The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. Located in East Asia, China is the most populous country in the world. In 2011, the total population of China was around 1.35 billion people. Life expectancy in China was 73.3 years for people born in 2009.

China is a one-party country run by the Communist Party of China. After years of stagnation under the regime of Mao Tse-Tung, China has seen rapid growth in the past two decades. With double-digit GDP growth rates being no rarity in China, the country is on track to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy within the next decade. In 2010, the GDP of China was 5.88 trillion U.S. dollars. The rapid growth of China has attracted vast amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI). China is now the third largest recipient of foreign direct investment. In 2009, U.S. investors held almost 50 billion U.S. dollars of FDI in China.

In 2009, China overtook Germany as the world’s leading exporter and now tops the ranking of the world’s largest export nations with a total export value of 1.58 trillion U.S. dollars in 2010. In 2009, more than 20 percent of China’s exports went to the U.S. which makes the United States China’s most important trading partner. China’s unemployment rate has been practically stable for the last decade. In 2010, unemployment statistics showed that 4.1 percent of China’s workforce was without a job, compared to 9.6 percent in the U.S.

With a cultural heritage stretching back almost 4,000 years, China has one of the oldest continuous cultures on the planet. Many of today’s basics like paper and gun powder can be traced back to the Chinese culture.