China Essay Research Paper Manufacturing and Industry

China Essay, Research Paper

Manufacturing and Industry in China

The Chinese have long since been an enterprising group of people. Long

before the introduction of Western technologies and ideas, this country has had a

history of local industry dating back some 2000 years. These innovative people,

from an early time, produced paper, gunpowder, and silk, and printing with one of

the first movable type. In all, the manufacture of luxury items, fine handcrafts,

metal crafting and the manufacture of tools were all well established businesses

long before the onset of western entrepreneurs. (Compton.s Interactive).

One of the first goals of the Communists, after 1949, was to develop the

growth of heavy industry. The practice, following the model of the Soviet Union.

They attempted to attract industrial development in the interior sections of China.

The thought here was that there was already significant wealth in the old treaty

port cities. New steel mills were constructed at Wuhan on the Yangtze and at

Baotou in the Interior Mangolia. Other interior cities also grew at a rapid pace.

The communists took advantage, as well, of coastal cities, such as Shanghai.

Shanghai and the like were attractive due to their location and transportation

systems. These areas provided skilled labor and swift access to international

markets. (Compton.s Interactive).

During what the Chinese called .The Great Leap Forward., there were

large investments in heavy industry. There were small scale versions of these

industries such as steel refining. The program was abandoned, however, when it

caused great disruptions in the economic growth of the country. A ten year plan

was established in which economic conditions improved through a greater use of

privately owned enterprises, as opposed to the old state-owned businesses.

(Microsoft Encarta).

The idea for private enterprises proved to be a good one. The annual gross

domestic product (GDP) has grown over the years to over 544.6 billion dollars by

the early 1990s. Agriculture reached even the rural areas. The industrial output

through manufacturing, mining, electricity generation and building and

construction grew at an amazing rate. (Microsoft Encarta).

Prior to WWII the area known as Manchuria was called Manchukuo, This

prime area of land provides most of China.s food and industrial wealth. In the

center of this region sugar beets, soybeans and wheat are grown. This is China.s

largest and most fertile farming area totaling 140,000 square miles. (McLenighan

43). For years the Chinese operated under a feudal system, whereby the land was

owned by a small few who depended on their peasant farmers to pay their rents.

The taxes levied against them by the imperial government caused very little profit

to be made. It was not until 1949 when the Communist Party established a unified

government, with an emphasis placed on slowing the rate of inflation and ending

unneeded food shortages. Thus changing the unemployment situation in China.

(Microsoft Encarta).

Farming and agriculture are important elements in China. These industries

not only provide the food and fiber needed for the Chinese people but also about

80% of its people depend on this work for their livelihood. These enterprising

people have developed an elaborate system of maintaining the nutrient levels in

the soil by collecting all organic wastes, including human waste, fermenting them

and applying them to the crops. (Compton.s Interactive). China has nearly all of it

cultivated land irrigated. They have more irrigated land than any other country.

Through the commune system of agriculture, more experimentation was done in

planting and growing crops in favorable areas. The rural farmers used to work

these fields were given a piece of land for their own use and void of taxes.

(Microsoft Encarta).

Coal and iron for the regions industries come primarily from the Changpai

Mountains in the eastern portion of China. This area produces about one third of

China.s coal, steel and machine tools. Steel made in these areas was used by the

Russians to begin building railroads and factories in the northeast, at the turn of

the century. Dams now located on the Yalu River provide the electrical power to

large sections of China, while oil from the rich Tiching fields fuels the economy.

(McLenighan 43). Because of China.s geologic diversity, it possesses a wide

variety of mineral resources. Principal mining regions still include Manchuria,

especially the Liaodong Peninsula, due to the fact they contain significant mineral

deposits. Coal reserves in China of up to 11 trillion tons have been claimed in the

Manchuria area. Petroleum reserves are estimated to be a total of 147 billion

barrels. China now claims to be second only to Suadi Arabia in rich oil reserves.

(Microsoft Encarta).

The development of

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