China

China, one of the largest countries in the world consumes nearly 1.3 Billion people. Nearly 15% of agricultural production in China is contributed to the nations GDP. More importantly, this agricultural production has for the most part outpaced the nation’s birth rate. With so many people residing in China, how would the country be able to support and feed them all, you might ask? Well, the problem is not everyone is well off. It really depends on how wealthy one’s family is, where one lives, and how many kids any one family has! The truth is, child malnutrition for children under the age of five, which is usually found in rural areas, is roughly 10% while 2.6% of the kids waste some of the food they have. Overall, it is estimated that 11% of the total population ranging in all ages are undernourished.

Many parts of China encounter the issue of high population density. This is sometimes a good indicator of how well the country’s poverty level is doing. Other parts of the country face natural disasters such as late spring droughts, occasional typhoons in early autumn in the South East region, summer floods, and water shortages, which all have a major impact on poverty levels.

Similarly, Vitamin D deficiency remains prevalent and a concern in China. Over 25% of children have been diagnosed with rickets of varying degrees. But even though, malnutrition, vitamin and other nutrition deficiency still exists, China has managed to improve the numbers within these sectors. Also, China’s regime has undertaken the role of improving many other aspects of poverty. Recently, it has been estimated that the number of people living in rural poverty has fell to 29 million people, a substantially small number relative to the country’s total population of 1.3 Billion. But problems in the urban areas have been a growing concern.

China estimates 22.5 million urban residents who have incomes below the basic standard of living, and the largest proportion of poor citizens living in the urban areas are women and children.

To help alleviate this major economic issue, the government of China has acted properly by funding more and more low-income families with unemployment insurance. 103.73 million people have received around 1.8 billion dollars for sufficient funding.

Human rights in China are somewhat similar to many Middle East countries. Torture and other ill-treatment remain widespread in many areas of China. These tortures consist of kicking, beating, electric shocking, suspension by the arms, shackling, and sleep and food deprivation. Women however, get the worse of it as they are often raped and sexually abused by the authority leaders.

The death penalty, an suspect’s worse news, is also conducted and followed by law in China. Many are executed for non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and pimping as well as other drug offenses. Unfortunatley, many of these executions occur in secret so millions of Chinese residents aren’t exposed to the harshness and cruelty of the government. Also, recently, because of the many incriminating acts taken out by the authority of China, the National People Congress (NPG) has been hard hit and accused for not reacting and settling such issues. For example, there have been reports that in 2005, 87,000 public order disturbances were reported. What is considered as a “public disturbance?” The police firing at villagers opposing land confiscations in the southern village of Dongzhou, who killed at least three protestors?

It is important to know that such small incidents in China result in major issues and innocent killing. In other cases, people are executed for non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and pimping as well as drug offences and violent crimes. The authorities continued to keep national statistics on death sentences and executions secret.

As seen in many other countries, no matter how technologically improved the country is, it is still bound to have critical issues; one of the greater issues is the tragedy of AIDS and other diseases. The bigger problem is that AIDS kills and transfers through thousands of people every year. Just recently in 2006, it has been estimated that nearly 650,000 people in China are living with HIV and around 75,000 are AIDS patients. Other stats show that just in last year (2005), there were around 70,000 new HIV infections and 25,000 AIDS deaths. Although, these numbers are relatively minute in context of the total population of China, which is around 1.3 Billion, we must still take into account the overly increasing patterns of these diseases in the past several years. Now the question is, “where does most of this AIDS/HIV come from?” Well, the Chinese government has identified at least three epidemics in China to different routes of transmission. These epidemics are high drug use, commercial blood/plasma donation, or sexual contact. At least 61% of the positive HIV patients have been infected through drug use, while 9% are due to blood donation, about 8% through heterosexual transmission, -and nearly half a percent through mother-to-child-transmission.

On the other hand, homosexuality in China is not considered illegal anymore since 2001. It is estimated that anywhere from 2 to 8 million Chinese engage in homosexual activity. Although there is considered to be low HIV prevalence in this group, the number is growing rapidly and can be a big contributor to overall HIV patients in China. This is said to become a major problems unless prevention measures are taken. Many Chinese officials believe more data needs to be available for all the residents so they can become more educated about the risks of sexual activity.

If HIV/AIDS prevention is not made a priority in China, the country will be facing HIV epidemics that will be difficult to contain and expensive to deal with. This can lead to a downgrade in many other aspects of the country whether it’s social or political. More importantly, this can have an adverse effect on China’s economic and technological growth.

China’s constant economic growth during the past few decades has improved living conditions, increased income, and many more positive attributes. However, these modifications have created some environmental issues which have endangered the Chinese people. Environmental pollution from coal combustion in the overgrowing factory industry is damaging human health, air and water quality, and agriculture.

Due to these environmental issues, the government has created the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) where they establish comprehensive regulations to solve these problems. Other attempts by the Chinese government have been taken such as ordering city vehicles to convert to liquefied petroleum and natural gas rather than continuous use of unleaded gas.

Despite such regulations and continuous efforts in reducing these environmental issues however, concentrations of most pollutants remain high. Research shows that of the ten most polluted cities in the world, seven are located in China. Of these pollutants, the most abundant are sulfur dioxide and soot particles which result in the formation of acid rain. Acid rain is recorded to fall on about 30% of China's total land area. More importantly, the main sources of these particles come from industrial boilers and furnaces. These sources consume almost half of China's coal.

Yet, even the most technologically advanced country in the world still hasn’t been able to live life in a clean environment. Even where water exists, it is rarely clean due to poor treatment facilities- around half the population, or 600m people, have water supplies that are contaminated by animal and human waste. Estimates suggest that 300,000 people a year die prematurely from respiratory diseases due to these harsh conditions. China’s environment has been a major issue for many years now and if nothing is done about it, soon China’s natural resources will vanish and perhaps put China on the verge of a great downfall.

Education in China is a very imperative issue and stage in many people’s lives. This is because the Chinese take pride in going to school and as a result, we can see how enthusiastic and academic they are! The most important corroborative element contributing to this academic step forward is the “nine-year compulsory schooling system,” which requires all Chinese citizens to attend school for the first nine years of school level grades. After going through primary and junior middle school, students must sit through several examinations for higher education. This process may take anywhere from 3-5 years. Needless to say, these exams test the very brightest and intelligent minds of the population and can be a very challenging process.

However, the high school education we are use to is not relevant in China. The Chinese high school program is divided up into 2 parts: 3 years of junior high school and 1 year of senior school. Within these institutions, students are to get exposure to a variety of subjects such as the sciences, mathematics, Chinese history, and some athletics. Aside from these subjects, everyone is expected to take some years of English as it is the second official language in China.

Most of China’s enrollment lies in the 1st level of education (primary) after which a lesser number of students decide to continue their education career. Estimates show that education is not that gender-based as males above the age of 15 have a literacy rate of around 95% while females are content with an 86% literacy rating. More importantlyu, further studies have been conducted which show that within the ages of 15-24, the literacy rate range (between men and women) has decreased to nearly less than 1% as both males and females are in the high 90 percentage area. These figures manifest the equality which exists in not only society, but in every household as well.

Tuition is not viewed as an indicator of where one is going- it simply isn’t as big of an issue as it is here in the United States. That is because China provides free education at the university level, and also provides subsidies to low-income families who can’t afford academic enrollment.

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