leaders: only party--Chinese Communist Party
(CCP), JIANG Zemin, general secretary of the Central Committee (since
NA June 1989)

_#_Suffrage: universal at age 18

_#_Elections:

President--last held 8 April 1988 (next to be held March 1993);
YANG Shangkun was nominally elected by the Seventh National People's
Congress;

National People's Congress--last held NA March 1988 (next to
be held March 1993); results--CCP is the only party but there are
also independents;
seats--(2,976 total) CCP and independents 2,976 (indirectly elected
at county or xian level)

_#_Communists: 49,000,000 party members (1990 est.)

_#_Other political or pressure groups: such meaningful opposition as
exists consists of loose coalitions, usually within the party and
government organization, that vary by issue

_#_Member of: AfDB, AsDB, CCC, ESCAP, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, ISO,
ITU, LORCS, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UN Security
Council, UN Trusteeship Council, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

_#_Diplomatic representation: Ambassador ZHU Qizhen; Chancery at
2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008;
telephone (202) 328-2500 through 2502; there are Chinese Consulates
General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco;

US--Ambassador James R. LILLEY; Embassy at Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3,
Beijing (mailing address is 100600, PRC Box 50, Beijing or FPO San
Francisco 96655-0001); telephone [86] (1) 532-3831; there are US
Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang

_#_Flag: red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller
yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle
of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner

_*_Economy
_#_Overview: Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been
trying to move the economy from the sluggish Soviet-style centrally
planned economy to a more productive and flexible economy with market
elements--but still within the framework of monolithic Communist control.
To this end the authorities have switched to a system of household
responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization,
increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in
industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services
and light manufacturing, and opened the foreign economic sector to
increased trade and joint ventures. The most