The rapid development of China's industry began in 1978. It was then that the government began to actively implement liberal economic reforms. First of all, they concerned the reorientation of the main sectors to export, the attraction of foreign investment, as well as the creation of economic zones with a favorable tax and administrative climate. As a result, in our time, this country is one of the world leaders in the production of almost all groups of goods.
A Brief History of Industrial Development in China
No matter how surprising it may sound, but until the middle of the twentieth century, China was a state of a semi-feudal system with an undeveloped economy and production. In terms of industrialization, he lagged behind the developed world for more than a hundred years, and acted only as a raw materials and agricultural appendage. The situation began to change after 1949, when the PRC was proclaimed. After the industrialization was carried out in a relatively short time , China's industry and agriculture began to develop rapidly. An eloquent proof of this can be called the fact that in just fifty years, about 370 thousand new enterprises have appeared in the state. The volume of production over this period of time has grown 39 times. Today, the country is in the leading position in the world in the number of factories. All of its industry is represented by 360 different industries. Due to the extremely high pace of development, the government is sometimes even forced to restrain it. This is done in order to prevent leaps and another crisis in the global economy. The largest industrial centers of China are concentrated mainly in the coastal eastern provinces. These include Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong and others.
Gas and oil production
The country boasts quite rich mineral resources. Despite this, China's processing industries are much better developed than mining. Be that as it may, the size of the natural gas reserves discovered in the southern and eastern regions of the country, according to researchers, is more than 4 thousand billion tons. As of today, less than 4% of them are explored. As for oil production, it accounts for one fifth of the production of fuel and energy resources of the Middle Kingdom. The reserves of black gold, which provide 16% of foreign exchange earnings, are about 64 billion tons.
At present, 32 enterprises specializing in oil production are operating in the country. The largest local plants for its processing are located in the provinces of Tsaidam, Yumen, Dagan and Shandong.
Light industry
Even in pre-revolutionary times, China's light industry played a leading role in the structure of its economy. This area remains very important for the development of the country now. Indeed, the food and textile industries account for almost 21% of all industrial products produced in the state. The leading enterprises that produce it are scattered throughout the country. The food industry is most developed in the south-west of China. In the northwestern regions, there are mainly enterprises that specialize in animal husbandry and cotton processing. Northeastern companies are mainly engaged in the paper, butter and milk sectors of such industries as China's light industry. In general, there are more than 23 thousand textile companies in the state, in which the production and processing of raw materials are characterized by a clear focus, as well as about 65 thousand food industry enterprises. With all this, do not forget about paper production. Although it is not as large as the previous two sectors, it nevertheless plays a very important role in the development of the country.
Heavy industry
Like other sectors of the economy, China's heavy industry is developing at a rather high pace. For enterprises specializing in it, after a long upsurge in the last few years, a certain decrease in production volumes has become characteristic. At the same time, according to many world analysts, this has nothing to do with product quality and pricing. The fact is that now the country has excess capacity, which, against the background of a slowdown in consumption not only in the state itself, but throughout the world, simply needs to be reduced. The most profitable, as practice shows, as of today in this industry are small enterprises. Experts argue that it cannot go on for so long, so in the near future the market will necessarily be redistributed, after which approximately 5% of companies in this industry will go bankrupt or be taken over by large firms.
Engineering
Until the middle of the century, it did not play any role in the development of the Chinese economy. The country's industry practically did not produce machines and mechanisms with components, aircraft, tractors, cars and so on. In fact, machine building after the 1949 revolution in China was created in a new way. During the first five-year period alone, more than 60 factories were erected on the territory of the country (a third of them were built thanks to the active technical support from the USSR). As a result, now the situation has changed dramatically.
Currently, the industry produces more than 53 thousand items of products and fully meets the internal needs of the state. The largest centers of engineering include Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai and Tianjin.
Metallurgy
As noted above, the country is very rich in natural resources. Thanks to this, the metallurgical industry of China is also quite developed. In almost every province or autonomous region there are ferrous metallurgy enterprises, the total number of which exceeds the mark of 1.5 thousand. The state produces more than a thousand varieties of steel, including alloys for the aviation industry, characterized by high heat resistance, and high-alloy grades with predetermined characteristics.
The main drawback that is characteristic of most companies in this area is the relatively low technical level of production and their poor equipment with modern technologies. Moreover, about 70% of such enterprises are not equipped at all with sewage treatment plants. As for
non-ferrous metallurgy, the conditions for its development can be confidently called favorable, since there are rich deposits of copper, manganese, zinc, silver, gold, lead and many other ores in the bowels of the earth. At the same time, it should be noted that only a few decades ago, only a few of them were actively developing, and the development itself was carried out randomly, without observing basic safety rules.
Automotive
An important role for the country's economy is played by the automobile industry in China. The effectiveness of the policy pursued by the government in this direction is very high. First of all, it is expressed by the fact that joint companies with many leading automakers are successfully developing in the state. As of today, the Celestial Empire independently provides almost all the internal needs for vehicles. Moreover, their import does not exceed the mark of 10%. This situation is largely due to the fact that the government does not set the task of motorizing the population (only 1% of residents have their own cars). A number of taxes, restrictions and duties have led to the fact that the car here is a luxury item.
Construction industry
Far from last in terms of development is the construction industry in China. This is not surprising, because in the country there are huge reserves of gypsum, graphite, quartz, high-quality clays, asbestos, limestone and mica. The most massive among all types of building materials was the production of cement, which is established in the north-eastern region of the country. Most of the ceramic tile companies are concentrated in Boshan, Jiangxi, Urumqi, and Shenyang, while brick factories are located near Beijing. The city of Sichuan is famous for its powerful asbestos enterprises.
Chemical industry
Despite the large reserves of gas, coal and phosphates, in the Middle Kingdom for a long time not paid attention to many industries. Some of them were simply re-created after the revolution. The chemical industry of China was no exception. In the first half of the fifties of the last century, 33 large companies specializing in this area appeared here. At the same time, in such a short period of time, the product range has grown tenfold, to the level of 900 items.
The largest
chemical enterprises are located in Nanjing, Shanghai, Harbin, Shenyang and Jilin.
Agriculture
A constant increase in population leads to an increase in food consumption. In this regard, the Government of China calls one of the priority tasks the provision of further active development of industries such as the food industry and agriculture in China. The country is pursuing a policy of comprehensive support for the peasantry in order to improve its standard of living and increase the yield of cultivated plants. In particular, peasants are exempted from agricultural tax, production taxes, slaughter of cattle and other payments. In addition, citizens who are employed in this industry are provided with all kinds of subsidies, subsidies, favorable loans and even free aid.
In almost all provinces, the state guarantees the purchase of crops from peasants at the legislative level. Separate words deserve the contribution of local scientists, breeders, who managed to develop a number of crops with yields several times higher than those of traditional varieties.
Conclusion
This article briefly describes only the main industries in China. Without a doubt, the Celestial Empire has achieved tremendous success in other areas of economic activity. These include the development of information and biological technologies, pharmaceuticals, waste-free production, communications, the improvement of computer technology, the development of new energy sources, the reduction of environmental pollution and many other areas.