores dominated the market in its earlier history. They sold, or rather displayed, luxurious products, which contributed for their sophisticated atmospheres. Another origin of Japanese department store is that from railway company.Sony VAIO VGN-CR70B/W Battery

There have been many private railway operators in the nation, and from 1920s, they started to build department stores directly linked to their lines' termini. Seibu and Hankyu are the typical examples of this type.

From the 1980s onwards, Japanese department stores face fierce competition from supermarkets and convenience stores, gradually losing their presences. Sony VAIO VGN-CR71B/W Battery

Still, dep?to are bastions of several aspects of cultural conservatism in the country. Gift certificates for prestigious department stores are frequently given as formal presents in Japan. Department stores in Japan generally offer a wide range of services and can include foreign exchange, travel reservations, ticket sales for local concerts and other events.Sony VAIO VGN-CR72B/W Battery

Keiretsu

A keiretsu (??^?, lit. system or series) is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. The prototypical keiretsu are those which appeared in Japan during the "economic miracle" following World War II.Sony VAIO VGN-CR90HS Battery

Before Japan's surrender, Japanese industry was controlled by large family-controlled vertical monopolies called zaibatsu. TheAllies dismantled the zaibatsu in the late 1940s, but the companies formed from the dismantling of the zaibatsu were reintegrated. Sony VAIO VGN-CR90NS Battery

The dispersed corporations were re-interlinked through share purchases to form horizontally-integrated alliances across many industries. Where possible, keiretsu companies would also supply one another, making the alliances vertically integrated as well. Sony VAIO VGN-CR90S Battery

In this period, official government policy promoted the creation of robust trade corporations which could withstand heavy pressures from intensified world trade competition.

The major keiretsu were each centered around one bank, which lent money to the keiretsu's member companies and held equity positions in the companies.Sony VAIO VGN-CR92HS Battery

Each central bank had great control over the companies in the keiretsu and acted as a monitoring entity and as an emergency bail-out entity. One effect of this structure was to minimize the presence of hostile takeovers in Japan, because no entities could challenge the power of the banks.Sony VAIO VGN-CR92NS Battery

There are two types of keiretsu: vertical and horizontal. Vertical keiretsu illustrates the organization and relationships within a company (for example all factors of production of a certain product will be connected), while a horizontal keiretsu shows relationships between entities and industries, Sony VAIO VGN-CR92S Battery

normally centered around a bank and trading company. Both are complexly woven together and self-sustain each other.

The Japanese recession in the 1990s had profound effects on the keiretsu. Many of the largest banks were hit hard by bad loan portfolios and forced to merge or go out of business. Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/Q Battery

This had the effect of blurring the lines between the keiretsu: Sumitomo Bank and Mitsui Bank, for instance, became Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in 2001, while Sanwa Bank (the banker for the Hankyu-Toho Group) became part of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/R Battery

Additionally, many companies from outside the keiretsu system, such as Sony, began outperforming their counterparts within the system.

Generally, these causes gave rise to a strong notion in the business community that the old keiretsu system was not an effective business model, and led to an overall loosening of keiretsu alliances. Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/W Battery

While the keiretsu still exist, they are not as centralized or integrated as they were before the 1990s. This, in turn, has led to a growing corporate acquisition industry in Japan, as companies are no longer able to be easily "bailed out" by their banks, as well as rising derivative litigation by more independent shareholders.Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/P Battery

Current economic issues

The Koizumi administration, which held office until 2006, enacted or attempted to pass (sometimes with failure) major privatization and foreign-investment laws intended to help stimulate Japan's economy.Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/Q Battery

Although the effectiveness of these laws is still ambiguous, the economy has begun to respond, but Japan's aging population is expected to place further strain on growth in the near future.

Keynesian economists tend to claim that Japan's economy is far stronger than generally believed.Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/W Battery

Some mainstream economists acknowledge that Japan, which unlike most developed countries has maintained its industrial base, and has vast capital reserves, currently has a strong economic outlook.

The privatization of Japan Post, the Japanese postal system which also runs insurance and deposit-taking businesses, is a major issue.Sony VAIO VGN-CS11Z/R Battery

A political battle over privatization caused a political stalemate in August 2005, and ultimately led to the dissolution of the Japanese House of Representatives. The Postal Savings deposits, which have until now been used to fund public works projects, many of which have had questionable economic value,Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/P Battery

stands in excess of $1.9 trillion, and could be a major force in energizing the private sector.

The Japanese monetary authorities' continued desire to depress the price of the Japanese yen relative to other key specific currencies to protect domestic business from imports may no longer be feasible. Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/Q Battery

The most recent record intervention in 2003 amounted to over 17 trillion yen, more than one third of one trillion US dollars at the time and nearly 3% of Japan's 2003 GDP, being sold in favor of other non-yen denominated assets. However, since 2005, Japan has not directly intervened to buy currency, as yen carry trade has effectively carried out the same task.Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/R Battery

Interestingly, international trade has expanded by 60% from 91.4 trillion yen to 142.6 trillion yen from 2001 to 2006. Taking in account the economic participation rate, Japan's GDP per worker has increased steadily.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development downgraded its economic forecasts on March 20, 2008 for the Japan for the first half of 2008. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTB Battery

Japan does not have room to ease fiscal or monetary policy, the 30-nation group warned. For Japan, the OECD said the pace of underlying growth appears to be softening despite support from buoyant neighboring Asian economies. The organization expects first-quarter GDP to be up 0.3 percent and predicts a rise of 0.2 in the second quarter.Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTP Battery

On November 17, 2008, Japanese government officials announced that the economy was in a recession. It was reported that Japan's economy contracted at an annual pace of 1.8% in the third quarter of 2008. It is forecasted to have shrunk 0.8% through the fiscal year that ends March 2009. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTQ Battery

In July 2009 unemployment reached a post-war high of 5.7 per cent, according to the Japan Times. Although the economy is recovering in 2010 levels of public debt remain extremely high, approaching 226% of GDP. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTR Battery

On March 17, 2010 the Bank of Japan moved to boost yen reserves for 3-month bank loans to 20 trillion yen, although economists such as Richard Koo of the Nomura Research Institute see this as a move merely to please the Democratic Party of Japan because, Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTW Battery

as no money is leaving the financial system, there will be no impact on long term rates in either the ordinary market or the Foreign exchange market. As a result of this the foreign press and the International Monetary Fund believe Japan should be doing more to help its economy recover.Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAB Battery

In August 2010 the yen hit a 15-year high against the US dollar in nominal terms.In real exchange rate terms, however, the yen was still valued at less than its average since 1990.Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAC Battery

The economic history of Japan is one of the most studied for its spectacular growth after the Meiji Restoration when it became the first non-European Power and after the Second World War when the island nation rose to become the world's second largest economy.Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAD Battery

Renaissance Europeans were quite admiring of Japan when they reached the country in the 16th century. Japan was considered as a country immensely rich in precious metals, mainly owing to Marco Polo's accounts of gilded temples and palaces, but also due to the relative abundance of surface ores characteristic of a volcanic country,Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NBB Battery

before large-scale deep-mining became possible in Industrial times. Japan was to become a major exporter of copper and silver during the period.

Japan was also perceived as a sophisticated feudal society with a high culture and a strong pre-industrial technology. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCA Battery

It was densely populated and urbanized. Prominent European observers of the time seemed to agree that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well" (Alessandro Valignano, 1584, "Historia del Principo y Progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias Orientales).Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCB Battery

Early European visitors were amazed by the quality of Japanese craftsmanship and metalsmithing. This stems from the fact that Japan itself is rather poor in natural resources found commonly in Europe, especially iron. Thus, the Japanese were famously frugal with their consumable resources; what little they had they used with expert skill.Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCC Battery

Trade with Europe

The cargo of the first Portuguese ships (usually about 4 smaller-sized ships every year) arriving in Japan almost entirely consisted of Chinese goods (silk, porcelain). The Japanese were very much looking forward to acquiring such goods, but had been prohibited from any contacts with the Emperor of China, as a punishment for Wak? pirate raids. Sony VAIO VGN-CS50B/W Battery

The Portuguese (who were calledNanban, lit. Southern Barbarians) therefore found the opportunity to act as intermediaries in Asian trade.

From the time of the acquisition of Macau in 1557, and their formal recognition as trade partners by the Chinese, Sony VAIO VGN-CS51B/W Battery

the Portuguese Crown started to regulate trade to Japan, by selling to the highest bidder the annual "Capitaincy" to Japan, in effect conferring exclusive trading rights for a single carrack bound for Japan every year. The carracks were very large ships, usually between 1000 and 1500 tons, about double or triple the size of a large galleon or junk.Sony VAIO VGN-CS52JB/W Battery

That trade continued with few interruptions until 1638, when it was prohibited on the ground that the ships were smuggling priests into Japan.

Portuguese trade was progressively more and more challenged by Chinese smugglers on junks, Japanese Red Seal Ships from around 1592 (about ten ships every year),Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/P Battery

Spanish ships from Manila from around 1600 (about one ship a year), the Dutch from 1609, the English from 1613 (about one ship per year).

The Dutch, who, rather than "Nanban" were called "K?m?" (Jp:??, lit. "Red Hair") by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, onbard the Liefde. Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/Q Battery

Their pilot wasWilliam Adams , the first Englishman to reach Japan. In 1605, two of the Liefde's crew were sent to Pattani by Tokugawa Ieyasu, to invite Dutch trade to Japan. The head of the Pattani Dutch trading post, Victor Sprinckel, refused on the ground that he was too busy dealing with Portuguese opposition in Southeast Asia. Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/R Battery

In 1609 however, the Dutch Jacques Specx arrived with two ships in Hirado, and through Adams obtained trading privileges from Ieyasu.

The Dutch also engaged in piracy and naval combat to weaken Portuguese and Spanish shipping in the Pacific, and ultimately became the only westerners to be allowed access to Japan from the small enclave of Dejima after 1638 and for the next two centuries.Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/P Battery

Edo period

The beginning of the Edo period coincides with the last decades of the Nanban trade period, during which intense interaction with European powers, on the economic and religious plane, took place. Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/Q Battery

It is at the beginning of the Edo period that Japan built her first ocean-going Western-style warships, such as theSan Juan Bautista, a 500-ton galleon-type ship that transported a Japanese embassy headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas, which then continued to Europe. Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/R Battery

Also during that period, the bakufu commissioned around 350 Red Seal Ships, three-masted and armed trade ships, for intra-Asian commerce. Japanese adventurers, such as Yamada Nagamasa, were active throughout Asia.

In order to eradicate the influence of Christianization, Japan entered in a period of isolation called sakoku, during which its economy enjoyed stability and mild progress.Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/P Battery

Economic development during the Edo period included urbanization, increased shipping of commodities, a significant expansion of domestic and, initially, foreign commerce, and a diffusion of trade and handicraft industries. The construction trades flourished, along with banking facilities and merchant associations. Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/Q Battery

Increasingly, han authorities oversaw the rising agricultural production and the spread of rural handicrafts.

By the mid-18th century, Edo had a population of more than 1 million and Osaka and Kyoto each had more than 400,000 inhabitants. Many other castle towns grew as well. Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/R Battery

Osaka and Kyoto became busy trading and handicraft production centers, while Edo was the center for the supply of food and essential urban consumer goods.

Rice was the base of the economy, as the daimyo collected the taxes from the peasants in the form of rice. Sony VAIO VGN-CS71B/W Battery

Taxes were high, about 40% of the harvest. The rice was sold at the fudasashi market in Edo. To raise money, the daimyo used forward contracts to sell rice that was not even harvested yet. These contracts were similar to modern futures trading.Sony VAIO VGN-CS72JB/W Battery

During the period, Japan progressively studied Western sciences and techniques (called rangaku, literally "Dutch studies") through the information and books received through the Dutch traders in Dejima. The main areas that were studied included geography,Sony VAIO VGN-CS90HS Battery

medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physical sciences such as the study of electrical phenomena, and mechanical sciences as exemplified by the development of Japanese clockwatches, or wadokei, inspired from Western techniques.Sony VAIO VGN-CS90NS Battery

Prewar period

Since 1854, when the Tokugawa shogunate first opened the country to Western commerce and influence (Bakumatsu), Japan has gone through two periods of economic development. Sony VAIO VGN-CS90S Battery

When Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and Meiji government was founded, Japanese Westernization began completely. The first term is during Prewar Japan, the second term is Postwar Japan.

In the Meiji period, leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe,Sony VAIO VGN-CS91HS Battery

and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan (O-yatoi gaikokujin). The government also builtrailroads, improved roads, and inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country for further development.Sony VAIO VGN-CS91NS Battery

To promote industrialization, the government decided that, while it should help private business to allocate resources and to plan, the private sector was best equipped to stimulate economic growth. The greatest role of government was to help provide the economic conditions in which business could flourish. Sony VAIO VGN-CS91S Battery

In short, government was to be the guide and business the producer. In the early Meiji period, the government built factories and shipyards that were sold to entrepreneurs at a fraction of their value. Many of these businesses grew rapidly into the largerconglomerates.Sony VAIO VGN-CS92DS Battery

Government emerged as chief promoter of private enterprise, enacting a series of probusiness policies.

The development of banking and reliance on bank funding have been at the centre of Japanese economic development at least since the Meiji era.Sony VAIO VGN-CS92JS Battery

In the mid 1930s, the Japanese nominal wage rates were 10 times less than the one of the U.S (based on mid-1930s exchange rates), while the price level is estimated to have been about 44% the one of the U.S.

Militarism

Before World War II, Japan built an extensive empire that included Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, and parts of northern China.Sony VAIO VGN-CS92XS Battery

The Japanese regarded this sphere of influence as a political and economic necessity, preventing foreign states from strangling Japan by blocking its access to raw materials and crucial sea-lanes, as Japan possessed very few natural and mining resources of it own, although it imported large amounts of coal from Chosen,Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E Battery

Manchukuo, and some regions of occupied China. Japan's large military force was regarded as essential to the empire's defense.

Rapid growth and structural change characterized Japan's two periods of economic development since 1868. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11L Battery

In the first period, the economy grew only moderately at first and relied heavily on traditional agriculture to finance modern industrial infrastructure. When the Russo-Japanese War began in 1904, 65% of employment and 38% of the gross domestic product (GDP) was still based on agriculturebut modern industry had begun to expand substantially. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Battery

During World War I, Japan used the absence of the war-torn European competitors on the world market to advance its economy, generating atrade surplus for the first time since the isolation in the Edo period. By the late 1920s, manufacturing and mining contributed 23% of GDP, compared with 21% for all of agriculture. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S Battery

Transportation andcommunications had developed to sustain heavy industrial development.

In the 1930s, the Japanese economy suffered less from the Great Depression than most industrialized nations, expanding at the rapid rate of 5% of GDP per year. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11ZU Battery

Manufacturing and mining came to account for more than 30% of GDP, more than twice the value for the agricultural sector. Most industrial growth, however, was geared toward expanding the nation's military power.

Beginning in 1937 with significant land seizures in China, and to a much greater extent after 1941, Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E/H Battery

when annexations and invasions across Southeast Asia and the Pacific created the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese government sought to acquire and develop critical natural resources in order to secure economic independence. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140AE Battery

Among the natural resources Japan seized and developed were coal in China, sugarcane in the Philippines, petroleum from the Dutch East Indies and Burma, and tin and bauxite from the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Japan also purchased the rice production of Thailand, Burma, and Cochinchina.Sony VAIO VGN-FW140D Battery

During the early stages of Japan's expansion, the Japanese economy expanded considerably. Steel production rose from 6,442,000 tonnes to 8,838,000 tonnes over the same time period. In 1941 Japanese aircraft industries had capacity to manufacture 10,000 aircraft per year. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E Battery

Much of this economic expansion benefited the "zaibatsu", large industrial conglomerates.

Over the course of the Pacific War, the economies of Japan and its occupied territories all suffered severely.Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/H Battery

Inflation was rampant; Japanese heavy industry, forced to devote nearly all its production to meeting military needs, was unable to meet the commercial requirements of Japan (which had previously relied on trade with Western countries for their manufactured goods). Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/W Battery

Local industries were unable to produce at high enough levels to avoid severe shortfalls. Furthermore, maritime trade, upon which the Empire depended greatly, was sharply curtailed by damage to the Japanese merchant fleet over the course of the war.

By the end of the war, what remained of the Japanese Empire was wracked by shortages, inflation, and currency devaluation.Sony VAIO VGN-FW140FE Battery

Transport was nearly impossible, and industrial production in Japan's shattered cities ground to a halt. The destruction wrought by the war eventually brought the Japanese economy to a virtual standstill.

Postwar period

World War II wiped out many of the gains Japan had made since 1868. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140N Battery

About 40% of the nation's industrial plants and infrastructure were destroyed, and production reverted to levels of about fifteen years earlier. The people were shocked by the devastation and swung into action. New factories were equipped with the best modern machines, giving Japan an initial competitive advantage over the victor states, who now had older factories. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140N/W Battery

As Japan's second period of economic development began, millions of former soldiers joined a well-disciplined and highly educated work force to rebuild Japan. Japan's colonies were lost as a result of World War II, but since then the Japanese had extended their economic influence throughout Asia and beyond.Sony VAIO VGN-FW145E Battery

Occupation

The United States occupation of Japan (1945–52) resulted in the rebuilding of the nation and the creation of a democratic state. United States assistance totaled about US$1.9 billion during the occupation, or about 15% of the nation's imports and 4% of GNP in that period. Sony VAIO VGN-FW145E/W Battery

About 59% of this aid was in the form of food, 15% in industrial materials, and 12% in transportation equipment. United States grant assistance, however, tapered off quickly in the mid-1950s. United States military procurement from Japan peaked at a level equivalent to 7% of Japan's GNP in 1953 and fell below 1% after 1960. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160AE Battery

A variety of United States-sponsored measures during the occupation, such as land reform, contributed to the economy's later performance by increasing competition. In particular, the postwar purge of industrial leaders allowed new talent to rise in the management of the nation's rebuilt industries. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160D Battery

Finally, the economy benefited from foreign trade because it was able to expand exports rapidly enough to pay for imports of equipment and technology without falling into debt, as had a number of developing nations in the 1980s.

Rebuilding

The early postwar years were devoted to rebuilding lost industrial capacity: major investments were made in electric power, coal, iron, steel, and chemical fertilizers. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160E Battery

By the mid-1950s, production matched prewar levels. Released from the demands of military-dominated government, the economy not only recovered its lost momentum but also surpassed the growth rates of earlier periods. Between 1953 and 1965, GDP expanded by more than 9% per year, manufacturing and mining by 13%, construction by 11%, and infrastructure by 12%.Sony VAIO VGN-FW160E/H Battery

In 1965 these sectors employed more than 41% of the labor force, whereas only 26% remained in agriculture.

Japan's highly acclaimed postwar education system contributed strongly to the modernizing process. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160F/E Battery

The world's highest literacy rate and high education standards were major reasons for Japan's success in achieving a technologically advanced economy. Japanese schools also encouraged discipline, another benefit in forming an effective work force.Sony VAIO VGN-FW170J/H Battery

The mid-1960s ushered in a new type of industrial development as the economy opened itself to international competition in some industries and developed heavy and chemical manufactures. Whereastextiles and light manufactures maintained their profitability internationally, other products, such as automobiles, ships, and machine tools assumed new importance.Sony VAIO VGN-FW180AE Battery

The value added to manufacturing and mining grew at the rate of 17% per year between 1965 and 1970. Growth rates moderated to about 8% and evened out between the industrial and service sectors between 1970 and 1973, as retail trade, finance, real estate, information, and other service industries streamlined their operations.Sony VAIO VGN-FW180D Battery

Oil crisis

Japan faced a severe economic challenge in the mid-1970s. The world oil crisis in 1973 shocked an economy that had become virtually dependent on foreign petroleum. Japan experienced its first postwar decline in industrial production, together with severe price inflation.Sony VAIO VGN-FW180E Battery

The recovery that followed the first oil crisis revived the optimism of most business leaders, but the maintenance of industrial growth in the face of high energy costs required shifts in the industrial structure.

Changing price conditions favored conservation and alternative sources of industrial energy. Sony VAIO VGN-FW180E/H Battery

Although the investment costs were high, many energy-intensive industries successfully reduced their dependence on oil during the late 1970s and 1980s and enhanced their productivity. Advances in microcircuitry and semiconductors in the late 1970s and 1980s led to new growth industries inconsumer electronics and computers, and to higher productivity in pre-established industries.Sony VAIO VGN-FW180FU Battery

The net result of these adjustments was to increase the energy efficiency of manufacturing and to expand so-called knowledge-intensive industries. The service industries expanded in an increasingly postindustrial economy.Sony VAIO VGN-FW190EBH Battery

Structural economic changes, however, were unable to check the slowing of economic growth as the economy matured in the late 1970s and 1980s, attaining annual growth rates at only 4 to 6%. But these rates were remarkable in a world of expensive petroleum and in a nation of few domestic resources. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190ECH Battery

Japan's average growth rate of 5% in the late 1980s, for example, was far higher than the 3.8% growth rate of the United States. Despite more petroleum price increases in 1979, the strength of the Japanese economy was apparent. It expanded without the double-digit inflation that afflicted other industrial nations (and that had bothered Japan itself after the first oil crisis in 1973). Sony VAIO VGN-FW190EDH Battery

Japan experienced slower growth in the mid-1980s, but its demand-sustained economic boom of the late 1980s revived many troubled industries.

Factors of growth

Complex economic and institutional factors affected Japan's postwar growth. First, the nation's prewar experience provided several important legacies. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190NAH Battery

The Tokugawa period (1600–1867) bequeathed avital commercial sector in burgeoning urban centers, a relatively well-educated elite (although one with limited knowledge of European science), a sophisticated government bureaucracy, productiveagriculture, a closely unified nation with highly developed financial and marketing systems, and a national infrastructure of roads. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190NBH Battery

The buildup of industry during the Meiji period to the point where Japan could vie for world power was an important prelude to postwar growth from 1955 to 1973 ^[5] and provided a pool of experienced labor following World War II.

Second, and more important, was the level and quality of investment that persisted through the 1980s. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190NCH Battery

Investment in capital equipment, which averaged more than 11% of GNP during the prewar period, rose to about 20% of GNP during the 1950s and to more than 30% in the late 1960s and 1970s. During the economic boom of the late 1980s, the rate still hovered around 20%.Sony VAIO VGN-FW190NDH Battery

Japanese businesses imported the latest technologies to develop the industrial base. As a latecomer to modernization, Japan was able to avoid some of the trial and error earlier needed by other nations to develop industrial processes. In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan improved its industrial base through technology licensing, Sony VAIO VGN-FW190NEH Battery

patent purchases, and imitation and improvement of foreign inventions. In the 1980s, industry stepped up its research and development, and many firms became famous for their innovations and creativity.

Japan's labor force contributed significantly to economic growth, not only because of its availability and literacy but also because of its reasonable wage demands.Sony VAIO VGN-FW198U/H Battery

Before and immediately after World War II, the transfer of numerous agricultural workers to modern industry resulted in rising productivity and only moderate wage increases. As population growth slowed and the nation became increasingly industrialized in the mid-1960s, wages rose significantly. Sony VAIO VGN-FW260J/B Battery

However, labor union cooperation generally kept salary increases within the range of gains in productivity.

High productivity growth played a key role in postwar economic growth. The highly skilled and educated labor force, extraordinary savings rates and accompanying levels of investment, and the low growth of Japan's labor force were major factors in the high rate of productivity growth.Sony VAIO VGN-FW280J/H Battery

The nation has also benefited from economies of scale. Although medium-sized and small enterprises generated much of the nation's employment, large facilities were the most productive. Many industrial enterprises consolidated to form larger, more efficient units.Sony VAIO VGN-FW290JRB Battery

Before World War II, large holding companies formed wealth groups, or zaibatsu, which dominated most industry. The zaibatsu were dissolved after the war, but keiretsu—large, modern industrial enterprise groupings—emerged. The coordination of activities within these groupings and the integration of smaller subcontractors into the groups enhanced industrial efficiency.Sony VAIO VGN-FW290JTB Battery

Japanese corporations developed strategies that contributed to their immense growth. Growth-oriented corporations that took chances competed successfully. Product diversification became an essential ingredient of the growth patterns of many keiretsu. Japanese companies added plant and human capacity ahead of demand.Sony VAIO VGN-FW290JTH Battery

Seeking market share rather than quick profit was another powerful strategy.

Finally, circumstances beyond Japan's direct control contributed to its success. International conflicts tended to stimulate the Japanese economy until the devastation at the end of World War II. Sony VAIO VGN-FW290JTW Battery

TheRusso-Japanese War (1904-5), World War I (1914–18), the Korean War (1950–53), and the Second Indochina War (1954–75) brought economic booms to Japan. In addition, benign treatment from the United States after World War II facilitated the nation's reconstruction and growth.Sony VAIO VGN-FW355J/H Battery

The Evolving Occupational Structure

As late as 1955, some 40% of the labor force still worked in agriculture, but this figure had declined to 17% by 1970 and to 7.2% by 1990. The government estimated in the late 1980s that this figure would decline to 4.9% by 2000, as Japan imported more and more of its food and small family farms disappeared.Sony VAIO VGN-FW373J/B Battery

Japan's economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s was based on the rapid expansion of heavy manufacturing in such areas as automobiles, steel, shipbuilding, chemicals, and electronics. The secondary sector (manufacturing, construction, and mining) expanded to 35.6% of the work force by 1970.Sony VAIO VGN-FW30B Battery

By the late 1970s, however, the Japanese economy began to move away from heavy manufacturing toward a more service-oriented (tertiary sector) base. During the 1980s, jobs in wholesaling, retailing, finance, insurance, real estate, Sony VAIO VGN-FW50B Battery

transportation, communications, and governmentgrew rapidly, while secondary-sector employment remained stable. The tertiary sector grew from 47% of the work force in 1970 to 59.2% in 1990.

1980s

Throughout the 1970s, Japan had the world's second largest gross national product (GNP)—just behind the United States— and ranked first among major industrial nations in 1990 in per capita GNP at US$23,801,Sony VAIO VGN-FW51B/W Battery

up sharply from US$9,068 in 1980. After a mild economic slump in the mid-1980s, Japan's economy began a period of expansion in 1986 that continued until it again entered a recessionary period in 1992. Economic growth averaging 5% between 1987 and 1989 revived industries, Sony VAIO VGN-FW51MF Battery

such as steel and construction, which had been relatively dormant in the mid-1980s, and brought record salaries and employment. In 1992, however, Japan's real GNP growth slowed to 1.7%. Even industries such as automobiles and electronics that had experienced phenomenal growth in the 1980s entered a recessionary period in 1992. Sony VAIO VGN-FW51MF/H Battery

The domestic market for Japanese automobiles shrank at the same time that Japan's share of the United States' market declined. Foreign and domestic demand for Japanese electronics also declined, and Japan seemed on the way to losing its leadership in the world semiconductor market to the United States, Korea and Taiwan.Sony VAIO VGN-FW51ZF Battery

Unlike the economic booms of the 1960s and 1970s, when increasing exports played the key role in economic expansion, domestic demand propelled the Japanese economy in the late 1980s. This development involved fundamental economic restructuring, moving from dependence on exports to reliance on domestic demand. Sony VAIO VGN-FW51ZF/H Battery

The boom that started in 1986 was generated by the decisions of companies to increase private plant and equipment spending and of consumers to go on a buying spree. Japan's imports grew at a faster rate than exports. Japanese postwar technological researchwas carried out for the sake of economic growth rather than military development. Sony VAIO VGN-FW52JB Battery

The growth in high-technology industries in the 1980s resulted from heightened domestic demand for high-technology products and for higher living, housing, and environmental standards; better  health, medical, and welfare opportunities; better leisure-time facilities; and improved ways to accommodate a rapidly aging society. Sony VAIO VGN-FW54FB Battery

This reliance on domestic consumption also meant that consumption grew by only 2.2% in 1991 and at the same rate again in 1992.

During the 1980s, the Japanese economy shifted its emphasis away from primary and secondary activities (notably agriculture, manufacturing, and mining) to processing,Sony VAIO VGN-FW70DB Battery

with telecommunications and computers becoming increasingly vital. Information became an important resource and product, central to wealth and power. The rise of an information-based economy was led by major research in highly sophisticated technology, such as advanced computers. Sony VAIO VGN-FW71DB/W Battery

The selling and use of information became very beneficial to the economy. Tokyo became a major financial center, home of some of the world's major banks, financial firms, insurance companies, and the world's largest stock exchange, the Tokyo Securities and Stock Exchange. Even here, however, the recession took its toll.Sony VAIO VGN-FW72JGB Battery

In 1992, the Nikkei 225 stock average began the year at 23,000 points, but fell to 14,000 points in mid-August before leveling off at 17,000 by the end of the year.

1989 Economic Bubble

In the decades following World War II, Japan implemented stringent tariffs and policies to encourage the people to save their income.Sony VAIO VGN-FW73JGB Battery

With more money in banks, loans and credit became easier to obtain, and with Japan running large trade surpluses, the yen appreciated against foreign currencies. This allowed local companies to invest in capital resources much more easily than their competitors overseas, which reduced the price of Japanese-made goods and widened the trade surplus further. Sony VAIO VGN-FW74FB Battery

And, with the yen appreciating, financial assets became very lucrative.

With so much money readily available for investment, speculation was inevitable, particularly in the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the real estate market. Sony VAIO VGN-FW81HS Battery

The Nikkei stock index hit its all-time high on December 29, 1989 when it reached an intra-day high of 38,957.44 before closing at 38,915.87. The rates for housing, stocks, and bonds rose so much that at one point the government issued 100-year bonds. Additionally, banks granted increasingly risky loans.Sony VAIO VGN-FW81NS Battery

At the height of the bubble, real estate values were extremely over-valued. Prices were highest in Tokyo's Ginza district in 1989, with choice properties fetching over US$1.5 million per square meter ($139,000 per square foot). Prices were only slightly less in other areas of Tokyo. Sony VAIO VGN-FW81S Battery

By 2004, prime "A" property in Tokyo's financial districts had slumped and Tokyo's residential homes were a fraction of their peak, but still managed to be listed as the most expensive real estate in the world. Trillions were wiped out with the combined collapse of the Tokyo stock and real estate markets.Sony VAIO VGN-FW82DS Battery

With Japan's economy driven by its high rates of reinvestment, this crash hit particularly hard. Investments were increasingly directed out of the country, and Japanese manufacturing firms lost some degree of their technological edge. Sony VAIO VGN-FW82JS Battery

As Japanese products became less competitive overseas, some people argue that the low consumption rate began to bear on the economy, causing a deflationaryspiral.

The easily obtainable credit that had helped create and engorge the real estate bubble continued to be a problem for several years to come, and as late as 1997, banks were still making loans that had a low guarantee of being repaid.Sony VAIO VGN-FW82XS Battery

Loan Officers and Investment staff had a hard time finding anything to invest in that would return a profit. Meanwhile, the extremely low interest rate offered for deposits, such as 0.1%, meant that ordinary Japanese savers were just as inclined to put their money under their beds as they were to put it in savings accounts. Sony VAIO VGN-FW83DS Battery

Correcting the credit problem became even more difficult as the government began to subsidize failing banks and businesses, creating many so-called "zombie businesses". Eventually a carry trade developed in which money was borrowed from Japan, invested for returns elsewhere and then the Japanese were paid back, with a nice profit for the trader.Sony VAIO VGN-FW83JS Battery

The time after the bubble's collapse (?? h?kai^?), which occurred gradually rather than catastrophically, is known as the "lost decade or end of the century" (????10? ushinawareta j?nen^?) in Japan. The Nikkei 225 stock index eventually bottomed out at 7603.76 in April 2003, moved upward to a new peak of 18,138 in June 2007, Sony VAIO VGN-FW83XS Battery

before resuming a downward trend. The downward movement in the Nikkei is likely due to global as well as national economic problems.

Deflation from the 1990s to present

Deflation in Japan started in the early 1990s. On March 19, 2001, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese government tried to eliminate deflation in the economy by reducing interest rates (part of their 'quantitative easing' policy). Sony VAIO VGN-FW90HS Battery

Despite having interest rates down near zero for a long period of time, this strategy did not succeed.Once the near-zero interest rates failed to stop deflation, some economists, such as Paul Krugman, and some Japanese politicians spoke of deliberately causing (or at least creating the fear of) inflation.Sony VAIO VGN-FW90NS Battery

In July 2006, the zero-rate policy was ended. In 2008, the Japanese Central Bank still has the lowest interest rates in the developed world, deflation has still not been eliminated and the Nikkei 225 fell approximately 50% (between June 2007 and December 2008).Sony VAIO VGN-FW90S Battery

Systemic reasons for deflation in Japan can be said to include:

• Fallen asset prices. There was a large price bubble in both equities and real estate in Japan in the 1980s (peaking in late 1989).Sony VAIO VGN-FW91NS Battery

• Insolvent companies: Banks lent to companies and individuals that invested in real estate. When real estate values dropped, many loans went unpaid. The banks could try to collect on the collateral (land), but due to reduced real estate values, this would not pay off the loan. Sony VAIO VGN-FW91S Battery


• Banks have delayed the decision to collect on the collateral, hoping asset prices would improve. These delays were allowed by national banking regulators. Some banks make even more loans to these companies that are used to service the debt they already have. Sony VAIO VGN-FW92DS Battery


• This continuing process is known as maintaining an "unrealized loss", and until the assets are completely revalued and/or sold off (and the loss realized), it will continue to be a deflationary force in the economy.

• Insolvent banks: Banks with a large percentage of their loans which are "non-performing" Sony VAIO VGN-FW92JS Battery


• (loans for which payments are not being made), but have not yet written them off. These banks cannot lend more money until they increase their cash reserves to cover the bad loans. Sony VAIO VGN-FW93DS Battery


• Thus the quantity of loans are reduced and less funds are available for economic growth.

• Fear of insolvent banks: Japanese people are afraid that banks will collapse so they prefer to buy gold or (United States or Japanese) Treasury bonds instead of saving their money in a bank account. People also save by owning real estate.Sony VAIO VGN-FW93JS Battery

The Economist has suggested that improvements to bankruptcy law, land transfer law, and tax laws will aid Japan's economy. In October 2009 the Japanese government announced plans to increasetobacco and green taxes while reducing rates for small and medium sized companies, according to NHK.Sony VAIO VGN-FW93XS Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-FW94FS Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-FW94GS Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-FW94HS Battery

Topic : laptop battery
Genre : Computer/Internet

Since 1980, China's energy production has grown dramatically, as has the proportion allocated to domestic consumption. Some 80 percent of all power generated from fossil fuel at thermal plants, with about 17 percent at hydroelectric installations; only about two percent is from nuclear energy, mainly from plants located in Guangdong and Zhejiang.Sony VAIO VGN-Z70B Battery

Though China has rich overall energy potential, most have yet to be developed. In addition, the geographical distribution of energy puts most of these resources relatively far from their major industrial users. Basically the northeast is rich in coal and oil, the central part of north China has abundant coal, and the southwest has immense hydroelectric potential. Sony VAIO VGN-Z71JB Battery

But the industrialized regions around Guangzhou and the Lower Yangtze region around Shanghai have too little energy, while there is relatively little heavy industry located near major energy resource areas other than in the southern part of the northeast.Sony VAIO VGN-Z73FB Battery

Although electric-generating capacity has grown rapidly, it has continued to fall considerably short of demand. This has been partly because energy prices were long fixed so low that industries had few incentives to conserve. In addition, it has often been necessary to transport fuels (notably coal) great distances from points of production to consumption.Sony VAIO VGN-Z790DKX Battery

Coal provides about 70–75 percent of China's energy consumption, although its proportion has been gradually declining. Petroleum production, which grew rapidly from an extremely low base in the early 1960s, has increased much more gradually from 1980. Sony VAIO VGN-Z790DMR Battery

Natural gasproduction still constitutes only a small (though increasing) fraction of overall energy production, but gas is supplanting coal as a domestic fuel in the major cities.

In the 1990s, energy demand rocketed in response to the rapid expansion of the economy but energy production was constrained by limited capital. Sony VAIO VGN-Z790DND Battery

As in other sectors of the state-owned economy, the energy sector suffered from low utilization and inefficiencies in production, transport, conversion, consumption, and conservation. Other problems included declining real prices, rising taxes and production costs, spiraling losses, Sony VAIO VGN-Z820DB Battery

high debt burden, insufficient investment, low productivity, poor management structure, environmental pollution, and inadequate technological development. To keep pace with demand, China sought to increase electric generating capacity to a target level of 290 gigawatts by 2000.Sony VAIO VGN-Z820G/B Battery

According to Chinese statistics, China managed to keep its energy growth rate at just half the rate of GDP growth throughout the 1990s. Though these numbers are not reliable, there has been agreement that China had improved its energy efficiency significantly over this period.Sony VAIO VGN-Z890GLX Battery

In the late 1990s, an estimated 10,000 megawatts of generating capacity was added each year, at an annual cost of about $15 billion. China imported new power plants from the West to increase its generation capacity, and these units then accounted for approximately 20% of total generating capacity. Sony VAIO VGN-Z890GMR Battery

More power generating capacity came on line in the mid-2000s as large scale investments were completed. In 2001, China's total energy consumption was projected to double by 2020. Energy consumption grew at nearly 10 percent per year between 2000 and 2005, more than twice the yearly rate of the previous two decades.Sony VAIO VGN-Z898H/X Battery

In 2003, China surpassed Japan to become the second-largest consumer of primary energy, after the United States. China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil, after the United States, and for 2006, China's increase in oil demand represented 38% of the world total increase in oil demand.Sony VAIO VGN-Z90FS Battery

China is also the third-largest energy producer in the world, after the United States and Russia. China's electricity consumption is expected to grow by over 4% a year through 2030, which will require more than $2 trillion in electricity infrastructure investment to meet the demand. Sony VAIO VGN-Z90NS Battery

China expects to add approximately 15,000 megawatts of generating capacity a year, with 20% of that coming from foreign suppliers.

China, due in large part to environmental concerns, has wanted to shift China's current energy mix from a heavy reliance on coal,Sony VAIO VGN-Z90PS Battery

which accounts for 70–75% of China's energy, toward greater reliance on oil, natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power. China has closed thousands of coal mines over the past five to ten years to cut overproduction. According to Chinese statistics, this has reduced coal production by over 25%.Sony VAIO VGN-Z90S Battery

Only one-fifth of the new coal power plant capacity installed from 1995 to 2000 included desulfurization equipment. Interest in renewable sources of energy is growing, but except for hydropower, their contribution to the overall energy mix is unlikely to rise above 1–2% in the near future. Sony VAIO VGN-Z90US Battery

China's energy sector continues to be hampered by difficulties in obtaining funding, including long-term financing, and by market balkanization due to local protectionism that prevents more efficient large plants from achieving economies of scale.Sony VAIO VGN-Z91DS Battery

Since 1993, China has been a net importer of oil, a large portion of which comes from the Middle East. Imported oil accounts for 20% of the processed crude in China. Net imports are expected to rise to 3.5 million barrels (560,000 m³) per day by 2010. China is interested in diversifying the sources of its oil imports and has invested in oil fields around the world. Sony VAIO VGN-Z91JS Battery

China is developing oil imports fromCentral Asia and has invested in Kazakhstani oil fields. Beijing also plans to increase China's natural gas production, which currently accounts for only 3% of China's total energy consumption and incorporated a natural gas strategy in its 10th Five-Year Plan (2001–2005), Sony VAIO VGN-Z91PS Battery

with the goal of expanding gas use from a 2% share of total energy production to 4% by 2005 (gas accounts for 25% of U.S. energy production). Analysts expect China's consumption of natural gas to more than double by 2010.

The 11th Five-Year Program (2006–10), announced in 2005 and approved by the National People's Congress in March 2006, Sony VAIO VGN-Z91YS Battery

called for greater energy conservation measures, including development of renewable energy sources and increased attention to environmental protection. Guidelines called for a 20% reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2010.Sony VAIO VGN-Z92DS Battery

Moving away from coal towards cleaner energy sources including oil, natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power is an important component of China's development program. Beijing also intends to continue to improve energy efficiency and promote the use of clean coal technology.Sony VAIO VGN-Z92JS Battery

China has abundant hydroelectric resources; the Three Gorges Dam, for example, will have a total capacity of 18 gigawatts when fully on-line (projected for 2009). In addition, the share of electricity generated by nuclear power is projected to grow from 1% in 2000 to 5% in 2030. Sony VAIO VGN-Z92PS Battery

China's renewable energy law, which went into effect in 2006, calls for 10% of its energy to come from renewable energy sources by 2020.

In May 2004, then-Secretary of Energy in the United States Spencer Abraham signed a Memorandum of Understanding Sony VAIO VGN-Z92YS Battery

(MOU) with China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) that launched the U.S.–China Energy Policy Dialogue. The Dialogue strengthened energy-related interactions between China and the United States, the world's two largest energy consumers.Sony VAIO VGN-Z93FS Battery

The U.S.–China Energy Policy Dialogue has built upon the two countries' existing cooperative ventures in high energy nuclear physics, fossil energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy and energy information exchanges. Sony VAIO VGN-Z93GS Battery

The NDRC and the Department of Energy also exchange views and expertise on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technologies, and convenes an annual Oil and Gas Industry Forum with China.

Mining

Outdated mining and ore-processing technologies are being replaced with modern techniques, but China's rapid industrialization requires imports of minerals from abroad. Sony VAIO VGN-Z93HS Battery

In particular, iron ore imports from Australia and the United States have soared in the early 2000s as steel production rapidly outstripped domestic iron ore production. Also China has become increasingly active in several African countries to mine the reserves it requires for economic growth, particularly in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon.Sony VAIO VGN-Z93VS Battery

The major areas of production in 2004 were coal (nearly 2 billion tons), iron ore (310 million tons), crude petroleum (175 million tons), natural gas(41 million cubic meters), antimony ore (110,000 tons), tin concentrates (110,000 tons), nickel ore (64,000 tons), Sony A1258274A Battery

tungsten concentrates (67,000 tons), unrefined salt (37 million tons), vanadium (40,000 tons), and molybdenum ore (29,000 tons). In order of magnitude, produced minerals were bauxite,gypsum, barite, magnesite, talc and related minerals, manganese ore, fluorspar, and zinc.Sony VGP-BPL10 Battery

In addition, China produced 2,450 tons of silver and 215 tons of gold in 2004. The mining sector accounted for less than 0.9% of total employment in 2002 but produced about 5.3% of total industrial production.

Hydroelectric resources

China has an abundant potential for hydroelectric power production due to its considerable river network and mountainous terrain.Sony VGP-BPS10 Battery

Most of the total hydroelectric capacity is situated in the southwest of the country, where coal supplies are poor but demand for energy is rising swiftly. The potential in the northeast is fairly small, but it was there that the first hydroelectric stations were built—by the Japanese during its occupation of Manchuria.Sony VGP-BPS10/S Battery

Due to considerable seasonal fluctuations in rainfall, the flow of rivers tends to drop during the winter, forcing many power stations to operate at less than normal capacity, while in the summer, on the other hand, floods often interfere with generation.

Thirteen years in construction at a cost of $24 billion, the immense Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River was essentially completed in 2006 and will revolutionize electrification and flood control in the area.Sony VGP-BPS10A/B Battery

Coal

China is well endowed with mineral resources, the most important of which is coal. China's mineral resources include large reserves of coal and iron ore, plus adequate to abundant supplies of nearly all other industrial minerals.Sony VGP-BPS10B Battery

Although coal deposits are widely scattered (some coal is found in every province), most of the total is located in the northern part of the country. The province of Shanxi, in fact, is thought to contain about half of the total; other important coal-bearing provinces include Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Hebei, and Shandong.Sony VGP-BPS10A Battery

Apart from these northern provinces, significant quantities of coal are present in Sichuan, and there are some deposits of importance in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. A large part of the country's reserves consists of goodbituminous coal, but there are also large deposits of lignite. Sony VGP-BPS11 Battery

Anthracite is present in several places (especially Liaoning, Guizhou, and Henan), but overall it is not very significant.

To ensure a more even distribution of coal supplies and to reduce the strain on the less than adequate transportation network, the authorities pressed for the development of a large number of small, locally run mines throughout the country. Sony VGP-BPL11 Battery

This campaign was energetically pursued after the 1960s, with the result that thousands of small pits have been established, and they produce more than half the country's coal. This output, however, is typically expensive and is used for local consumption. Sony VGP-BPL12 Battery

It has also led to a less than stringent implementation of safety measures in these unregulated mines, which cause several thousands of deaths each year.

Coal makes up the bulk of China's energy consumption (70% in 2005), and China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world.Sony VGP-BPS12 Battery

As China's economy continues to grow, China's coal demand is projected to rise significantly. Although coal's share of China's overall energy consumption will decrease, coal consumption will continue to rise in absolute terms. Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery

China's continued and increasing reliance on coal as a power source has contributed significantly to putting China on the path to becoming the world's largest emitter of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide.Sony VGP-BPS13/B Battery

Oil and natural gas

China's onshore oil resources are mostly located in the Northeast and in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan provinces.Oil shale is found in a number of places, especially at Fushun in Liaoning, where the deposits overlie the coal reserves, as well as in Guangdong. Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

Light oil of high quality has been found in the Pearl River estuary of the South China Sea, the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, and theTarim Basin in Xinjiang. The country consumes most of its oil output but does export some crude oil and oil products. China has explored and developed oil deposits in the South and East China Seas, the Yellow Sea, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Bohai Sea.Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

The total extent of China's natural gas reserves is unknown, as relatively little exploration for natural gas has been done. Sichuan accounts for almost half of the known natural gas reserves and production. Most of the rest of China's natural gas is associated gas produced in the Northeast's major oil fields, especially Daqing oilfield. Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

Other gas deposits have been found in the Qaidam Basin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shanghai, andZhejiang, and offshore to the southwest of Hainan Island.

Metals and nonmetals

Iron ore reserves are found in most provinces, including Hainan. Gansu, Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and Guangdong provinces have rich deposits. Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Battery

The largest mined reserves are located north of the Yangtze River and supply neighboring iron and steel enterprises. With the exception of nickel, chromium, and cobalt, China is well supplied with ferroalloys and manganese. Reserves of tungsten are also known to be fairly large. Sony VGP-BPS13AS Battery

Copper resources are moderate, and high-quality ore is present only in a few deposits. Discoveries have been reported from Ningxia. Lead and zinc are available, and bauxite resources are thought to be plentiful. China's antimony reserves are the largest in the world. Sony VGP-BPS13B/B Battery

Tin resources are plentiful, and there are fairly rich deposits of gold. China is the world's fifth largest producer of gold and in the early 21st century became an important producer and exporter of rare metals needed in high-technology industries. The rare earth reserves at the Bayan Obi mine in Inner Mongolia are thought to be the largest in any single location in the world.Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q Battery

China also produces a fairly wide range of nonmetallic minerals. One of the most important of these is salt, which is derived from coastal evaporation sites in Jiangsu, Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning, as well as from extensive salt fields in Sichuan, Ningxia, and the Qaidam Basin. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Battery

There are important deposits of phosphate rock in a number of areas. Pyrites occur in several places; Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi have the most important deposits. China also has large resources of fluorite (fluorspar), gypsum, asbestos, and cement.Sony VGP-BPS13Q Battery

Industry and manufacturing

Industry and construction account for 46.8 % of China's GDP. In 2009 around 8% of the total manufacturing output in the world came from China itself and China ranked third worldwide in industrial output that year (first was EU and second US).Sony VGP-BPS13S Battery

Research by IHS Global Insight states that in 2010 China contributed to 19,8% of world's manufacturing output and became the largest manufacturer in the world that year, after the US had held that position for about 110 years.

Major industries include mining and ore processing; iron and steel; aluminium; coal; machinery; Sony VGP-BPL7 Battery

armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemical; fertilizers; food processing; automobilesand other transportation equipment including rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft; consumer products including footwear, toys, and electronics; telecommunications and information technology. Sony VGP-BPS7 Battery

China has become a preferred destination for the relocation of global manufacturing facilities. Its strength as an export platform has contributed to incomes and employment in China. The state-owned sector still accounts for about 30% of GDP. Sony VGP-BPL8 Battery

In recent years, authorities have been giving greater attention to the management of state assets—both in the financial market as well as among state-owned-enterprises—and progress has been noteworthy.

Since the founding of the People's Republic, industrial development has been given considerable attention. Sony VGP-BPL8A Battery

Among the various industrial branches the machine-building and metallurgical industries have received the highest priority. These two areas alone now account for about 20–30 percent of the total gross value of industrial output. In these, as in most other areas of industry, Sony VGP-BPL8B Battery

however, innovationhas generally suffered at the hands of a system that has rewarded increases in gross output rather than improvements in variety, sophistication and quality. China, therefore, still imports significant quantities of specialized steels. Sony VGP-BPS8 Battery

Overall industrial output has grown at an average rate of more than 10 percent per year, having surpassed all other sectors in economic growth and degree ofmodernization.Some heavy industries and products deemed to be of national strategic importance remain state-owned, Sony VGP-BPS8A Battery

but an increasing proportion of lighter and consumer-oriented manufacturing firms are privately held or are private-state joint ventures.

The predominant focus of development in the chemical industry is to expand the output of chemical fertilizers, plastics, and synthetic fibers. Sony VGP-BPS8B Battery

The growth of this industry has placed China among the world's leading producers of nitrogenous fertilizers. In the consumer goods sector the main emphasis is on textiles and clothing, which also form an important part of China's exports.Sony VGP-BPL9 Battery

Textile manufacturing, a rapidly growing proportion of which consists of synthetics, account for about 10 percent of the gross industrial output and continues to be important, but less so than before. The industry tends to be scattered throughout the country, but there are a number of important textile centers, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Harbin.Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery

Major state industries are iron, steel, coal, machine building, light industrial products, armaments, and textiles. These industries completed a decade of reform (1979–1989) with little substantial management change. Prior to 1978, most output was produced by state-owned enterprises. Sony VGP-BPS9/B Battery

As a result of the economic reforms that followed, there was a significant increase in production by enterprises sponsored by local governments, especially townships and villages, and, increasingly, by private entrepreneurs and foreign investors. The 1996 industrial census revealed that there were 7,342,000 industrial enterprises at the end of 1995;Sony VGP-BPS9/S Battery

total employment in industrial enterprises was approximately 147 million. The 1999 industrial census revealed that there were 7,930,000 industrial enterprises at the end of 1999 (including small-scale town and village enterprises); total employment in state-owned industrial enterprises was about 24 million.Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery

The automobile industry has grown rapidly since 2000, as has the petrochemical industry. Machinery and electronic products became China's main exports. China is the world's leading manufacturer of chemical fertilizers, cement, andsteel. Sony VGP-BPS9A/B Battery

By 2002 the share in gross industrial output by state-owned and state-holding industries had decreased to 41%, and the state-owned companies themselves contributed only 16% of China's industrial output.

China's construction sector has grown substantially since the early 1980s. In the 21st century, investment in capital construction has experienced major annual increases. Sony VGP-BPS9A/S Battery

In 2001 investments increased 8.5% over the previous year. In 2002 there was a 16.4% increase, followed by a 30% increase in 2003. The manufacturing sector produced 44.1% of GDP in 2004 and accounted for 11.3% of total employment in 2002. Industry and construction produced 53.1% of China's GDP in 2005. Sony VGP-BPS9B Battery

Industry (including mining, manufacturing, construction, and power) contributed 52.9% of GDP in 2004 and occupied 22.5% of the workforce.

Energy production has increased rapidly, but it still falls considerably short of demand. This is partly due to artificial energy prices that have been held so low that industries have had few incentives to conserve. Sony VGP-BPX11 Battery

Coal provides about 75–80 percent of China's energy consumption. Petroleum production, which began growing rapidly from an extremely low base in the early 1960s, has basically remained at the same level since the late 1970s. Sony VGP-BPL18 Battery

There are large petroleum reserves in the inaccessible northwest and potentially significant offshore petroleum deposits, but about half of the country's oilproduction still comes from the major Daqing oilfield in the northeast. China has much, and partially undeveloped, hydroelectric power potential and natural gas reserves. Sony VGP-BPS18 Battery

The government has made plans to develop nuclear power plants in the coastal and western regions (see Nuclear power in China).

Overall, the distribution of industry remains very uneven, despite serious efforts from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s to build up industry in the interior at the cost of the major cities on the east coast.Sony VGP-BPL20 Battery

While percentage growth of industry in the interior provinces generally greatly exceeded that of the coastal areas, the far larger initial industrial base of the latter has meant that a few coastal regions have continued to dominate China's industrial economy. The establishment of special economic zones in coastal areas only heightened this disparity. Sony VGP-BPS20/B Battery

Shanghai by itself accounts for about 8–10 percent of China's gross value of industrial output, and the east coast accounts for about 60 percent of the national industrial output. The rate of industrialization increased and diversified after the early 1990s. Sony VGP-BPS20/S Battery

Notable were the development of aerospace, aircraft, and automobile manufacturing. In addition, China expanded rapidly into the production of pharmaceuticals, software,semiconductors, electronics, and precision equipment.

Steel industry

China is the largest producer of steel in the world and the steel industry has been rapidly increasing its steel production. Sony VGP-BPL21 Battery

Iron ore production kept pace with steel production in the early 1990s but was soon outpaced by imported iron ore and other metals in the early 2000s. Steel production, an estimated 140 million tons in 2000, was increased to 419 million tons in 2006. Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery

Much of the country's steel output comes from a large number of small-scale producing centers, one of the largest being Anshan in Liaoning.

China is the top exporter of steel in the world. Export volumes in 2008 were 59.23 million tons, a 5.5% fall over the previous year. The decline ends China's decade-old steel export growth.Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery

Automotive industry

By 2006 China had become the world's third largest automotive vehicle manufacturer (after US and Japan) and the second largest consumer (only after US). Automobile manufacturing has soared during the reform period. Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery

In 1975 only 139,800 automobiles were produced annually, but by 1985 production had reached 443,377, then jumped to nearly 1.1 million by 1992 and increased fairly evenly each year up until 2001, when it reached 2.3 million. In 2002 production rose to nearly 3.25 million and then jumped to 4.44 million in 2003,Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Battery

5.07 million in 2004, 5.71 million in 2005, 7.28 million in 2006, 8.88 million in 2007, 9.35 million in 2008 and 13.83 million in 2009. China has become the number-one automaker in the world in 2009. Domestic sales have kept pace with production. After respectable annual increases in the mid- and late 1990s, passenger car sales soared in the early 2000s. Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery

In 2006, a total of 7.22 million automobiles were sold, including 5.18 million units of passenger cars and2.04 million units of commercial vehicles.

As of 2010, China has become the world's largest automotive vehicle manufacturer as well as the largest consumer^{.Sony VGP-BPL22 Battery}

China's automotive industry has been so successful that it began exporting car parts in 1999. China began to plan major moves into the automobile and components export business starting in 2005. A new Honda factory in Guangzhou was built in 2004 solely for the export market and was expected to ship 30,000 passenger vehicles to Europe in 2005.Sony VGP-BPS22 Battery

By 2004, 12 major foreign automotive manufacturers had joint-venture plants in China. They produced a wide range of automobiles, minivans, sport utility vehicles, buses, and trucks. In 2003 China exported US$4.7 billion worth of vehicles and components.Sony VGP-BPS22/A Battery

The vehicle export was 78,000 units in 2004, 173,000 units in 2005, and 340,000 units in 2006. The vehicle and component export is targeted to reach US$70 billion by 2010.

The market for domestically produced cars, under a local name, is likely to continue to grow both inside China and outside.Sony VGP-BPS22A Battery

Companies such as Geely and Chery are constantly evaluating new international locations, both in developing and developed countries.

Other industries

China is the world's biggest sex toy producer and accounts for 70% of the worldwide sex toys production.Sony VGP-BPL23 Battery

In the country, 1,000 manufacturers are active in this industry, which generates about two billion dollars a year.

As of 2011, China is the world's largest market for personal computers .

Services

China's services output ranks fifth worldwide, and high power and telecom density has ensured that it has remained on a high-growth trajectory in the long-term.Sony VGP-BPS23 Battery

In 2005 the services sector produced 40.3% of China's annual GDP, second only to manufacturing. However, its proportion of GDP is still low compared with the ratio in more developed countries, and the agricultural sector still employs a larger workforce. Sony VGP-BPS23/B Battery

Prior to the onset of economic reforms in 1978, China's services sector was characterized by state-operated shops, rationing, and regulated prices. With reform came private markets and individual entrepreneurs and a commercial sector. The wholesale and retail trade has expanded quickly, with urban areas now having many shopping malls, retail shops, restaurant chains and hotels. Sony VGP-BPS23/D Battery

Public administration has still remained a main component of the service sector, while tourism has become a significant factor in employment and as a source of foreign exchange. The potential for growing services in China through franchising is huge.Sony VGP-BPS23/G Battery

Tourism

China's tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the national economy and is also one of the industries with a very distinct global competitive edge. The total revenue of China's tourism industry reached USD 67.3 billion in 2002, accounting for 5.44% of the GDP. Sony VGP-BPS23/P Battery

It dropped, largely due to SARS, to USD 59 billion in 2003. Nevertheless, for areas rich in tourism resources, tourism has become the main source of tax revenue and the key industry for economic development.

The total number of inbound tourists was 91.66 million in 2003, and that of tourists staying overnight was 32.7 million, about 10 times of the number in 1980. Sony VGP-BPS23/W Battery

International tourism receipts were USD17.4 billion in 2003. China's ranking for both the overnight tourist arrivals and tourism receipts were among the world's top five in 2003. However, there is unlikely to be a big increase in the inbound tourism market.Sony Limited Edition 007 Battery

China's domestic tourism market makes up more than 90% of the country's tourism traffic, and contributes more than 70% of total tourism revenue. In 2002, domestic tourists reached 878 million and tourism revenue was USD 46.9 billion. Sony VAIO VGC-LB15 Battery

The five-days-per-week and long vacation schemes have increased leisure time for the Chinese people and spurred market demand in domestic tourism and led to its prosperity.

A large middle class population with strong consumption power is emerging in China, especially in major cities. Sony VGN-AR Series Battery

China's outbound tourists reached 20.22 million in 2003, overtaking Japan for the first time. Currently there are 65 countries/areas open to Chinese tour groups. Putting aside the threat of SARS and other unexpected events, based on the current economic growth situation and the social development of China, China's outbound tourism is poised to achieve a new growth peak.Sony VGN-CR Series Battery

Driven by the flourishing tourism industry, China's tourist hotel sector is expanding rapidly. At the end of 2003, China had a total of 10,093 tourist hotels and more than 820,000 rooms. 773 of these tourist hotels were foreign-funded. The number of foreign-funded (inclusive of Hong Kong, Sony VIAO VGN-G Series Battery

Macau and Taiwan investments) four- and five-star tourist hotels made up 26% and 30.02% of the national total, respectively.

In 2003, there were a total of 11,522 travel agencies in China, among which, 1,349 were international ones and 10,203 were domestic ones. Sony VIAO VGN-G118 Battery

While overall tourism market concentration rose, there was a drop in the market position of the traditional three key travel agencies. As competition heightened, China's tourism industry on the whole, had begun to start earning low profits, even while it was expanding its scale of operations.Sony VIAO VGN-G118CN/B Battery

Currently, there are approximately 15,000 natural, cultural and man-made places of attraction that are above county level. Presently, Hong Kong investors are the main participants in the establishment of tourist attractions in China. In 2001, Sichuan became the first province to propose renting out the operation rights of 10 scenic areas to foreign investors.Sony VIAO VGN-G118CN/T Battery

According to the plan by China National Tourism Administration, the number of inbound tourists, foreign exchange earnings from tourism and the domestic market size are targeted to have an annual growth of 4%, 8% and 8%, respectively, in the next five to ten years. Sony VIAO VGN-G218 Battery

It is also forecast by the WTO that China's tourism industry will take up to 8.6% of world market share to become the world's top tourism industry by 2020.

Labor and welfare

One of the hallmarks of China's socialist economy was its promise of employment to all able and willing to work and job-security with virtually lifelong tenure. Sony VGN-TZ121 Battery

Reformers targeted the labor market as unproductive because industries were frequently overstaffed to fulfill socialist goals and job-security reduced workers' incentive to work. This socialist policy was pejoratively called the iron rice bowl.

In 1979–1980, the state reformed factories by giving wage increases to workers, which was immediately offset by sharply rising inflation rates of 6–7%. Sony VGN-TZ13 Battery

The reforms also dismantled the iron rice bowl, which meant it witnessed a rise in unemployment in the economy. In 1979 there were 20 millionunemployed people. Official Chinese statistics reveal that 4.2% of the total urban workforce was unemployed in 2004, although other estimates have reached 10%.Sony VGN-TZ131 Battery

As part of its newly developing social security legislation, China has an unemployment insurance system. At the end of 2003, more than103.7 million people were participating in the plan, and 7.4 million laid-off employees had received benefits.Sony VGN-TZ132N Battery

A 10-percent sample tabulation of census questionnaires from the 1982 census provided needed statistical data on China's working population and allowed the first reliable estimates of the labor force's size and characteristics. The estimated mid-1982 labor force was 546 million, or approximately 54 percent of the total population. Sony VGN-TZ132/N Battery

Males accounted for slightly more than half of the estimated labor force, and the labor force participation rates for persons age fifteen years and older were among the highest in the world.

The 10-percent sample showed that approximately three-fourths of the labor force worked in the agricultural sector. Sony VGN-TZ17N Battery

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the mid-1980s more than 120 million people worked in the nonagricultural sector. The sample revealed that men occupied the great majority of leadership positions. The average worker was about thirty years old, and three out of every four workers were under forty-five years of age. Sony VGN-TZ16N Battery

The working population had a low education level. Less than 40 percent of the labor force had more than a primary school education, and 30 percent were illiterate or semiliterate.

In mid-1982 the overall unemployment rate was estimated to be about 5 percent. Of the approximately 25 million unemployed, 12 million were men and 13 million were women.Sony VGN-TZ18N Battery

The unemployment rate was highest in the northeast and lowest in the south. The unemployment rates were higher than those of East Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific island countries for which data were available but were lower than the rates found in North America and Europe. Sony VAIO VGN-AR47G/E1 Battery

Virtually all of the unemployed persons in cities and towns were under twenty years of age.

By the 1990s and 2000s, agriculture has remained the largest employer, though its proportion of the workforce has steadily declined; between 1991 and 2001 it dropped from about 60% to 40% of the total. Sony VAIO VGN-AR520E Battery

The manufacturing labor force has also become smaller at a slower rate, partially because of reforms implemented at many of the state-run enterprises. Such reforms and other factors have increased unemployment and underemployment in both urban and rural areas. Sony VAIO VGN-AR53DB Battery

Women have been a major labor presence in China since the People's Republic was established. Some 40–45 percent of all women over age 15 are employed.

China's estimated employed labor force in 2005 totaled 791.4 million persons, about 60% of the total population. Sony VAIO VGN-AR54DB Battery

During 2003, 49% of the labor force worked in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; 22% inmining, manufacturing, energy, and construction industries; and 29% in the services sector and other categories. In 2004 some 25 million persons were employed by 743,000 private enterprises. Sony VAIO VGN-AR550E Battery

Urban wages rose rapidly from 2004 to 2007, at a rate of 13 to 19% per year with average wages near $200/month in 2007.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) was established in 1925 to represent the interests of national and local trade unions and trade union councils. Sony VAIO VGN-AR55DB Battery

The ACFTU reported a membership of130 million, out of an estimated 248 million urban workers, at the end of 2002. Chinese trade unions are organized on a broad industrial basis. Membership is open to those who rely on wages for the whole or a large part of their income, a qualification that excludes most agricultural workers. Sony VAIO VGN-AR630E Battery

In theory, membership is not compulsory, but in view of the unions' role in the distribution of social benefits, the economic pressure to join is great. The lowest unit is the enterprise union committee. Individual trade unions also operate at the provincial level, Sony VAIO VGN-AR64DB Battery

and there are trade union councils that coordinate all union activities within a particular area and operate at county, municipal, and provincial levels. At the top of the movement is the ACFTU, which discharges its functions through a number of regional federations.Sony VAIO VGN-AR65DB Battery

In theory the appropriate trade union organizations have been consulted on the level of wages as well as on wage differentials, but in practice their role in these and similar matters has been insignificant. They have not engaged in collective bargaining, as their principal duties have included assisting the party and promoting production. Sony VAIO VGN-AR660U Battery

In fulfilling these tasks, they have had a role in enforcing labor discipline. From the point of view of the membership, the most important activities have concerned the social and welfare services. Thus, the unions have looked after industrial safety, organized social and cultural activities, and, provided services such as clinics, rest and holiday homes, hostels, libraries, and clubs.Sony VAIO VGN-AR690U Battery

They also administer old-age pensions, workers' insurance,disability benefits, and other welfare schemes. More recently, however, reforms of the social security system have involved moving the responsibility for pensions and other welfare to the provinces.Sony VAIO VGN-AR71ZU Battery

Chinese labor laws, if fully enforced, would greatly alleviate common abuses such as not paying workers. In 2006 and thereafter there was an organizing campaign orchestrated by the central government to organize Chinese operations of foreign companies. It was reported in 2008 that problems with sweatshops persist.Sony VAIO VGN-AR730E/B Battery

In 2010, the issues of manufacturing wages caused a strike at a Honda parts plant. This resulted in wage increases both at the struck plant and other industrial plants.

The 2010 census found that the PRC was now half urban and rapidly aging due to the one child policy. Sony VAIO VGN-AR73DB Battery

This is expected to lead to increased demand for labor to take care of an elderly population and a reduced supply of migrant labor from the countryside.

External trade

International trade makes up a sizeable portion of China's overall economy.Sony VAIO VGN-AR74DB Battery

The course of China's foreign trade has experienced considerable transformations since the early 1950s. In 1950 more than 70 percent of the total trade was with non-Communist countries, but by 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War, the situation was completely reversed, and trade with Communist countries stood at about 75 percent.Sony VAIO VGN-AR75UDB Battery

During the next few years, trade with the Communist world lost some of its standing, but it was only after the Sino-Soviet split of 1960, which resulted in the cancellation of Soviet credits and the withdrawal of Soviet technicians, that the non-Communist world began to see a speedy recovery in its position. Sony VAIO VGN-AR790U/B Battery

In 1965 China's trade with other socialist countries made up only about a third of the total.

Being a Second World country at the time, a meaningful segment of China's trade with the Third World was financed through grants, credits, and other forms of assistance. Sony VAIO VGN-AR820E Battery

At first, from 1953 to 1955, aid went mainly to North Korea and North Vietnam and some other Communist states; but from the mid-1950s large amounts, mainly grants and long-term, interest-free loans, were promised to politically uncommitted developing countries. Sony VAIO VGN-AR830E Battery

The principal efforts were made in Asia, especially to Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, and Ceylon, but large loans were also granted in Africa (Ghana, Algeria,Tanzania) and in the Middle East (Egypt). However, after Mao Zedong's death in 1976, these efforts were scaled back. Sony VAIO VGN-AR83S Battery

After which, trade with developing countries became negligible, though during that time, Hong Kong and Taiwan both began to emerge as major trading partners.

Since economic reforms began in the late 1970s, China sought to decentralize its foreign trade system to integrate itself into the international trading system. Sony VAIO VGN-AR83US Battery

On November 1991, China joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group, which promotes free trade and cooperation the in economic, trade, investment, and technology spheres. China served as APEC chair in 2001, and Shanghai hosted the annual APEC leaders meeting in October of that year.Sony VAIO VGN-AR84S Battery

China's global trade totaled $324 billion in 1997 and $151 billion in the first half of 1998; the trade surplus stood at $40.0 billion. China's primary trading partners were Japan, Taiwan, the U.S., South Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, Russia, and the Netherlands.Sony VAIO VGN-AR84US Battery

China had a trade surplus with the U.S. of $49.7 billion in 1997 and $54.6 billion in 1998. Major imports were power generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials, and chemical and agricultural products.Sony VAIO VGN-AR85S Battery

In 1998, China was in its 12th year of negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)—formerly the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and had significantly reduced import tariffs. Previously in 1996, China had already introduced cuts to more than 4,000 tariff lines, reducing average tariffs from 35% to 23%; Sony VAIO VGN-AR85US Battery

further tariff cuts that took effect October 1, 1997, decreased average tariffs to 17%. To gain WTO entry, all prospective WTO members were required to comply with certain fundamental trading disciplines and offer substantially expanded market access to other members of the organization.Sony VAIO VGN-AR870EA Battery

Many major trading entities—among them the United States, the European Union, and Japan—shared concerns with respect to China's accession. These concerns included obtaining satisfactory market access offers for both goods and services, full trading rights for all potential Chinese consumers and end-users, Sony VAIO VGN-AR890U Battery

nondiscrimination between foreign and local commercial operations in China, the reduction of monopolistic state trading practices, and the elimination of arbitrary or non-scientific technical standards. China and other WTO members worked to achieve a commercially viable accession protocol.Sony VAIO VGN-AR93S Battery

In 1999, Premier Zhu Rongji signed a bilateral U.S.–China Agricultural Cooperation Agreement, which lifted longstanding Chinese prohibitions on imports of citrus, grain, beef, and poultry. In November 1999, the United States and China reached a historic bilateral market-access agreement to pave the way for China's accession to the WTO. Sony VAIO VGN-AR93US Battery

As part of the far-reaching trade liberalization agreement, China agreed to lower tariffs and abolish market impediments after it joins the world trading body. Chinese and foreign businessmen, for example, would gain the right to import and export on their own – and to sell their products without going through a government middleman.Sony VAIO VGN-AR94S Battery

After reaching a bilateral WTO agreement with the EU and other trading partners in summer 2000, China worked on a multilateral WTO accession package. China concluded multilateral negotiations on its accession to the WTO in September 2001. Sony VAIO VGN-AR94US Battery

The completion of its accession protocol and Working Party Report paved the way for its entry into the WTO on December 11, 2001, after 16 years of negotiations, the longest in the history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

China's global trade exceeded $2.4 trillion at the end of 2008.Sony VAIO VGN-AR95S Battery

It first broke the $100 billion mark in 1988, $200 billion in 1994, $500 billion in 2001 and$1 trillion mark ($1.15 trillion) in 2004. The table below shows the average annual growth (in nominal US dollar terms) of China's foreign trade during the reform era.Sony VAIO VGN-AR95US Battery

The vast majority of China's imports consists of industrial supplies and capital goods, notably machinery and high-technology equipment, the majority of which comes from the developed countries, primarily Japan and the United States . Regionally, almost half of China's imports come from East and Southeast Asia, and about one-fourth of China's exports go to the same destinations .Sony VAIO VGN-AW110J/H Battery

About 80 percent of China's exports consist of manufactured goods, most of which are textiles and electronic equipment, with agricultural products and chemicals constituting the remainder. Out of the five busiest ports in the world, three are in China.Sony VAIO VGN-AW11M/H Battery

The U.S. is one of China's primary suppliers of semiconductors and electronic components, power-generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials, waste and scrap, and chemical and agricultural products. However, Sony VAIO VGN-AW11S/B Battery

U.S. exporters continue to have concerns about fair market access due to China's restrictive trade policies and U.S. export restrictions . Intellectual property theft makes many foreign companies wary of doing business in mainland China. According to U.S. statistics, China had a trade surplus with the U.S. of $170 billion in 2004, more than doubling from 1999. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11XU/Q Battery

Wal-Mart, the United States' largest retailer, is China's 7th largest export partner, just ahead of the United Kingdom.

The U.S. trade deficit with China reached $232.5 billion in 2006, as imports grew 18%. China's share of total U.S. imports has grown from 7% to 15% since 1996.Sony VAIO VGN-AW11Z/B Battery

At the same time, the share of many other Asian countries' imports to the United States fell, from 39% in 1996 to 21.1% in 2005. The share of overall Asian imports (including China) to the United States actually declined from 38.8% in 1996 to 35.7% in 2005. The U.S. global trade deficit with the Asia–Pacific region as a whole also has fallen from 75% in 1995 to 49% in 2005.Sony VAIO VGN-AW120J/H Battery

Trade volume between China and Russia reached $29.1 billion in 2005, an increase of 37.1% compared with 2004. A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, Van Jingsun, said that the volume of trade between China and Russia could exceed 40 billion dollars in 2007.Sony VAIO VGN-AW150Y/H Battery

China's export of machinery and electronic goods to Russia grew 70%, which is 24% of China's total export to Russia in the first 11 months of 2005. During the same time, China's export of high-tech products to Russia increased by 58%, and that is 7% of China's total exports to Russia.Sony VAIO VGN-AW160J/Q Battery

Also in this time period border trade between the two countries reached $5.13 billion, growing 35% and accounting for nearly 20% of the total trade. Most of China's exports to Russia remain apparel and footwear. Russia is China's eighth largest trade partner and China is now Russia's fourth largest trade partner, and China now has over 750 investment projects in Russia, involving $1.05 billion.Sony VAIO VGN-AW170Y/Q Battery

China's contracted investment in Russia totaled $368 million during January–September 2005, twice that in 2004.

Chinese imports from Russia are mainly those of energy sources, such as crude oil, which is mostly transported by rail, and electricity exports from neighboring Siberian and Far Eastern regions.Sony VAIO VGN-AW180Y/Q Battery

In the near future, exports of both of these commodities are set to increase, as Russia is building the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline with a branch to Chinese border, and Russian power grid monopoly UES is building some of its hydropower stations with a view of future exports to China.Sony VAIO VGN-AW190JAH Battery

Export growth has continued to be a major component supporting China's rapid economic growth. To increase exports, China pursued policies such as fostering the rapid development of foreign-invested factories, which assembled imported components into consumer goods for export and liberalizing trading rights. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NAB Battery

In its 11th Five-Year Program, adopted in 2005, China placed greater emphasis on developing a consumer demand-driven economy to sustain economic growth and address imbalances.

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) promotes China's international economic and commercial interests. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NBB Battery

This is accomplished by developing business cooperation and exchanges with foreign countries. It also produces economic data, creates diplomatic ties and is active with trade arbitration issues. Hong Kong remains prominent in domestic trade, notably in its reliance on the mainland for agricultural products.Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NCB Battery

Foreign investment

China's investment climate has changed dramatically with more than two decades of reform. In the early 1980s, China restricted foreign investments to export-oriented operations and required foreign investors to form joint-venture partnerships with Chinese firms. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YAB Battery

The Encouraged Industry Catalogue sets out the degree of foreign involvement allowed in various industry sectors. From the beginning of the reforms legalizing foreign investment, capital inflows expanded every year until 1999. Foreign-invested enterprises account for 58–60% of China's imports and exports.Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YBB Battery

Since the early 1990s, the government has allowed foreign investors to manufacture and sell a wide range of goods on the domestic market, eliminated time restrictions on the establishment of joint ventures, provided some assurances against nationalization, allowed foreign partners to become chairs of joint venture boards, Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YCB Battery

and authorized the establishment of wholly foreign-owned enterprises, now the preferred form of FDI. In 1991, China granted more preferential tax treatment for Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises and contractual ventures and for foreign companies, which invested in selected economic zones or in projects encouraged by the state, such as energy, communications and transportation.Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YDB Battery

China also authorized some foreign banks to open branches in Shanghai and allowed foreign investors to purchase special "B" shares of stock in selected companies listed on the Shanghai andShenzhen Securities Exchanges. These "B" shares sold to foreigners carried no ownership rights in a company. Sony VAIO VGN-AW220J/B Battery

In 1997, China approved 21,046 foreign investment projects and received over $45 billionin foreign direct investment. China revised significantly its laws on Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises and China Foreign Equity Joint Ventures in 2000 and 2001, easing export performance and domestic content requirements.Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/H Battery

Foreign investment remains a strong element in China's rapid expansion in world trade and has been an important factor in the growth of urban jobs. In 1998, foreign-invested enterprises produced about 40% of China's exports, and foreign exchange reserves totalled about $145 billion.Sony VAIO VGN-AW235J/B Battery

Foreign-invested enterprises today produce about half of China's exports (the majority of China's foreign investment come from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), and China continues to attract large investment inflows. However, the Chinese government's emphasis on guiding FDI into manufacturing has led to market saturation in some industries, Sony VAIO VGN-AW290JFQ Battery

while leaving China's services sectors underdeveloped. From 1993 to 2001, China was the world's second-largest recipient of foreign direct investment after the United States. China received $39 billion FDI in 1999 and $41 billion FDI in 2000. China is now one of the leading FDI recipients in the world, receiving almost $80 billion in 2005 according to World Bank statistics. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF Battery

In 2006, China received $69.47 billion in foreign direct investment.

Foreign exchange reserves totaled $155 billion in 1999 and $165 billion in 2000. Foreign exchange reserves exceeded $800 billion in 2005, more than doubling from 2003. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF/H Battery

Foreign exchange reserves were $819 billion at the end of 2005, $1.066 trillion at the end of 2006, $1.9 trillion by June 2008. In addition, by the end of September 2008 China replaced Japan for the first time as the largest foreign holder of US treasury securities with a total of $585 billion, vs Japan $573 billion.Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF Battery

China has now surpassed those of Japan, making China's foreign exchange reserves the largest in the world.

As part of its WTO accession, China undertook to eliminate certain trade-related investment measures and to open up specified sectors that had previously been closed to foreign investment. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF/H Battery

New laws, regulations, and administrative measures to implement these commitments are being issued. Major remaining barriers to foreign investment include opaque and inconsistently enforced laws and regulations and the lack of a rules-based legal infrastructure. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH Battery

Warner Bros., for instance, withdrew its cinema business in China as a result of a regulation that requires Chinese investors to own at least a 51 percent stake or play a leading role in a foreign joint venture.

Chinese investment abroad

Outward foreign direct investment is a new feature of Chinese globalization, where local Chinese firms seek to make investments in both developing and developed countries.Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH/Q Battery

It was reported in 2011 that there was increasing investment by capital rich Chinese firms in promising firms in the United States. Such investments offer access to expertise in marketing and distribution potentially useful in exploiting the developing Chinese domestic market.Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF Battery

Demographics

Since the 1950s medical care, public hygiene and sanitation improved considerably, and epidemics were controlled. Consecutive generations continuously experienced better health. The population growth rate surged as the mortality rate dropped more rapidly than the birth rate.Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF/B Battery

China's massive population has always been a major difficulty for the government as it has struggled to provide for it. In the 1950s, food supply was inadequate and the standard of living was generally low. This spurred the authorities to initiate a major birth control program. Sony VAIO VGN-AW50DB/H Battery

The Great Leap Forward industrial plan in 1958–60 was partially responsible for a huge famine that caused the death rate to surpass the birth rate, and by 1960, the overall population was declining. A second population control drive began in 1962 with major efforts focused on promoting late marriages and the use of contraceptives.Sony VAIO VGN-AW51JGB Battery

By 1963 the country was in the beginning of recovery from the famine and the birth rate soared to its highest since 1949 with an annual population growth rate of 3%. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution suspended this second family planning program, but resumed four years later with the third attempt by making later marriage and family size limitation an obligation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW52JGB Battery

Since 1970, the efforts have been much more effective. The third family planning program continued until 1979 when the one child per family policy was implemented. By the early 1980s, China's population reached around 1 billion and by the early 2000s, surpassed 1.3 billion. Sony VAIO VGN-AW53FB Battery

In the 1980s, the average overall population growth was around 1.5%. In the 1990s, this fell to about 1%. Today it is about 0.6%.^[139] China's population growth rate is now among the lowest for a developing country, although, due to its large population, annual net population growth is still considerable.Sony VAIO VGN-AW70B/Q Battery

One demographic consequence of the one-child policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly ageing countries in the world.

From 100 million to 150 million surplus rural workers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-time, low-paying jobs.Sony VAIO VGN-AW71JB Battery

According to the latest Forbes China Rich List (2007), China had 66 billionaires, the second largest number after the United States, which had 415. In the 2006 Forbes Rich List it stated that there were 15 Chinese billionaires.^[140] In the latest 2007 Hurun Report, it lists 106 billionaires in China.Sony VAIO VGN-AW72JB Battery

Transportation and Infrastructure

Development of the country's transportation infrastructure is given a high priority because it is so strategically tied to the national economy and national defense.Sony VAIO VGN-AW73FB Battery

Regardless, the transportation infrastructure is still not fully developed in many aspects and areas, and it constitutes a major hindrance on economic growth and the efficient logistical movement of goods and people. China's transportation policy, influenced by political, military, and economic concerns, have undergone major changes since 1949.Sony VAIO VGN-AW80NS Battery

Immediately after the People's Republic was founded, the primary goal was to repair existing transportation infrastructure in order to meet military transport and logistics needs as well as to strengthen territorial integrity. During most of the 1950s, new road and rail links were built, while at the same time old ones were improved. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80S Battery

During the 1960s much of the improvement of regional transportation became the responsibility of the local governments, and many small railways were constructed. Emphasis was also placed on developing transportation in remote rural, mountainous, and forested areas, in order to integrate poorer regions of the country and to help promote economies of scale in the agricultural sector.Sony VAIO VGN-AW80US Battery

Before the reform era began in the late 1970s, China's transportation links were mostly concentrated in the coastal areas and access to the inner regions was generally poor. This situation has been improved considerably since then, as railways and highways have been built in the remote and frontier regions of the northwest and southwest. Sony VAIO VGN-AW81DS Battery

At the same time, the development of international transportation was also pursued, and the scope of ocean shipping was broadened considerably.

Freight haulage is mainly provided by rail transport. The rail sector is monopolized by China Railways, which is controlled by the Ministry of Railways and there is wide variation in services provided.Sony VAIO VGN-AW81JS Battery

In late 2007 China became one of the few countries in the world to launch its own indigenously developed high-speed train. As rail capacity is struggling to meet demand for the transport of goods and raw materials such as coal, air routes, roads and waterways are rapidly being developed to provide an increasing proportion of China's overall transportation needs. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW81YS Battery}

Some economic experts have argued that the development gap between China and other emerging economies such as Brazil, Argentina and India can be attributed to a large extent to China's early focus on ambitious infrastructure projects:Sony VAIO VGN-AW82DS Battery

while China invested roughly 9% of its GDP on infrastructure in the 1990s and 2000s, most emerging economies invested only 2% to 5% of their GDP. This considerable spending gap allowed the Chinese economy to grow at near optimal conditions while many South American economies suffered from various development bottlenecks (poor transportation networks, aging power grids, mediocre schools…).Sony VAIO VGN-AW82JS Battery

Communications

China possesses a diversified communications system that links all parts of the country by Internet, telephone, telegraph, radio, and television.

China's number of Internet users or netizens topped 137 million by the end of 2006, an increase of 23.4% from a year before and 162 million by June 2007,Sony VAIO VGN-AW82YS Battery

making China the second largest Internet user after the United States, according to China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII). China's mobile phone penetration rate is 34% in 2007. In 2006, mobile phone users sent 429 billion text messages, or on average 967 text messages per user. For 2006, the number of fixed-lines grew by 79%, mainly in the rural areas.Sony VAIO VGN-AW83FS Battery

Science and technology

Science and technology have always preoccupied China's leaders and indeed, China's political leadership comes almost exclusively from technical backgrounds and has a high regard for science. Deng Xiaoping called it "the first productive force."Sony VAIO VGN-AW83GS Battery

In recent times, with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao and their predecessors Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji all being trained engineers, China's leaders have been described as technocrats.

Since the early 1980s scientific and technological modernization has been given an especially high priority. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83HS Battery

Plans were made to rebuild the educational structure, continue sending students abroad, negotiate technological purchases and transfer arrangements with the U.S. and others, and develop ways to disseminate scientific and technological information. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90NS Battery

Areas of most critical interest have included microelectronics, telecommunications, computers, automated manufacturing, and energy. China also has had a space program since the 1960s and, by the late 1990s, had successfully launched more than 25 satellites.Sony VAIO VGN-AW90S Battery

On the other hand, distortions in the economy and society created by party rule have severely hurt Chinese science, according to some Chinese science policy experts. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, modeled on the Soviet system, puts much of China's greatest scientific talent in a large,Sony VAIO VGN-AW90US Battery

under-funded apparatus that remains largely isolated from industry, although the reforms of the past decade have begun to address this problem.

Chinese science strategists have seen China's greatest opportunities in newly emerging fields such as biotechnology and computers where there is still a chance for China to become a significant player. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CDS Battery

A majority of Chinese students who went abroad have not returned, but they have built a dense network of global contacts that have greatly facilitated international scientific cooperation.The United States is often held up as the standard of scientific modernity in China.Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CJS Battery

Indeed, photos of the Space Shuttle often appear in Chinese advertisements as a symbol of advanced technology. China's growing space program, which has put a man in space and successfully completed their second manned orbit in October 2005, is a focus of national pride.Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CYS Battery

At the end of 1996, China had 5,434 state-owned independent research and development institutions at and above the county level. There were another 3,400 research institutions affiliated with universities, 13,744 affiliated with medium and large industrial enterprises, and 726 affiliated with medium and large construction enterprises. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91DS Battery

A total of 2.8 million people were engaged in scientific and technological activities in these institutions.

The U.S.–China Science and Technology Agreement remains the framework for bilateral cooperation between the two countries in this field. It was originally signed in 1979. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91JS Battery

A five-year agreement to extend and amend the accord, including provisions for the protection of intellectual property rights, was signed in May 1991, and the Agreement was again extended for five years in April 1996. Five-year agreements to extend the accord were signed in April 2001 and April 2006. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91YS Battery

The Agreement is among the longest-standing U.S.–China accords, and includes over eleven U.S. Federal agencies and numerous branches that participate in cooperative exchanges under the S&T Agreement and its nearly 60 protocols, memoranda of understanding, agreements and annexes. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CDS Battery

The Agreement covers cooperation in areas such as marine conservation, high-energy physics, renewable energy, and health. Biennial Joint Commission Meetings on Science and Technology bring together policymakers from both sides to coordinate joint science and technology cooperation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CJS Battery

Executive Secretaries meetings are held biennially to implement specific cooperation programs.

Japan and the European Union also have high profile science and technology cooperative relationships with China.Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CYS Battery

Noopolitik and the Knowledge Economy

Unlike South Korea the People's Republic does not have a full Ministry of Knowledge Economy as of 2011. Yet China has in ancient times maintained a premiership in world innovation, as evidenced by the manifold inventions it contributed throughout the world history. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92DS Battery

Notably taking note of the PRC's implementation of German Maglev train technology (transrapid) along with its clear interest inarcologies   and Solar powered planes while infrastructure, energy and transportation are known to have remained the PRC's main economic bottlenecks throughout the 2000s.Sony VAIO VGN-AW92JS Battery

China is rapidly implementing acquired technology for 600MW - 1000MW coal fired and 800MW - 1600MW nuclear fired power plant. Idriss Aberkane (2011) has argued "it may not be more than a decade before the Euro-Atlantic community manufactures and copies Chinese products, architecture, and systems". Sony VAIO VGN-AW92YS Battery

Until now, however, this postulate has to be seen as a very optimistic assumption as China is still more or less a "production site" for foreign enterprises and their technology (but also for illegal copies of those). Aberkane also underlined that while the PRC stood as the first nation in ability to provide popular material satisfaction,Sony VAIO VGN-AW93FS Battery

its doctrine of addressing all domestic issues through the lens of growth (which he calls a "growth panacea doctrine") was naturally continued by its interest in Noopolitik, a "knowledge panacea doctrine".

Furthermore, in an essay explicitly entitled "China's Innovation Wall"  Adam Segal reported that the PRC's policy had clearly moved from "Made in China" to "Innovated in China". Sony VAIO VGN-AW93GS Battery

Zbigniew Brzezinski had himself taken note of the PRC's emulating the original American "Revolution in Military Affairs" along which the term "Noopolitik" appeared in the essay of John Arquilla.

In 2004, Brzezinski   underlined that the success of the American Revolution in Military Affairs (...) “has spurred China to pursue its own “RMA with Chinese characteristics“ – described as “people’s war under high-tech conditions.”Sony VAIO VGN-AW93HS Battery

The notion of non linear R&D competition is made very clear in the title of a study by Kung Shuang-Yin “Achieving development by Leaps and Bounds in national Defense” ^[156] (translated). In January 2011 the Washington Post also quoted a “Chinese analyst” (sic): “instead of competing to build ships and tanks, (…) China will focus on the weapons that can cripple them.” Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZFS Battery

The development of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force fifth generation stealth aircraft, Chengdu J-20, already considered superior to the USAF F-22 Raptor, and the implementation of the costly Shenzhou space programs testify to the PRC’s adoption of non-linear R&D. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZGS Battery

It is probably China’s wish to struggle for preeminence in the Pacific, and its investment in cheap air freight best demonstrates its interest in surpassing linear competition. -- Idriss J. Aberkane

Luxury goods

A factor that often goes overlooked is the extent of luxury spending the Chinese citizenry are undertaking. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZHS Battery

There is no greater indication of the newfound wealth of the Chinese than the amount of money now spent on goods and services that were once inaccessible. Foremost among these is the shift towards bottled water. The Chinese bottled water manufacturing industry is forecast to more than double in size in 2008, becoming a $10.5 (US dollars) billion industry in the process.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11EN Battery

Meanwhile, as those who once had no recourse but poor-quality tap water take advantage of its availability in supermarkets, those who had little or no running water are now capitalising on its availability. The tap water production and supply industry is expected to grow by 29.3% in 2008, to $11.9 billion. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11MN Battery

The country's motor vehicle production industry is expected to expand by 29.5% to nearly $200 billion, as many Chinese eschew traditional modes of transport, such as bicycles, for the comforts of modern cars. Also, consumption of chocolate and other confectionery is set to increase by 24.3%, Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11XN Battery

as the industry expands to $4.6 billion, in order to keep up with China's collective sweet tooth. Couple with this is 20.8% growth in China's fast food industry, as major players such as McDonald's enter the country with vigour. Also, the LVMH Group, who own major luxury brands including Louis Vuittonapparel,Sony VAIO VGN-BZ12VN Battery

Moët & Chandon wines and champagne and Hennessy cognacs, reported earnings growth of over 25% in 2007 in China, the region now accounting for around 16% of their global business.

Environment and public health

One of the serious negative consequences of China's rapid industrial development since the 1980s has been increased pollution and degradation of natural resources.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ12XN Battery

Problems such as soil erosion,desertification and the steady fall of the water table, especially in the north, have posed a threat to the sustainable development of the country. China is an active participant in climate change talks and other multilateral environmental negotiations in organization such as the UN Environment Program (UNEP).Sony VAIO VGN-BZ31VT Battery

Mergers and acquisitions

From 1993 to 2010, Chinese companies have been involved as either an acquiror or acquired company in 25,284 mergers and acquisitions with a total known value of US$969 billion. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ31XT Battery

The number and value of deals hit a new record in 2010. The number of deals that happened in 2010 has been 3,640 which is an increase of 17% compared to 2009. The value of deals in 2010 was US$196 billion which is an increase of 25% compared to the year before.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560 Battery

The Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) is an international political economic policy research center and think tank located in the School of Economics and Management (SEM) atTsinghua University, Beijing, China.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560N24 Battery

The Center was founded in September 2004 and formally launched in October 2005 under the notion that "improving understanding of China's evolving prominence in the world will be of key importance both in China itself and abroad for many years to come". CCWE's founding partner is BP-China.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560N30 Battery

The center serves in a unique capacity as a liaison between both West and East, private and public. More specifically, the center is able to interface with both China's burgeoning market economy and its public policy makers in order to disseminate strategic policy and accurately forecast the developing role and identity of the Chinese state in the global economy. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P Battery

Moreover, its leadership is composed of academics with experience and expertise gained and formed in both the world's leading institutions. Operating in China's top university, the center hopes to increase its role as an elite source of information concerning China's development and growth in the 21st century.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P20 Battery

History

The seminal period for the center occurred from October 2003 to July 2004 when "over one hundred of the world's leading economic experts" were consulted regarding establishment. Following positive feedback, recruiting of research and administrative staff began.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P22 Battery

In September 2004, Tsinghua University formally approved the founding of the center. In February 2005, the center's executive committee was formed, holding its first meeting on 3 March of that year. In October 2005, the CCWE advisory board held its first meeting immediately preceding the first publication of the center's journal, China and World Affairs.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P28 Battery

In late October, the Center's new office location within the School of Economics and Management (SEM) became ready for use, and the formal launch of the center with its founding partner BP-China was held on October 31, 2005.

Activities

The CCWE is primarily focuses on in-depth research on China's economic development and reform. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P30 Battery

Research interests include comparative institutional, macroeconomic, and political economic strategy policy understandings, forecasts, and recommendations. Such research is promulgated via the Center's quarterly journal, working papers, and monthly bulletin publications.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P34 Battery

Further involvement in the international academic community include the hosting of the China in the World Economy Public Lecture Series, Policy Briefing Sessions (PBS), Roundtables, the China Policy Update, international conferences, and various workshops. CCWE has also participated in IMF and World Bank forums and conferences.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561 Battery

Recent conferences hosted by the CCWE have centered on topics such as the Sichuan Earthquake and the Global Financial Crisis.

China and World Affairs

The main activity of the center concerns the quarterly publication of the academic journal, China and World Affairs, which was first published in October 2005.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561N20 Battery

Edited and published within the CCWE by a team of professors, graduate students, editors, and staff; China and World Affairs is a policy journal primarily concerned with disseminating and proposing strategic policy as regards China's emergence onto the global stage since economic reform began in the late 1970s.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561P20 Battery

The journal is composed of both Chinese and English articles. Hence, the center has both Chinese and English editing teams and submission procedures for both types of articles. Since its inception, the journal has expanded both the size of its publication as well as the amount of English articles included.Sony VAIO VGN-BZ562P Battery

Since the autumn of 2008, each journal edition focuses on approximately four key issues under which included articles are organized under. Articles are published by a host of academics mainly from within China and from universities including Tsinghua University,Sony VAIO VGN-BZ563P Battery

Peking University, Fudan University, University of Hong Kong, Nankai University, Renmin University, and many other key universities located in Beijing and elsewhere. Published articles also include those written by military personnel and government officials.Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAFS Battery

Structure

Professor David Daokui Li is currently a Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor Economic and the Director of the Center for China in the World Economy. He is also the directory of the Tsinghua SEM Finance department.

Professor Li holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University. Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAHS Battery

Prior to taking up post in his Alma mater, Dr. Li held positions at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Stanford's Hoover Institution, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research areas include economic development, the Chinese economy, applied economic theory, corporate finance, and international economics.Sony VAIO VGN-BZAANS Battery

His research on the Chinese economy covers China's state enterprise reform, property rights arrangements of non-state enterprises, reform of government agencies, and China's banking sector reform. Professor Li is also an honorary professor at both Sichuan and Nankai Universities.Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAPS Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-CR11S/L Battery

Topic : laptop battery
Genre : Computer/Internet

The People's Republic of China (PRC) ranks since 2010 as the world's second largest economy after the United States. It has been the world'sfastest-growing major economy, with consistent growth rates of around 10% over the past 30 years. China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world.Sony VAIO VPCW117XC/T Battery

The country's per capita GDP (PPP) was $7,544 (International Monetary Fund, 94th in the world) in 2010. The provinces in the coastal regions of China[7] tend to be more industrialized, while regions in the hinterland are less developed. As China's economic importance has grown, so has attention to the structure and health of that economy.Sony VAIO VPCW117XC/W Battery

Overview

In the modern era, China's influence in the world economy was minimal until the late 1980s. At that time, economic reforms initiated after 1978began to generate significant and steady growth in investment, consumption and standards of living.Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ Battery

China now participates extensively in the world market and mostly state owned but also some private sector companies play a major role in the economy. Since 1978 hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty - yet hundred of millions of rural population as well as millions of migrant workers remain unattended: Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ/P Battery

According to China's official statistics, the poverty rate fell from 53% in 1981 to 2.5% in 2005. However, in 2009, as many as 150 million Chinese were living on less than $1.25 a day [11] The infant mortality rate fell by 39.5% between 1990 and 2005,[12] and maternal mortality by 41.1%.Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ/W Battery

Access to telephones during the period rose more than 94-fold, to 57.1%.as did in many developing countries such as Peru or Nigeria.

In the 1949 revolution, China's economic system was officially made into a communist system. Since the wide-ranging reforms of the 1980s and afterwards, many scholars assert that China can be defined as one of the leading examples of state capitalism today. Sony VAIO VPCW11AXJ Battery

China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist fashion. As its role in world trade has steadily grown, its importance to the international economy has also increased apace. China's foreign trade has grown faster than its GDP for the past 25 years.Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/P Battery

China's growth comes both from huge state investment in infrastructure and heavy industry and from private sector expansion in light industry instead of just exports, whose role in the economy appears to have been significantly overestimated.Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/T Battery

The smaller but highly concentrated public sector, dominated by 159 large SOEs, provided key inputs from utilities, heavy industries, and energy resources that facilitated private sector growth and drove investment, the foundation of national growth.Sony VAIO VPCW11S1E/W Battery

In 2008 thousands of private companies closed down and the government announced plans to expand the public sector to take up the slack caused by the global financial crisis.In 2010, there were approximately 10 million small businesses in China.Sony VAIO VPCW121AX Battery

The PRC government's decision to permit China to be used by multinational corporations as an export platform has made the country a major competitor to other Asian export-led economies, such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia. China has emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introducing new management systems to help increase productivity. Sony VAIO VPCW126AG Battery

The government has also focused on foreign trade as a major vehicle for economic growth. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Some economists believe that Chinese economic growth has been in fact understated during much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/P Battery

failing to fully factor in the growth driven by the private sector and that the extent at which China is dependent on exports is exaggerated despite the lack of full convertibility of the RMB. Nevertheless, key bottlenecks continue to constrain growth.Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/T Battery

Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.

The two most important sectors of the economy have traditionally been agriculture and industry, which together employ more than 70 percent of the labor force and produce more than 60 percent of GDP. Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/W Battery

The two sectors have differed in many respects. Technology, labor productivity, andincomes have advanced much more rapidly in industry than in agriculture. Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government. Sony VAIO VPCW127JC/WZ Battery

The disparities between the two sectors have combined to form an economic-cultural-social gap between the rural and urban areas, which is a major division in Chinese society. China is the world's largest producer of rice and is among the principal sources of wheat, corn (maize), tobacco, soybeans, peanuts (groundnuts), and cotton. Sony VAIO VPCW12AAJ Battery

The country is one of the world's largest producers of a number of industrial and mineral products, including cotton cloth, tungsten, and antimony, and is an important producer of cotton yarn, coal, crude oil, and a number of other products. Its mineral resources are probably among the richest in the world but are only partially developed.Sony VAIO VPCW12AKJ Battery

China has acquired highly sophisticated foreign production facilities and through "localization policies" also built a number of advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated equipment, including nuclear weapons and satellites, but most of its industrial output still comes from relatively ill-equipped factories. Sony VAIO VPCW12AVJ Battery

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still disastrous,notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment. A report by UBS in 2009 concluded that China has experienced total factor productivity growth of 4 per cent per year since 1990, one of the fastest improvements in world economic history.Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/P Battery

China's increasing integration with the international economy and its growing efforts to use market forces to govern the domestic allocation of goods have exacerbated this problem. Over the years, largesubsidies were built into the price structure, and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s.Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/T Battery

By the early 1990s these subsidies began to be eliminated, in large part due to China's admission into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, which carried with it requirements for further economic liberalization and deregulation. China's ongoing economic transformation has had a profound impact not only on China but on the world. Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/W Battery

The market-oriented reforms China has implemented over the past two decades have unleashed individual initiative and entrepreneurship, whilst retaining state domination of the economy.

Wayne M. Morrison of the Congressional Research Service wrote in 2009 that "Despite the relatively positive outlook for its economy,Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/L Battery

China faces a number of difficult challenges that, if not addressed, could undermine its future economic growth and stability. These include pervasive government corruption, an inefficient banking system, over-dependence on exports and fixed investment for growth, the lack of rule of law, severe pollution, and widening income disparities."Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/P Battery

Economic consultant David Smick adds that the recent actions by the Chinese government to stimulate their economy have only added to a huge industrial overcapacity and commercial real estate vacancy problems.

China is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, together with other emerging economies such as (Botswana) it has also sustained a healthy average growth rates of over 6% per annum for several decades, Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/T Battery

China's rapid-fire growth is as longer-lived as the Japanese counterpart in the 1960s to 1980s and is not showing signs of slowing. In China, as in other developing countries and emerging economies, growth has occurred across a vast population (nearly 1.3 billion), thus, liberating millions of people from poverty and unlocking massive segments of demand. Sony VAIO VPCW213AG/W Battery

In 2010, China was largest consumer of energy and accounted for 20.3% of the global total. China also consumed 48% of the world's coal in 2010. As of 2011, China consumed 54% of the world's production ofcement.

1949–1978

In 1949, China followed a socialist heavy industry development strategy, or the "Big Push" strategy. Sony VAIO VPCW215AG/L Battery

Consumption was reduced while rapid industrialization was given high priority. The government took control of a large part of the economy and redirected resources into building new factories. Entire new industries were arbitrarly created. An ill effort of creating economic growth was started. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC Battery

Tight control of budget and money supply reduced inflation by the end of 1950. Though most of it was done at the expense of suppressing the private sector of small to big businesses by the Three-anti/five-anti campaigns between 1951 to 1952. The campaigns were notorious for being anti-capitalist, and imposed charges that allowed the government to punish capitalists with severe fines.Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/L Battery

In the beginning of the Communist party's rule, the leaders of the party had agreed that for a nation such as China, which does not have any heavy industry and minimal secondary production, capitalism is to be utilized to help the building of the "New China" and finally merged into communism.Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/P Battery

The proclamations of the PRC instantly transformed Mao Zedong and his followers from revolutionaries to administrators. With little experience in peacetime government or economic management, they faced two overwhelming tasks to organize and administer the world's largest society and to rebuild an economy devastated by decades of war. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/T Battery

Both tasks failed within the first five years of communist rule.

Membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grew rapidly during this time, and, in a structure reminiscent of the old imperial bureaucracy, a hierarchy of party organs was extended from the top echelons of CCP down to more than one million branch committee established in every village and township, factory, school, and government agency. Sony VAIO VPCW217JC/W Battery

The new government nationalized the country's banking system and brought all currency and credit under centralized control. It regulated prices by establishing trade associations and boosted government revenues by collecting agricultural taxes. Sony VAIO VPCW218JC Battery

By the mid-1950s, the communists had ruined the country's railroad and highway systems, barely brought the agricultural and industrial production to their prewar levels, by bringing the bulk of China's industry and commerce under the direct control of the state.Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/L Battery

Meanwhile, in fulfillment of their revolutionary promise, China's communist leaders completed land reform within two years of coming to power. Party cadres visited local villages and incited the peasants in public "struggle meetings" to eliminate their landlords and redistribute their land and other possessions to peasant households. Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/P Battery

Shortly thereafter, the ERP encouraged rural households to formmutual aid teams, and then the agricultural producers' cooperatives which the government saw as the best means for increasing agricultural productivity. The devastating result was massive famine and death.Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/T Battery

Mao Gando tried in 1958 to push China's economy to new heights. Under his highly touted "Great Leap Forward", agricultural collectives were reorganized into enormous communes where men and women were assigned in military fashion to specific tasks.Sony VAIO VPCW218JC/W Battery

Peasants were told to stop relying on the family, and instead adopted a system of communal kitchens, mess halls, and nurseries. Wages were calculated along the communist principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", and sideline production was banned as incipient capitalism. Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/L Battery

All Chinese citizens were urged to boost the country's steel production by establishing "backyard steel furnaces" to help overtake the West. But while Mao believed that the politically directed outpouring of effort by China's vast population would result in economic development and miraculous production increases,Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/P Battery

the Great Leap Forward quickly revealed itself as a giant step backwards. Over-ambitious targets were set, falsified production figures were duly reported, and Chinese officials lived in an unreal world of miraculous production increases. Steel output did rise dramatically, but most of the steel was virtually useless. Sony VAIO VPCW219AJ/W Battery

Even worse, it quickly became apparent that the peasants had made their steel by melting whatever metal they could find. By 1960, agricultural production in the countryside had slowed dangerously, and GNP declined by about one-third. The people were exhausted, and large areas of China were gripped by a devastating famine. Sony VAIO VPCW21AAJ Battery

By 1960, the situation had become so grave that not even Mao could ignore it. Quietly and without fanfare, Mao stepped to the sidelines, and pragmatists within the CCP, including Deng Xiaoping, began to do what was necessary to restore incentives and productions.Sony VAIO VPCW21AKJ Battery

For the next several years, China experienced a period of relative stability. Agricultural and industrial production returned to normal levels, and labor productivity began to rise. Then, in 1966, Mao reasserted his power and again launched a scheme that nearly brought China to its knees. Sony VAIO VPCW21AVJ Battery

Worried lest Deng and other bureaucrats pull China too far from the spirit of its socialist revolution, Mao proclaimed a Cultural Revolution to "put China back on track". Under orders to "Destroy the Four Olds" (old thoughts, culture, customs and habits), universities and schools closed their doors, and students,Sony VAIO VPCY115FGS Battery

who became Mao's "Red Guards", were sent throughout the country to make revolution, beating and torturing anyone whose rank or political thinking offended. Intellectuals were cursed as the "stinking ninth class", and any sign of "capitalism", such as wearing a necktie, was enough to condemn someone as a foe of the Communist Party. Sony VAIO VPCY115FX/BI Battery

Deng himself was purged as a "capitalist roader" and sent to work in a tractor factory.

By 1969 the country had descended into anarchy, and factions of the Red Guards had begun to fight among themselves. Finally, Mao called upon the army to restore order and sent his young guards to the countryside, where many became an embittered, uneducated, "lost" generation. In 1973, Mao quietly recalled Deng Xiaoping to Beijing.Sony VAIO VPCY115FXBI Battery

1978–1990

After Mao's death in 1976, power passed quickly to the reform fraction of the CCP, led by Deng Xiaoping. Unlike Mao, Deng was a pragmatic leader, known less of his ideological commitment than his slogan: "Who cares if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mice." Sony VAIO VPCY118EC Battery

Once he consolidated his power, he began to put his pragmatic policies to work, determined to bring China back from the devastation that the Cultural Revolution had wrought.

Since 1978, China began to make major reforms to its economy. Sony VAIO VPCY118GX/BI Battery

The Chinese leadership adopted a pragmatic perspective on many political and socioeconomic problems, and quickly began to introduce aspects of a capitalist economic system. Political and social stability, economic productivity, and public and consumer welfare were considered paramount and indivisible. Sony VAIO VPCY119FJ/S Battery

In these years, the government emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introducing new management systems to help increase productivity. The government also had focused on foreign trade as a major vehicle for economic growth. Sony VAIO VPCY11AFJ Battery

In the 1980s, China tried to combine central planning with market-oriented reforms to increase productivity, living standards, and technological quality without exacerbating inflation, unemployment, and budget deficits. Reforms began in the agricultural, industrial, fiscal, financial, banking, price setting, and labor systems.Sony VAIO VPCY11AGJ Battery

A decision was made in 1978 to permit foreign direct investment in several small "special economic zones" along the coast.[35] The country lacked the legal infrastructure and knowledge of international practices to make this prospect attractive for many foreign businesses, however.Sony VAIO VPCY11AHJ Battery

In the early 1980s steps were taken to expand the number of areas that could accept foreign investment with a minimum of red tape, and related efforts were made to develop the legal and other infrastructures necessary to make this work well. This additional effort resulted in making 14 coastal cities and three coastal regions "open areas" for foreign investment. Sony VAIO VPCY11AVJ Battery

All of these places provide favored tax treatment and other advantages for foreign investment. Laws on contracts, patents, and other matters of concern to foreign businesses were also passed in an effort to attract international capital to spur China's development.Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E/S Battery

The largely bureaucratic nature of China's economy, however, posed a number of inherent problems for foreign firms that wanted to operate in the Chinese environment, and China gradually had to add more incentives to attract foreign capital.

Phase One: reform in the countryside

When Deng came into power, China's vast peasantry was still organized in communes, work brigades, and production teams.Sony VAIO VPCY11S1E Battery

Procurement prices were too low to cover even production costs, and ceilings were set on the amount of grain that producers could keep for consumption. Deng changed all that. He allowed farmers to produce on their own and sanctioned the sale of surplus production and other cash crops in newly freed markets. Sony VAIO VPCY11V9E/S Battery

State procurement prices were raised, and prices for many agricultural goods were left to the dictates of the market. Beginning with the poor mountain areas of Anhui and then spreading across the country, Deng and his officials broke up the communes established by Mao and replaced them with a complicated system of leases that eventually brought effective land tenure back to the household level (even though ownership of land remained collective). Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/BI Battery

The Household Responsibility System allowed peasants to lease land for a fixed period from the collective, provided they delivered to the collective a minimum quota of produce, usually basic grain. They could then sell any surplus they produced, either to the state at government procurement prices or on the newly free market. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/G Battery

They were also free to retain any profits they might earn. Within a decade, grain production had grown by roughly 30%, and production of cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, and fruit had doubled.

Phase Two: rural industrialization and enterprise reform

As the reforms fueled production increases that surprised even the reformers, Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/L Battery

the scale of change grew bolder, and by the mid-1980s, the party leadership had begun the more complicated and politically delicate task of transforming the country's cumbersome system of central planning and state-owned enterprise. Prior to 1978, enterprises were almost all owned by the state in one form or another. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/P Battery

At the top of each sector were the State-owned Enterprises (SOEs), answerable to the national government. Below these were other enterprises reporting to provincial, municipal, or county authorities. Private enterprises, meaning family-run shops, were not allowed until after 1978, and even then they were limited to seven employees.Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery

China's SOEs were typical of large industrial firms in a centrally planned economy. Inefficient, overstaffed, and with outdated technology, they functioned not only as industrial units but also as social agencies, providing housing, daycare, education, and health care for the workers and their families. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/P Battery

The largest enterprises included hundreds of thousands of employees, only a small proportion of whom were directly engaged in production.

The update of this system was that Chinese workers could expect both lifetime employment and an extensive, firm-based welfare system-the so-called "iron rice bowl". Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/SI Battery

All welfare entitlements in this system were accounted for as costs of production and were deducted from revenues before the calculation of the profits that were to be remitted to the state. There was no national social security system because none was needed.Sony VAIO VPCZ110 Battery

1990–2000

n the 1990s, the Chinese economy continued to grow at a rapid pace, at about 9.5%, accompanied by low inflation. The Asian financial crisis affected China at the margin, mainly through decreased foreign direct investment and a sharp drop in the growth of its exports. Sony VAIO VPCZ110GB/BI Battery

However, China had huge reserves, a currency that was not freely convertible, and capital inflows that consisted overwhelmingly of long-term investment. For these reasons it remained largely insulated from the regional crisis and its commitment not to devalue had been a major stabilizing factor for the region. Sony VAIO VPCZ112GD/S Battery

However, China faced slowing growth and rising unemployment based on internal problems, including a financial system burdened by huge amounts of bad loans, and massive layoffs stemming from aggressive efforts to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs).Sony VAIO VPCZ112GX/S Battery

Despite China's impressive economic development during the past two decades, reforming the state sector and modernizing the banking systemremained major hurdles. Over half of China's state-owned enterprises were inefficient and reporting losses. Sony VAIO VPCZ114GX/S Battery

During the 15th National Communist Party Congress that met in September 1997, President Jiang Zemin announced plans to sell, merge, or close the vast majority of SOEs in his call for increased "non-public ownership" (feigongyou or privatization in euphemistic terms).Sony VAIO VPCZ115 Battery

The 9th National People's Congress endorsed the plans at its March 1998 session. In 2000, China claimed success in its three year effort to make the majority of large state owned enterprises (SOEs) profitable.

2000–2010

Following the Chinese Communist Party's Third Plenum, held in October 2003, Chinese legislators unveiled several proposed amendments to the state constitution. Sony VAIO VPCZ115FC/B Battery

One of the most significant was a proposal to provide protection for private property rights. Legislators also indicated there would be a new emphasis on certain aspects of overall government economic policy, including efforts to reduce unemployment (now in the 8–10% range in urban areas), Sony VAIO VPCZ115FC/S Battery

to rebalanceincome distribution between urban and rural regions, and to maintain economic growth while protecting the environment and improving social equity. The National People's Congress approved the amendments when it met in March 2004.Sony VAIO VPCZ116 Battery

The Fifth Plenum in October 2005 approved the 11th Five-Year Economic Program (2006–2010) aimed at building a "harmonious society" through more balanced wealth distribution and improved education, medical care, and social security. On March 2006, the National People's Congress approved the 11th Five-Year Program.Sony VAIO VPCZ116GX/S Battery

The plan called for a relatively conservative 45% increase in GDP and a 20% reduction in energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) by 2010.

China's economy grew at an average rate of 10% per year during the period 1990–2004, the highest growth rate in the world.Sony VAIO VPCZ117 Battery

China's GDP grew 10.0% in 2003, 10.1%, in 2004, and even faster 10.4% in 2005 despite attempts by the government to cool the economy. China's total trade in 2010 surpassed $2.97 trillion, making China the world's second-largest trading nation after the U.S.Sony VAIO VPCZ117FC/B Battery

Such high growth is necessary if China is to generate the 15 million jobs needed annually—roughly the size of Ecuador or Cambodia—to employ new entrants into the national job market.

On January 14, 2009, as confirmed by the World Bank the NBS published the revised figures for 2007 fiscal year in which growth happened at 13 percent instead of 11.9 percent (provisional figures). Sony VAIO VPCZ118 Battery

China's gross domestic product stood at US$3.38 trillion while Germany's GDP was USD $3.32 trillion for 2007. This made China the world's third largest economy by gross domestic product. Based on these figures, in 2007 China recorded its fastest growth since 1994 when the GDP grew by 13.1 percent. Sony VAIO VPCZ118GC/B Battery

China launched its Economic Stimulus Plan to specifically deal with the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009. It has primarily focused on increasing affordable housing, easing credit restrictions for mortgage and SMEs, lower taxes such as those on real estate sales and commodities, pumping more public investment into infrastructure development, such as the rail network, roads and ports. Sony VAIO VPCZ118GX/S Battery

By the end of 2009 it appeared that the Chinese economy was showing signs of recovery. At the 2009 Economic Work Conference in December 'managing inflation expectations' was added to the list of economic objectives, suggesting a strong economic upturn and a desire to take steps to manage it. Sony VAIO VPCZ119 Battery

2010–present

By 2010 it was evident to outside observers such as The New York Times that China was poised to move from export dependency to development of an internal market. Wages were rapidly rising in all areas of the country and Chinese leaders were calling for an increased standard of living.Sony VAIO VPCZ119FJ/S Battery

China is the largest creditor nation in the world[citation needed] and owns approximately 20.8% of all foreign-owned US Treasury securities. In 2010, China's GDP was valued at $5.87 trillion, surpassed Japan's $5.47 trillion, and became the world's second largest economy after the U.S.Sony VAIO VPCZ119GC/X Battery

China could become the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) sometime as early as 2020.

It has also appeared that Noopolitik and the knowledge economy had become salient interests of the PRC's economic policy across the 2000s, through which the country made clear its move from "Made in China" to "Innovated in China" as notes Adam Segal.Sony VAIO VPCZ119L Battery

Idriss Aberkane thus argued "With China’s cosmopolitan and highly educated diaspora, it is no surprise that as of 2010, five of the top twenty most visited websites in the world are indexed in Mandarin. They include PRC-born behemoths such as Baidu.com, Taobao.com, and Sina.com.cn, and video sharing Tudou.com, which has gained users in both North America and Europe." Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/B Battery

The Institute of Economic Research of Renmin University of China has conducted several studies and released several reports regarding China's economy. "Under the influences of 2009’s stimulus policies, the spread of the economic bubble and implementation of the “12th Five-Year Plan”, China was at a key stage of steering the economic recovery to stable growth. Sony VAIO VPCZ119R/S Battery

While prices increased steadily, China’s GDP went back to the high-level growth rate and its economic structure gradually became market-oriented." . The foremost authorities on the Chinese economy -- those within the Chinese think-tanks and government -- give a unique, first-hand perspective.Sony VAIO VPCZ11AFJ Battery

Their works, translated into English for a Western audience, are published only through an independent Hong Kong publishing house, www.enrichprofessional.com/home and can be found at academic libraries throughout the world.Sony VAIO VPCZ11AGJ Battery

Government role

Since 1949 the government, under socialist political and economic system, has been responsible for planning and managing the national economy. In the early 1950s, the foreign trade system wasmonopolized by the state. Nearly all the domestic enterprises were state-owned and the government had set the prices for key commodities, Sony VAIO VPCZ11AVJ Battery

controlled the level and general distribution of investment funds, determined output targets for major enterprises and branches, allocated energy resources, set wage levels and employment targets, operated the wholesale and retail networks, and steered thefinancial policy and banking system.Sony VAIO VPCZ11CGX/X Battery

In the countryside from the mid-1950s, the government established cropping patterns, set the level of prices, and fixed output targets for all major crops.

Since 1978 when economic reforms were instituted, the government's role in the economy has lessened by a great degree.Sony VAIO VPCZ11DGX/SJ Battery

Industrial output by state enterprises slowly declined, although a few strategic industries, such as the aerospace industry have today remained predominantly state-owned. While the role of the government in managing the economy has been reduced and the role of bothprivate enterprise and market forces increased, the government maintains a major role in the urban economy.Sony VAIO VPCZ11FHX/XQ Battery

With its policies on such issues as agricultural procurement the government also retains a major influence on rural sector performance. The State Constitution of 1982 specified that the state is to guide the country's economic development by making broad decisions on economic priorities and policies, and that the State Council,Sony VAIO VPCZ11V9R/B Battery

which exercises executive control, was to direct its subordinate bodies in preparing and implementing the national economic plan and the state budget. A major portion of the government system (bureaucracy) is devoted to managing the economy in a top-down chain of command with all but a few of the more than 100 ministries,Sony VAIO VPCZ11X9E/B Battery

commissions, administrations, bureaus, academies, and corporations under the State Council being concerned with economic matters.

Each significant economic sector is supervised by one or more of these organizations, which includes the People's Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, and the ministries of agriculture; Sony VAIO VPCZ11Z9E/B Battery

coal industry; commerce; communications; education; light industry; metallurgical industry; petroleum industry; railways; textile industry; and water resources andelectric power. Several aspects of the economy are administered by specialized departments under the State Council, including the National Bureau of Statistics, Civil Aviation Administration of China, and the tourism bureau.Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX/S Battery

Each of the economic organizations under the State Council directs the units under its jurisdiction through subordinate offices at the provincial and local levels.

The whole policy-making process involves extensive consultation and negotiation.Sony VAIO VPCZ127FC Battery

Economic policies and decisions adopted by the National People's Congress and the State Council are to be passed on to the economic organizations under the State Council, which incorporates them into the plans for the various sectors of the economy. Economic plans and policies are implemented by a variety of direct and indirect control mechanisms.Sony VAIO VPCZ128GC Battery

Direct control is exercised by designating specific physical output quotas and supply allocations for some goods and services. Indirect instruments—also called "economic levers"—operate by affecting market incentives. These included levying taxes, setting prices for products and supplies,Sony VAIO VPCZ12M9E/B Battery

allocating investment funds, monitoring and controlling financial transactions by the banking system, and controlling the allocation of key resources, such as skilled labor, electric power, transportation, steel, and chemicals (including fertilizers). Sony VAIO VPCZ13M9E/B Battery

The main advantage of including a project in an annual plan is that the raw materials, labor, financial resources, and markets are guaranteed by directives that have the weight of the law behind them. In reality, however, a great deal of economic activity goes on outside the scope of the detailed plan, and the tendency has been for the plan to become narrower rather than broader in scope. Sony VAIO VPCZ13V9E/X Battery

A major objective of the reform program was to reduce the use of direct controls and to increase the role of indirect economic levers. Major state-owned enterprises still receive detailed plans specifying physical quantities of key inputs and products from their ministries. Sony VAIO VPCZ13Z9E/X Battery

These corporations, however, have been increasingly affected by prices and allocations that were determined through market interaction and only indirectly influenced by the central plan.

Total economic enterprise in China is apportioned along lines of directive planning (mandatory), indicative planning (indirect implementation of central directives), and those left to market forces.Sony VAIO VPCZZZHJ Battery

In the early 1980s during the initial reforms enterprises began to have increasing discretion over the quantities of inputs purchased, the sources of inputs, the variety of products manufactured, and the production process. Operational supervision over economic projects has devolved primarily to provincial, municipal, and county governments.Sony VAIO VPZ117 Battery

The majority of state-owned industrial enterprises, which were managed at the provincial level or below, were partially regulated by a combination of specific allocations and indirect controls, but they also produced goods outside the plan for sale in the market.Sony VAIO VPZ118 Battery

Important, scarce resources—for example, engineers or finished steel—may have been assigned to this kind of unit in exact numbers. Less critical assignments of personnel and materials would have been authorized in a general way by the plan, but with procurement arrangements left up to the enterprise management.Sony VAIO VPZ119 Battery

In addition, enterprises themselves are gaining increased independence in a range of activity. While strategically important industry and services and most of large-scale construction have remained under directive planning, the market economy has gained rapidly in scale every year as it subsumes more and more sectors.Sony VPCM11M1E/B Battery

Overall, the Chinese industrial system contains a complex mixture of relationships. The State Council generally administers relatively strict control over resources deemed to be of vital concern for the performance and health of the entire economy. Sony VPCM11M1E/W Battery

Less vital aspects of the economy have been transferred to lower levels for detailed decisions and management. Furthermore, the need to coordinate entities that are in different organizational hierarchies generally causes a great deal of informal bargaining and consensus building.Sony VPCM12M1E/L Battery

Consumer spending has been subject to a limited degree of direct government influence but is primarily determined by the basic market forces of income levels and commodity prices. Before the reform period, key goods were rationed when they were in short supply, Sony VPCM12M1E/P Battery

but by the mid-1980s availability had increased to the point that rationing was discontinued for everything except grain, which could also be purchased in the free markets. Collectively owned units and the agricultural sector were regulated primarily by indirect instruments.Sony VPCM12M1E/W Battery

Each collective unit was "responsible for its own profit and loss," and the prices of its inputs and products provided the major production incentives.

Vast changes were made in relaxing the state control of the agricultural sector from the late 1970s. Sony VPCM13M1E/L Battery

The structural mechanisms for implementing state objectives—the people's communes and their subordinate teams and brigades—have been either entirely eliminated or greatly diminished.Farm incentives have been boosted both by price increases for state-purchased agricultural products, and it was permitted to sell excess production on a free market. Sony VPCM13M1E/P Battery

There was more room in the choice of what crops to grow, and peasants are allowed to contract for land that they will work, rather than simply working most of the land collectively. The system of procurement quotas (fixed in the form of contracts) has been being phased out, although the state can still buy farm products and control surpluses in order to affect market conditions.Sony VPCM13M1E/W Battery

Foreign trade is supervised by the Ministry of Commerce, customs, and the Bank of China, the foreign exchange arm of the Chinese banking system, which controls access to the foreign currency required for imports. Ever since restrictions on foreign trade were reduced, Sony VAIO VGN-Z11MN/B Battery

there have been broad opportunities for individual enterprises to engage in exchanges with foreign firms without much intervention from official agencies.

Though private sector companies still dominate small and medium sized businesses, the government still plays a large part in the bigger industries. Sony VAIO VGN-Z11VN/X Battery

The fact that government accounts for a third of the GDP shows this. Foreign owned companies hold significant stakes. The public sector is mainly made up of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Purely on economic grounds, therefore, China has become a phenomenon. Sony VAIO VGN-Z11WN/B Battery

It is the second-largest economy in the world and has frequently been described as likely, within a decade, to surpass both the European Union and the United States in total GDP. Under the leadership of President Hu Jintao, the Chinese Communist Party has retained full control of the country's affairs and remained firmly committed to many of socialism's key tenets. Sony VAIO VGN-Z11XN/B Battery

All of the country's major banks, for example, remained tightly linked to the state, as do key sectors such as oil, petrochemicals, and steel. State agencies have provided most of the country's still-limited financial services, and state-owned enterprises produced more than one-third of total output.Sony VAIO VGN-Z15 Battery

Indeed, the state-and the Party-were central players in nearly all aspects of China's economy, guiding a development trajectory often labeled as "socialism with Chinese characteristics".

Regional economies

China's unequal transportation system—combined with important differences in the availability of natural and human resources and in industrial infrastructure—has produced significant variations in the regional economies of China.Sony VAIO VGN-Z15N Battery

Economic development has generally been more rapid in coastal provinces than in the interior, and there are large disparities in per capita income between regions. The three wealthiest regions are along the southeast coast, centred on the Pearl River Delta; Sony VAIO VGN-Z17 Battery

along the east coast, centred on the Lower Yangtze River; and near the Bohai Gulf, in the Beijing–Tianjin–Liaoning region. It is the rapid development of these areas that is expected to have the most significant effect on the Asian regional economy as a whole, and Chinese government policy is designed to remove the obstacles to accelerated growth in these wealthier regions.Sony VAIO VGN-Z17N Battery

Development

China, economically frail before 1978, has again become one of the world's major economic powers with the greatest potential. In the 22 years following reform and opening-up in 1979 in particular, China's economy developed at an unprecedented rate, and that momentum has been held steady into the 21st century.Sony VAIO VGN-Z19 Battery

China adopts the "five-year-plan" strategy for economic development. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011–2015) is currently being implemented.

It was not an obvious path to growth. But for nearly 30 years China had indeed been growing, thrusting its citizens into prosperity and its goods across the world. Sony VAIO VGN-Z19N Battery

Between 1978 and 2005, China's per capita GDP had grown from $153 to $1284, while its current account surplus had increased over twelve-fold between 1982 and 2004, from $5.7 billion to $71 billion. During this time, China had also become an industrial powerhouse, Sony VAIO VGN-Z21MN/B Battery

moving beyond initial successes in low-wage sectors like clothing and footwear to the increasingly sophisticated production of computers, pharmaceuticals, andautomobiles.

Just how long the trajectory could continue, however, remained unclear. Sony VAIO VGN-Z21VN/X Battery

According to the 11th five-year plan, China needed to sustain an annual growth rates of 8% for the foreseeable future. Only with such levels of growth, the leadership argued, could China continue to develop its industrial prowess, raise its citizen's standard of living, and redress the inequalities that were cropping up across the country. Sony VAIO VGN-Z21WN/B Battery

Yet no country had ever before maintained the kind of growth that China was predicting. Moreover, China had to some extent already undergone the easier parts of development. In the 1980s, it had transformed its vast and inefficient agricultural sector, freeing its peasants from the confines of central planning and winning them to the cause of reform. Sony VAIO VGN-Z21XN Battery

In the 1990s, it had likewise started to restructure its stagnant industrial sector, wooing foreign investors for the first time. These policies had catalysed the country's phenomenal growth. Instead, China had to take what many regarded as the final step toward the market, liberalizing the banking sector and launching the beginnings of a real capital market.Sony VAIO VGN-Z21ZN/X Battery

This step, however, would not be easy. As of 2004, China's state-owned enterprises were still only partially reorganized, and its banks were dealing with the burden of over $205 billion (1.7 trillion RMB) in non-performing loans, monies that had little chance of ever being repaid. Sony VAIO VGN-Z25 Battery

The country had a floating exchange rate, and strict controls on both the current and capital accounts.

Regional development

These strategies are aimed at the relatively poorer regions in China in an attempt to prevent widening inequalities:Sony VAIO VGN-Z25/B Battery

• China Western Development, designed to increase the economic situation of the western provinces through capital investment and development of natural resources.


• Revitalize Northeast China, to rejuvenate the industrial bases in Northeast China. It covers the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning, as well as the five eastern prefectures of Inner Mongolia.Sony VAIO VGN-Z25TN/B Battery


• Rise of Central China Plan, to accelerate the development of its central regions. It covers six provinces: Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi.


• Third Front, focused on the southwestern provinces.

Foreign investment abroad:

• Go Global, to encourage its enterprises to invest overseas. Sony VAIO VGN-Z26TN/B Battery

Key national projects

The "West-to-East Electricity Transmission," the "West-to-East Gas Transmission," and the "South–North Water Transfer Project" are the government's three key strategic projects, aimed at realigning overall economic development and achieving rational distribution of national resources across China. Sony VAIO VGN-Z27 Battery

The "West-to-East Electricity Transmission" project is in full swing, involving hydropower and coal resources in western China and the construction of new power transmission channels to deliver electricity to the east. The southern power grid line, transmitting three million kW from Guizhou to Guangdong, was completed in September 2004. Sony VAIO VGN-Z27/B Battery

The "West-to-East Gas Transmission" project includes a 4,000 km trunk pipeline running through 10 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities, conveying natural gas to cities in northern and eastern China. This was finished in October 2004 and has a design capacity of 12 billion cu m per year.Sony VAIO VGN-Z27TN/X Battery

Construction of the "South-to-North Water Diversion" project was officially launched on 27 December 2002 and completion of Phase I is scheduled for 2010; this will relieve serious water shortfall in northern China and realize a rational distribution of the water resources of the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe, and Haihe river valleys.Sony VAIO VGN-Z29N Battery

Hong Kong and Macau

In accordance with the One Country, Two Systems policy, the economies of the former European colonies, Hong Kong and Macao, are separate from the rest of the PRC, and each other.Sony VAIO VGN-Z29N/X Battery

Both Hong Kong and Macau are free to conduct and engage in economic negotiations with foreign countries, as well as participating as full members in various international economic organizations such as theWorld Customs Organization, the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, often under the names "Hong Kong, China" and "Macao, China".Sony VAIO VGN-Z31MN/B Battery

Macroeconomic trends

In January 1985, the State Council of China approved to establish a SNA (System of National Accounting), use the gross domestic product (GDP) to measure the national economy. China started the study of theoretical foundation, guiding, and accounting model etc., for establishing a new system of national economic accounting. Sony VAIO VGN-Z31VN/X Battery

In 1986, as the first citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Ph.D. in economics from an overseas country, Dr. Fengbo Zhang headed Chinese Macroeconomic Research - the key research project of the seventh Five-Year Plan of China, as well as completing and publishing the China GDP data by China's own research.Sony VAIO VGN-Z31WN/B Battery

The summary of the above has been included in the book Chinese Macroeconomic Structure and Policy (1988) Editor: Fengbo Zhang, collectively authored by the Research Center of the State Council of China. This is the first GDP data which was published by China.Sony VAIO VGN-Z31ZN/X Battery

The State Council of China issued “The notice regarding implementation of System of National Accounting” in August 1992, the SNA system officially is introduced to China, replaced Soviet Union's MPS system, Western economic indicator GDP became China’s most important economic indicator (WikiChina: China GDP, The First China GDP).Sony VAIO VGN-Z35 Battery

The table below shows the trend of the GDP of China at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with figures in millions (Chinese yuan).  See also.  For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US dollar is exchanged at 2.05 CNY only.Sony VAIO VGN-Z35/B Battery

Systemic problems

The government has in recent years struggled to contain the social strife and environmental damage related to the economy's rapid transformation; collect public receipts due from provinces, businesses, and individuals;Sony VAIO VGN-Z35TN/B Battery

reduce corruption and other economic crimes; sustain adequate job growth for tens of millions of workers laid off from state-owned enterprises, migrants, and new entrants to the work force; and keep afloat the large state-owned enterprises, most of which had not participated in the vigorous expansion of the economy and many of which had been losing the ability to pay full wages and pensions.Sony VAIO VGN-Z36GD Battery

From 50 to 100 million surplus rural workers were adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-time low-paying jobs. Popular resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority by rural cadres have weakened China's population control program.Sony VAIO VGN-Z36GD/B Battery

Another long-term threat to continued rapid economic growth has been the deterioration in the environment, notably air and water pollution, soil erosion, growing desertification and the steady fall of the water table especially in the north. China also has continued to lose arable land because of erosion and infrastructure development.Sony VAIO VGN-Z36GD/J Battery

Other major problems concern the labor force and the pricing system. There is large-scale underemployment in both urban and rural areas, and the fear of the disruptive effects of major, explicitunemployment is strong. The prices of certain key commodities, especially of industrial raw materials and major industrial products, are determined by the state. Sony VAIO VGN-Z36TD/B Battery

In most cases, basic price ratios were set in the 1950s and are often irrational in terms of current production capabilities and demands. Over the years, large subsidies were built into the price structure, and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s.Sony VAIO VGN-Z36TD/J Battery

By the early 1990s these subsidies began to be eliminated, in large part due to China's admission into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, which carried with it requirements for further economic liberalization and deregulation.Sony VAIO VGN-Z37D Battery

By 2010, rapidly rising wages and a general increase in the standard of living had put increased energy use on a collision course with the need to reduce carbon emissions in order to control global warming. There were diligent efforts to increase energy efficiency and increase use of renewable sources; Sony VAIO VGN-Z37D/B Battery

over 1,000 inefficient power plants had been closed, but projections continued to show a dramatic rise in carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Regulatory environment

Though China's economy has expanded rapidly, its regulatory environment has not kept pace. Sony VAIO VGN-Z37GD Battery

Since Deng Xiaoping's open market reforms, the growth of new businesses has outpaced the government's ability to regulate them. This has created a situation where businesses, faced with mounting competition and poor oversight, take drastic measures to increase profit margins, often at the expense ofconsumer safety. Sony VAIO VGN-Z37GD/X Battery

This issue became more prominent in 2007, with a number of restrictions being placed on problematic Chinese exports by the United States.

Inflation

During the winter of 2007–2008, inflation ran about 7% on an annual basis, rising to 8.7% in statistics for February 2008, released in March 2008.Sony VAIO VGN-Z39D Battery

Shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel developed in the fall of 2007 due to reluctance of refineries to produce fuel at low prices set by the state. These prices were slightly increased in November 2007 with fuel selling for $2.65 a gallon, still slightly below world prices.Sony VAIO VGN-Z39D/X Battery

Price controls were in effect on numerous basic products and services, but were ineffective with food, prices of which were rising at an annual rate of 18.2% in November 2007.The problem of inflation has caused concern at the highest levels of the Chinese government. Sony VAIO VGN-Z41MD/B Battery

On January 9, 2008, the government of China issued the following statement on its official website: "The Chinese government decided on Wednesday to take further measures to stabilize market prices and increase the severity of punishments for those guilty of driving up prices through hoarding or cheating."Sony VAIO VGN-Z41WD/B Battery

Pork is an important part of the Chinese economy with a per capita consumption of a fifth of a pound per day. The worldwide rise in the price of animal feed associated with increased production of ethanol from corn resulted in steep rises in pork prices in China in 2007. Sony VAIO VGN-Z45GD/B Battery

Increased cost of production interacted badly with increased demand resulting from rapidly rising wages. The state responded by subsidizing pork prices for students and the urban poor and called for increased production. Release of pork from the nation's strategic pork reserve was considered.Sony VAIO VGN-Z45TD/B Battery

By January 2008, the inflation rate rose to 7.1%, which BBC News described as the highest inflation rate since 1997, due to the winter storms that month.China's inflation rate jumped to a new decade high of 8.7 percent in February 2008 after severe winter storms disrupted the economy and worsened food shortages, the government said March 11, 2008.Sony VAIO VGN-Z46GD/B Battery

Throughout the summer and fall, however, inflation fell again to a low of 6.6% in October 2008.

By November 2010, the inflation rate rose up to 5.1%, driven by a 11.7% increase in food prices year on year. According to the bureau, industrial output went up 13.3 percent.Sony VAIO VGN-Z46GD/U Battery

As supplies have run short, prices for fuel and other commodities have risen up.

Labor shortages and rising export costs

By 2005, there were signs of stronger demand for workers being able to choose employment that offered higher wages and better working conditions, Sony VAIO VGN-Z46MD/B Battery

enabling some to move away from the restrictive dormitory life and boring marige work that have characterized export industries in provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian. Minimum wages began rising toward the equivalent of 100 U.S. dollars a month as companies scrambled for employees, with some paying as much as $150 a month on average. Sony VAIO VGN-Z46SD/B Battery

The labor shortage was partially driven by the demographic trends, as the proportion of people of working age fell as the result of strict family planning.

It was reported in The New York Times in April 2006 that labor costs continued to increase and a shortage of unskilled labor had developed with a million or more employees being sought. Sony VAIO VGN-Z46TD/B Battery

Operations that relied on cheap labor were contemplating relocations to cities in the interior or to other low-cost countries such as Vietnam or Bangladesh. Many young people were attending college rather than opting for minimum-wage factory work.Sony VAIO VGN-Z46TD/R Battery

The demographic shift resulting from the one-child policy continued to reduce the supply of young entry-level workers. Also, government efforts to advance economic development in the interior of the country were beginning to be effective at creating better opportunities there.Sony VAIO VGN-Z47GD/X Battery

A follow-up article in The New York Times in late August 2007 reported acceleration of this trend. The minimum wage a young unskilled factory worker could be hired at had increased to $200 with experienced workers commanding more. Sony VAIO VGN-Z48GD/X Battery

There was strong demand for young workers willing to work long hours and live in dormitory conditions, while older workers, over forty, were considered unsuitable.

Rising wages were being, to a certain extent, offset by increases in productivity, but in 2007, a slight rise in the cost of imports from China was recorded by the United States government: Sony VAIO VGN-Z48TD/X Battery

"After falling since its inception in December 2003, the price index for imports from China rose 0.4 percent in July 2007, the largest monthly increase since the index was first published in December 2003. The July increase was the third consecutive monthly advance. Over the past year, import prices from China increased 0.9 percent."Sony VAIO VGN-Z51WG/B Battery

By February 2008, concerns were being raised that rising wages and inflation in China were beginning to create inflationary pressure in the United States and Europe, which had depended on cheap prices for consumer goods from China exerting downward pressure on prices.Sony VAIO VGN-Z51XG/B Battery

On January 1, 2008, China introduced a new Labor Law, increasing the rights of the workforce, this caused many foreign and private companies, whose operations in China were based on low wages, to move to countries with lower labor costs, like Thailand, Vietnam or Bangladesh. Sony VAIO VGN-Z530N/B Battery

In the summer of 2008 the growth in export orders began to fall sharply as the sub-prime crisis in export markets reduced demand in Guangdong province, particularly in toy and textile manufacture. According to Chinese Government sources 20 million jobs in 67,000 factories were reported to have been lost.Sony VAIO VGN-Z540EBB Battery

The government initially was happy to see factories close down in labour intensive low wage factories, and the Labor law was seen as a means of helping to eradicate them, but the global financial crisis led to a far more rapid process of private sector collapse in Guangdong than was expected, raising fears of a contagious spread of social unrest.Sony VAIO VGN-Z540NLB Battery

In early 2010 a labor shortage developed in coastal areas with many migrant workers not returning after the new year holiday. Wages rose rapidly with temp agencies charging over $1.00 US per hour for factory workers in Guangzhou.Following the strikes in 2010 at Japanese auto plants, the shortage continued with many factories unable to fully staff their factories.Sony VAIO VGN-Z540NMB Battery

According to Fan Gang, professor of economics at Beijing University and director of China’s National Economic Research Institute, due to the large volume of workers engaged in relatively unremunerative agricultural work there is considerable room for increased nominal wages in China without changing the competitive position of the Chinese export industry for the next few decades. Sony VAIO VGN-Z550N/B Battery

Lower wages in other countries may not represent productivity comparable to the increasing productivity of Chinese workers.

Financial and banking system

Most of China's financial institutions are state owned and governed and 98% of banking assets are state owned.Sony VAIO VGN-Z55F Battery

The chief instruments of financial and fiscalcontrol are the People's Bank of China (PBC) and the Ministry of Finance, both under the authority of the State Council. The People's Bank of China replaced theCentral Bank of China in 1950 and gradually took over private banks. It fulfills many of the functions of other central and commercial banks.Sony VAIO VGN-Z55TG/B Battery

It issues the currency, controls circulation, and plays an important role in disbursing budgetary expenditures. Additionally, it administers the accounts, payments, and receipts of government organizations and other bodies, which enables it to exert thorough supervision over their financial and general performances in consideration to the government's economic plans. Sony VAIO VGN-Z56GG/B Battery

The PBC is also responsible for international trade and other overseas transactions. Remittances by overseas Chinese are managed by the Bank of China (BOC), which has a number of branch offices in several countries.Sony VAIO VGN-Z56GG/E Battery

Other financial institutions that are crucial, include the China Development Bank (CDB), which funds economic development and directs foreign investment; theAgricultural Bank of China (ABC), which provides for the agricultural sector; the China Construction Bank (CCB),Sony VAIO VGN-Z56GGX Battery

which is responsible for capitalizing a portion of overall investment and for providing capital funds for certain industrial and construction enterprises; and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which conducts ordinary commercial transactions and acts as a savings bank for the public.Sony VAIO VGN-Z56TG/B Battery

China's economic reforms greatly increased the economic role of the banking system. In theory any enterprises or individuals can go to the banks to obtain loans outside the state plan, in practice 75% of state bank loans go to State Owned Enterprises. (SOEs) Even though nearly all investment capital was previously provided on a grant basis according to the state plan, Sony VAIO VGN-Z56TG/E Battery

policy has since the start of the reform shifted to a loan basis through the various state-directed financial institutions. It is estimated that, as of 2011, 14 trillion renminbi in loans were outstanding to local governments. Much of that total is believed by outside observers to be nonperforming.Sony VAIO VGN-Z56TG/R Battery

Increasing amounts of funds are made available through the banks for economic and commercial purposes. Foreign sources of capital have also increased. China has received loans from the World Bank and several United Nations programs, as well as from countries (particularly Japan) and, to a lesser extent, commercial banks. Sony VAIO VGN-Z570N/B Battery

Hong Kong has been a major conduit of this investment, as well as a source itself.

With two stock exchanges (Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange), mainland China's stock market had a market value of $1 trillion by January 2007, which became the third largest stock market in Asia, after Japan and Hong Kong.Sony VAIO VGN-Z57G Battery

It is estimated to be the world's third largest by 2016.

Currency system

The renminbi ("people's currency") is the currency of China, denominated as the yuan, subdivided into 10 jiao or 100 fen. The renminbi is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC.Sony VAIO VGN-Z57GG/X Battery

The ISO 4217 abbreviation is CNY, although also commonly abbreviated as "RMB". The Latinised symbol is ¥. The yuan is generally considered by outside observers to be undervalued by about 30-40%.

The renminbi is held in a floating exchange-rate system managed primarily against the US dollar.Sony VAIO VGN-Z57GGX Battery

On July 21, 2005, China revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and, since then has moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies and has allowed the renminbi to fluctuate at a daily rate of up to half a percent.Sony VAIO VGN-Z57TG/X Battery

The rate of exchange (Chinese yuan per US$1) on July 31, 2008, was RMB 6.846, in mid-2007 was RMB 7.45, while in early 2006 was RMB 8.07:US $1=8.2793 yuan (January 2000), 8.2783 (1999), 8.2790 (1998), 8.2898 (1997), 8.3142 (1996), 8.3514 (1995).Sony VAIO VGN-Z58GG/X Battery

There is a complex relationship between China's balance of trade, inflation, measured by the consumer price index and the value of its currency. Despite allowing the value of the yuan to "float", China'scentral bank has decisive ability to control its value with relationship to other currencies.Sony VAIO VGN-Z58GGX Battery

Inflation in 2007, reflecting sharply rising prices for meat and fuel, is probably related to the worldwide rise in commodities used as animal feed or as fuel. Thus rapid rises in the value of the yuan permitted in December 2007 are possibly related to efforts to mitigate inflation by permitting the renminbi to be worth more.Sony VAIO VGN-Z590NJB Battery

Tax system

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the central government's revenues derived chiefly from the profits of the state enterprises, which were remitted to the state. Some government revenues also came from taxes, of which the most important was the general industrial and commercial tax.Sony VAIO VGN-Z590UAB Battery

The trend, however, has been for remitted profits of the state enterprises to be replaced with taxes on those profits. Initially, this tax system was adjusted so as to allow for differences in thecapitalization and pricing situations of various firms, but more-uniform tax schedules were introduced in the early 1990s. Sony VAIO VGN-Z591U/B Battery

In addition, personal income and value-added taxes were implemented at that time.

Agriculture

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of agricultural products – and some 300 million Chinese farm workers are in the industry, mostly laboring on pieces of land about the size of U.S farms. Sony VAIO VGN-Z59G Battery

Virtually all arable land is used for food crops. China is the world's largest producer of rice and is among the principal sources of wheat, corn (maize), tobacco, soybeans, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, oilseed, pork, and fish.Sony VAIO VGN-Z620D Battery

Major non-food crops, including cotton, other fibers, and oilseeds, furnish China with a small proportion of its foreign trade revenue. Agricultural exports, such as vegetables and fruits, fish and shellfish, grain and meat products, are exported to Hong Kong. Sony VAIO VGN-Z620N/B Battery

Yields are high because of intensive cultivation, for example, China's cropland area is only 75% of the U.S. total, but China still produces about 30% more crops and livestock than the United States. China hopes to further increase agricultural production through improved plant stocks, fertilizers, and technology.Sony VAIO VGN-Z650N/B Battery

According to the government statistics issued in 2005, after a drop in the yield of farm crops in 2000, output has been increasing annually.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, in 2003, China fed 20 percent of the world's population with only 7 percent of the world's arable land.Sony VAIO VGN-Z670N/B Battery

China ranks first worldwide in farm output, and, as a result of topographic and climatic factors, only about 10–15 percent of the total land area is suitable for cultivation. Of this, slightly more than half is unirrigated, and the remainder is divided roughly equally between paddy fieldsand irrigated areas.Sony VAIO VGN-Z690CTO Battery

Nevertheless, about 60 percent of the population lives in the rural areas, and until the 1980s a high percentage of them made their living directly from farming. Since then, many have been encouraged to leave the fields and pursue other activities, such as light manufacturing, commerce, and transportation;Sony VAIO VGN-Z690NAX Battery

and by the mid-1980s farming accounted for less than half of the value of rural output. Today, agriculture contributes only 13% of China's GDP.

Animal husbandry constitutes the second most important component of agricultural production. Sony VAIO VGN-Z690PAB Battery

China is the world's leading producer of pigs, chickens, and eggs, and it also has sizable herds of sheep and cattle. Since the mid-1970s, greater emphasis has been placed on increasing the livestock output. China has a long tradition of ocean and freshwater fishing and of aquaculture.Sony VAIO VGN-Z690PCB Battery

Pond raising has always been important and has been increasingly emphasized to supplement coastal and inland fisheries threatened by overfishing and to provide such valuable export commodities as prawns.

Environmental problems such as floods, drought, and erosion pose serious threats to farming in many parts of the country.Sony VAIO VGN-Z690PDB Battery

The wholesale destruction of forests gave way to an energetic reforestationprogram that proved inadequate, and forest resources are still fairly meagre. The principal forests are found in the Qinling Mountains and the central mountains and on the Sichuan–Yunnan plateau. Sony VAIO VGN-Z690PEB Battery

Because they are inaccessible, the Qinling forests are not worked extensively, and much of the country's timber comes from Heilongjiang, Jilin, Sichuan, and Yunnan.

Western China, comprising Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai, has little agricultural significance except for areas of floriculture and cattle raising. Sony VAIO VGN-Z690PFB Battery

Rice, China's most important crop, is dominant in the southern provinces and many of the farms here yield two harvests a year. In the north, wheat is of the greatest importance, while in central China wheat and rice vie with each other for the top place.Sony VAIO VGN-Z690YAD Battery

Millet and kaoliang (a variety of grain sorghum) are grown mainly in the northeast and some central provinces, which, together with some northern areas, also provide considerable quantities of barley. Most of the soybean crop is derived from the north and the northeast;Sony VAIO VGN-Z691Y/B Battery

corn (maize) is grown in the center and the north, while tea comes mainly from the warm and humid hilly areas of the south. Cotton is grown extensively in the central provinces, but it is also found to a lesser extent in the southeast and in the north. Tobacco comes from the center and parts of the south. Other important crops are potatoes, sugar beets, and oilseeds.Sony VAIO VGN-Z691Y/X Battery

There is still a relative lack of agricultural machinery, particularly advanced machinery. For the most part the Chinese peasant or farmer depends on simple, nonmechanized farming implements. Good progress has been made in increasing water conservancy, and about half the cultivated land is under irrigation.Sony VAIO VGN-Z698Y/X Battery

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, economic reforms were introduced. First of all this began with the shift of farming work to a system of household responsibility and a phasing out of collectivized agriculture. Later this expanded to include a gradual liberalization of price controls; fiscal decentralization;Sony VAIO VGN-Z699JAB Battery

massive privatization of state enterprises, thereby allowing a wide variety of private enterprises in the services and light manufacturing; the foundation of a diversified banking system (but with large amounts of state control); the development of a stock market; and the opening of the economy to increased foreign trade and foreign investment.Sony VAIO VGN-Z70B Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-Z71JB Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-Z73FB Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-Z790DKX Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-Z790DMR Battery

Topic : laptop battery
Genre : Computer/Internet