{
  "id": "98-131",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "98-131",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 105046,
      "date": "1998-02-09",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:56:22.012941",
      "title": "China's Economy: Findings of a Research Trip",
      "summary": "China's economic ascendency has aroused great interest in the Congress. This report combines\nfirst-hand impressions of China's economy and U.S.-China commercial relations with an analysis\nof\npublicly available data and reporting.\n  China's economy presents divergent and contradictory images. On the one hand, it is dynamic\nwith considerable potential to become a world class power in many areas. On the other hand, visions\nof China as an economic power constantly collide with the stark reality of the country's poverty,\nuneven development, and glaring structural weaknesses. While Asia's financial crisis has elevated\na sense of urgency among Chinese officials to push forward with fundamental reforms of the\ncountry's banking system and state-owned enterprises, a slowing economy will make the reforms\nmore difficult to carry out.\n  In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), most officials appeared confident\nthat Hong Kong's special role as China's main source of finance and services would continue to\ngrow in the future. Their confidence was based on Hong Kong's successful transition to date, and\non China's own obvious self-interest in maintaining the HKSAR as its \"Golden Goose.\" At the\nsame time, the challenge that Asia's financial crisis is posing for both Hong Kong and China, as\nwell as Hong Kong's own growing internal problems, illustrated that the so-called \"one country-two\nsystems\" arrangement remains delicate, subtle, and vulnerable to stress.\n  China's economic expansion was seen to be having a huge, albeit uncertain, impact, not only\non the rest of the world, but on China itself. The effects, both positive and negative, encompass\nshifts in world trade, production, and employment, the environment, foreign relations, and China's\nCommunist and authoritarian system of governance. The rapid expansion of China's economy has\nalso coincided with an intensification of U.S.-China commercial ties. China's market holds\ntremendous allure for a growing number of U.S. companies, but it remains a very difficult one in\nwhich to do business. Although China's reforms and economic dynamism are gradually improving\nthe business environment, its domestic market remains substantially regulated, and there are few\nshort-cuts to commercial success.\n  The U.S. trade deficit with China is large, rapidly expanding, and increasingly sensitive\npolitically. For many Americans, the deficit symbolizes an imbalanced trading relationship where\nChinese firms have relatively more access to the U.S. market than American firms have to China's\nmarket. Chinese and U.S. officials proposed divergent solutions for curbing the deficit.\n  China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) is widely viewed as an enormously\nimportant, complicated, and risky undertaking. Depending on the terms of the accession agreement,\nChina's entry could either weaken or strengthen its own economy, selected U.S. economic interests, \nas well as the world trading system. It is not clear what forces or events might push either side to\nreach a compromise or mutually acceptable agreement.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/98-131",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "National Defense"
  ]
}