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Development Challenge The USAID Program Other Program Elements Other Donors Program Data Sheets Summary Tables USAID Search: China Previous Years' Activities 2001 Last updated: 23     THE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE: Cooperation between the United States and China is vital to regional security, prosperity, and peace. China plays a key role in international security through its permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council and arms sales. China is also an increasingly important U.S. trade partner: the total value of trade between the countries in 2000 was more than $122 billion. There is no USAID presence in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The United States maintains principled and purposeful engagement with the PRC. Since the United States-China dialogue began, there have been important gains in a number of critical areas, although differences remain. The Chinese Government does not share core American values on human rights, religious freedom, and democracy. The United States and China continue to view Taiwan and Tibet from widely different perspectives. The United States believes that the way to narrow these differences, and to take advantage of the many areas where U.S. and Chinese interests coincide, is through regular contacts and dialogue. The United States is pursuing human rights and other elements in a broad bilateral dialogue. Since 1979, China has been engaged in an effort to reform its economy. The Chinese leadership has adopted a pragmatic perspective on many political and socioeconomic problems, and has sharply reduced the role of ideology in economic policy. Political and social stability, economic productivity, and public welfare are considered paramount. The Chinese government began emphasizing increased personal income and consumption. The Chinese government has also focused on foreign trade as a major vehicle for economic growth. 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. China pursued agricultural reforms, dismantling the commune system and introducing a household-based system that provided peasants greater decision making in agricultural activities. The Chinese government also encouraged nonagricultural activities such as village enterprises in rural areas. Other initiatives have been the promotion of self-management for state-owned enterprises, increased competition in the marketplace, and facilitation of direct contact between Chinese and foreign trading-enterprises. China has come to rely more upon foreign financing and imports. The Chinese Government's efforts to promote rule of law are significant and ongoing. After the Cultural Revolution, China's leaders aimed to develop a legal system to restrain abuses of official authority and revolutionary excesses. In 1982, the National People's Congress adopted a new state constitution that emphasized the rule of law under which even party leaders are theoretically held accountable. Since 1979, when the drive to establish a functioning legal system began, more than 300 laws and regulations, most of them in the economic area, have been enacted. The use of mediation committees-informed groups of citizens who resolve about 90% of China's civil disputes and some minor criminal cases at no cost to the parties-is one innovative device. There are more than 800,000 such committees in both rural and urban areas. THE USAID PROGRAM: USAID began an ESF-funded Rule of Law activity managed by USAID's Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau in FY 2001 with $1 million in ESF, and will supplement that program with $5 million in ESF in FY 2002. The FY 2003 request of $5 million in ESF will be used to continue these activities. ONGOING PROGRAMS FOR WHICH NO FY2002 OR FY 2003 FUNDING IS REQUESTED: None. OTHER PROGRAM ELEMENTS: Over the past seven years USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) program has provided over $4.5 million to construct and equip the Center for American Studies (FUDAN). ASHA has also supported the Johns Hopkins Center for Chinese-American Studies in Nanjing and provided a grant to Project Hope to support a training activity for the Shanghai Children's Medical Center. USAID plans to help implement a $2 million (Title I funds) farmer-to-farmer program beginning in FY 2002 in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also, the Department of State administers a $3 million program to help Tibetan communities preserve their cultural traditions, promote sustainable development, and conserve the environment. The program is implemented through NGOs located outside of China that can provide the Tibetan communities with access to financial, technical, marketing, environmental, and educational resources they need for equitable and sustainable development. OTHER DONORS: Important donors include the World Bank, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Program Data Sheets 435-003  Selected Foreign Policy Concerns Addressed 1. Imports and exports. Source: Directions of Trade, International Monetary Fund. Country Background Information Resources     CIA Factbook Library of Congress National Geographic Country Maps State Dept. Country Information

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