According to
Fortune Global, of the world's 500 largest companies, 135 are headquartered in China. As of 2023, mainland China and Hong Kong were home to 324 largest listed companies measured by
revenue in the
Fortune Global 2000, ranking second globally. China is also home to more than two hundred privately held technology startups (tech unicorns), each with a valuation of over $1billion, the highest number in the world.
Agriculture, aquaculture, livestock, fishing and forestry harvest in
Jiangxia District,
Hubei China is the world's largest producer and consumer of agricultural productsand some 300 million Chinese
farm workers are in the industry, mostly laboring on pieces of land about the size of U.S. farms. Virtually all
arable land is used for food
crops. China is the world's largest producer of
rice and is among the principal sources of
wheat, corn (
maize),
tobacco,
soybeans,
potatoes,
sorghum,
peanuts,
tea,
millet,
barley,
oilseed,
pork, and
fish. Major non-food crops, including cotton, other fibers, and
oilseeds, furnish China with a small proportion of its foreign trade revenue. Agricultural exports, such as vegetables and fruits, fish and shellfish, grain and meat products, are exported to Hong Kong. Yields are high because of
intensive cultivation, for example, China's cropland area is only 75% of the U.S. total, but China still produces about 30% more crops and livestock than the United States. China hopes to further increase agricultural production through improved plant stocks,
fertilizers, and technology. from 1961 to 2004 (data from
FAO in 2005, y-axis: production in metric tons) According to the United Nations
World Food Programme, in 2022, China fed eighteen percent of the world's population with only seven percent of the world's arable land.
Animal husbandry constitutes the second most important component of agricultural production. China is the world's leading producer of pigs, chickens, and eggs, and it also has sizable herds of sheep and cattle. Since the mid-1970s, greater emphasis has been placed on increasing the
livestock output. China has a long tradition of ocean and freshwater fishing and of
aquaculture.
Pond raising has always been important and has been increasingly emphasized to supplement coastal and inland
fisheries threatened by
overfishing and to provide such valuable export commodities as
prawns. China is also unmatched in the size and reach of its fishing armada with anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 boats, some as far afield as Argentina. Fueled primarily by government subsidies, its growth and activities have largely gone unchecked. , Fujian Environmental problems such as floods, drought, and erosion pose serious threats to farming in many parts of the country. The wholesale destruction of forests gave way to an energetic
reforestation program that proved inadequate, and forest resources are still fairly meagre. The principal forests are found in the
Qin Mountains and the central mountains and on the
Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. Because they are inaccessible, the Qinling forests are not worked extensively, and much of the country's
timber comes from
Heilongjiang,
Jilin,
Sichuan, and
Yunnan.
Western China, comprising
Tibet,
Xinjiang, and
Qinghai, has little agricultural significance except for areas of
floriculture and
cattle raising. Rice, China's most important crop, is dominant in the southern provinces and many of the farms here yield two
harvests a year. In the north, wheat is of the greatest importance, while in
central China wheat and rice vie with each other for the top place.
Millet and
kaoliang (a variety of grain sorghum) are grown mainly in the northeast and some central provinces, which, together with some northern areas, also provide considerable quantities of
barley. Most of the
soybean crop is derived from the north and the northeast; corn (maize) is grown in the center and the north, while
tea comes mainly from the warm and humid hilly areas of the south. Cotton is grown extensively in the central provinces, but it is also found to a lesser extent in the southeast and in the north.
Tobacco comes from the center and parts of the south. Other important crops are potatoes,
sugar beets, and oilseeds. In the past decade, the government has been encouraging agricultural mechanization and
land consolidation to raise yields and compensate for the loss of rural workers who have migrated to the cities. According to statistics by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the annual growth rate of agricultural mechanization in China is 6.4%. By 2014, the integrated mechanization rate had risen to nearly 60%, with the rate for wheat surpassing 90% and that for maize approaching 80%. In addition to standard agricultural equipment like tractors, China's agriculture cooperatives have begun using high-tech equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles, which are used to spray crops with pesticides. Good progress has been made in increasing
water conservancy, and about half the cultivated land is under irrigation. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, economic reforms were introduced. First of all this began with the shift of farming work to a
system of household responsibility and a phasing out of
collectivized agriculture. Later this expanded to include a gradual liberalization of price controls;
fiscal decentralization; massive privatization of state enterprises, thereby allowing a wide variety of
private enterprises in the
services and
light manufacturing; the foundation of a diversified
banking system (but with large amounts of state control); the development of a
stock market; and the opening of the economy to increased
foreign trade and foreign investment.
Housing and construction In 2010, China became the world's largest market for construction. It has remained the world's largest through at least 2024. As of 2023, real property accounts for 60% of Chinese household assets. On 16 July 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that the housing market within the Chinese economy had grown to US$52 trillion, eclipsing the US 2008 housing market before the
2008 financial crisis.
Energy and mineral resources Electricity: • Production: 6.5 trillion kWh (2017) • Consumption: 7.7620 trillion kWh (2020)''' • Coal: 60.5% • Hydro: 13.2% • Wind: 9.4% • Solar: 6.2% • Nuclear: 4.6% • Natural gas: 3.3% • Bioenergy: 2.2%
Oil: • Production: (2022) • Consumption: (2005) and expected in 2030 • Exports: (2005) • Imports: (2022) • Net imports: (2005) • Proved reserves: (1 January 2006)
Natural gas: • Production: 47.88 km3 (2005 est.) • Consumption: 44.93 km3 (2005 est.) • Exports: 2.944 km3 (2005) • Imports: 0 m3 (2005) • Proved reserves: 1,448 km3 (1 January 2006 est.) Over the years, large subsidies were built into the price structure of certain commodities and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s. Since 1980, China's energy production has grown dramatically, as has the proportion allocated to domestic consumption. Some 80 percent of all power is generated from fossil fuel at
thermal plants, with about 17 percent at
hydroelectric installations; only about two percent is from
nuclear energy, mainly from plants located in
Guangdong and
Zhejiang. Though China has rich overall energy potential, most have yet to be developed. In addition, the geographical distribution of energy puts most of these resources relatively far from their major industrial users. The northeast is rich in
coal and
oil, the central part of north China has abundant coal, and the southwest has immense
hydroelectric potential. But the industrialized regions around
Guangzhou and the
Lower Yangtze region around Shanghai have too little energy, while there is relatively little
heavy industry located near major energy resource areas other than in the southern part of the northeast. Due in large part to environmental concerns, China has wanted to shift China's current
energy mix from a heavy reliance on coal, which accounts for 70–75% of China's energy, toward greater reliance on oil,
natural gas,
renewable energy, and
nuclear power. China has closed thousands of
coal mines over the past five to ten years to cut
overproduction. Since 1993, China has been a net importer of oil, a large portion of which comes from the Middle East. According to Chinese statistics, this has reduced coal production by over 25%. as of 2023, solar power has become cheaper than coal-fired power in China. for the top six countries and confederationsWhile not the largest source of historical cumulative emissions, today China accounts for one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. On a per capita basis, China's emissions in 2019 (9 tonnes -equivalent [t] per year) surpass those of the European Union (7.6 t) but remain slightly below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (10.7 t) and well below the United States average (17.6 t). However, the carbon intensity of China's GDP—the amount of carbon used to generate a unit of output—remains relatively high. of environmental
pollution in China, it has been suggested by
Nicholas Stern and Fergus Green of the
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment that the economy of China be shifted to more advanced industrial development with low carbon dioxide emissions and better allocation of national resources to innovation and R&D for sustainable economic growth in order to reduce the impact of China's heavy industry. This is in accord with the planning goals of the central government. Contrary to the publicized goals, China is building a large number of coal fired power plants and it carbon emissions could further increase.
Mining Hydroelectric resources China has an abundant potential for
hydroelectric power production due to its considerable river network and mountainous terrain. Most of the total hydroelectric capacity is situated in the
southwest of the country, where coal supplies are poor but
demand for energy is rising swiftly. The potential in the northeast is fairly small, but it was there that the first hydroelectric stations were builtby the Japanese during its occupation of
Manchuria.
Coal China is well-endowed with mineral resources, the most important of which is
coal. China's mineral resources include large reserves of
coal and
iron ore, plus adequate to abundant supplies of nearly all other industrial
minerals. Although coal deposits are widely scattered (some types of coal is found in every province), most of the total is located in the northern part of the country. The province of
Shanxi, in fact, is thought to contain about half of the total; other important coal-bearing provinces include
Heilongjiang,
Liaoning,
Jilin,
Hebei, and
Shandong. Apart from these northern provinces, significant quantities of coal are present in
Sichuan, and there are some deposits of importance in
Guangdong,
Guangxi,
Yunnan, and
Guizhou. To ensure a more even distribution of coal supplies and to reduce the strain on the less than adequate
transportation network, the authorities pressed for the development of a large number of small, locally run
mines throughout the country. This campaign was energetically pursued after the 1960s, with the result that thousands of small pits have been established, and they produce more than half the country's coal. This output, however, is typically expensive and is used for local consumption. It has also led to a less than stringent implementation of safety measures in these unregulated mines, which cause several thousands of deaths each year.
Coal makes up the bulk of China's energy consumption (55% in 2021), and China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. As China's economy continues to grow, China's coal demand is projected to rise significantly. Although coal's share of China's overall energy consumption will decrease, coal consumption will continue to rise in absolute terms. China's continued and increasing reliance on coal as a power source has contributed significantly to putting China on the path to becoming the world's largest emitter of
acid rain-causing
sulfur dioxide and
greenhouse gases, including
carbon dioxide.
Oil and natural gas China's onshore
oil resources are mostly located in the
Northeast and in
Xinjiang,
Gansu,
Qinghai,
Sichuan,
Shandong, and
Henan provinces.
Oil shale is found in a number of places, especially at
Fushun in Liaoning, where the deposits overlie the coal reserves, as well as in Guangdong. High quality
light oil has been found in the
Pearl River estuary of the
South China Sea, the
Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, and the
Tarim Basin in Xinjiang. The country consumes most of its oil output but does export some crude oil and oil products. China has explored and developed oil deposits in the
South China Sea and
East China Sea, the
Yellow Sea, the
Gulf of Tonkin, and the
Bohai Sea. In 2013, the pace of China's economic growth exceeded the domestic oil capacity and floods damaged the nation's oil fields in the middle of the year. Consequently, China imported oil to compensate for the supply reduction and surpassed the US in September 2013 to become the world's largest importer of oil. The total extent of China's
natural gas reserves is unknown, as relatively little exploration for natural gas has been done. Sichuan accounts for almost half of the known natural gas reserves and production. Most of the rest of China's natural gas is associated gas produced in the Northeast's major oil fields, especially
Daqing oilfield. Other gas deposits have been found in the Qaidam Basin,
Hebei,
Jiangsu,
Shanghai, and
Zhejiang, and offshore to the southwest of
Hainan. According to an article published in Energy Economics in 2011 by economists Mete Feridun (University of Greenwich) and Abdul Jalil (Wuhan University in China), financial development in China has not taken place at the expense of environmental pollution and financial development has led to a decrease in environmental pollution. Authors conclude that carbon emissions are mainly determined by income, energy consumption and trade openness and their findings confirm the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve in the case of China.
Metals and nonmetals production trends, 1956–2008 (
USGS)
Iron ore reserves are found in most provinces, including
Hainan. Gansu, Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and Guangdong provinces have rich deposits. The largest mined reserves are located north of the
Yangtze River and supply neighboring iron and steel enterprises. With the exception of
nickel,
chromium, and
cobalt, China is well supplied with
ferroalloys and
manganese. Reserves of
tungsten are also known to be fairly large.
Copper resources are moderate, and high-quality ore is present only in a few deposits. Discoveries have been reported from
Ningxia.
Lead and
zinc are available, and
bauxite resources are thought to be plentiful. China's
antimony reserves are the largest in the world.
Tin resources are plentiful, and there are fairly rich deposits of gold. China is the world's fifth largest producer of
gold and in the early 21st century became an important producer and exporter of rare metals needed in high-technology industries. China also produces a fairly wide range of
nonmetallic minerals. One of the most important of these is
salt, which is derived from coastal
evaporation sites in Jiangsu, Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning, as well as from extensive salt fields in Sichuan, Ningxia, and the Qaidam Basin. There are important deposits of
phosphate rock in a number of areas, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan and Hubei. Production has been accelerating every year. As of 2013 China is producing 97,000,000 metric tons of phosphate rock a year.
Pyrites occur in several places; Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi have the most important deposits. China also has large resources of
fluorite (
fluorspar),
gypsum,
asbestos, and has the world's largest reserves and production of
cement, clinker and limestone.
Renewable energy Since the early 2000s, China's clean energy sector has rapidly developed. This growth has enabled renewable energy to have an important role in China's international cooperation, including
South-South cooperation in which China is a major source of clean energy technology transfer to other developing countries.
Industry and manufacturing ,
Shandong high speed train produced by
CRRC developed by Chinese aerospace manufacturer
Comac China has a strong global position in the production of industrial goods and some of its companies are global leader in the areas of steel, solar energy, and telecommunications accessories. As of 2023, China manufactures approximately one fifth of the world's total output of industrial products. Among the various industrial branches the
machine-building and
metallurgical industries have received the highest priority. These two areas alone now account for about 20–30 percent of the total gross value of industrial output. In these, as in most other areas of industry, however,
innovation has generally suffered at the hands of a system that has rewarded increases in gross output rather than improvements in variety, sophistication and quality. China, therefore, still imports significant quantities of specialized steels. Overall industrial output has grown at an average rate of more than ten percent per year, having surpassed all other sectors in
economic growth and degree of
modernization. Following its 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, China quickly developed a reputation as the "world's factory" through its manufacturing exports. As of 2024, China has significant industrial capacity in excess of its domestic needs. There is a
growing consumer culture in China.
Steel industry In 2020, China produced over 1053 million tonnes of steel, over half of the world total. This was an increase of 5.6% over the previous year as global steel production fell by 0.9%. China's share of global crude steel production increased from 53.3% in 2019 to 56.5% in 2020, decreasing -2.1% in 2021.
Iron ore production kept pace with steel production in the early 1990s but was soon outpaced by imported iron ore and other metals in the early 2000s. Steel production, an estimated 140 million tons in 2000 increased to 419 million tons in 2006 and 928 million tons by 2018. China was the top exporter of steel in the world in 2021; export volumes in 2021 were 66.2 million tons. Domestic demand remains strong, particularly in the developing west where steel production in
Xinjiang was expanding. Of the 45 largest steel producing companies in the world, 21 are Chinese, including the world's largest,
China Baowu Steel Group.
Automotive industry China is the world's largest automobile producer, manufacturing more than 31.28 million vehicles in 2024, with 5.86 million of those being exported overseas. , China is the world's largest automobile market in terms of both sales and ownership.
Automobile manufacturing has soared during the reform and opening up period. In 1975 only 139,800 automobiles were produced annually, but by 1985 production had reached 443,377, then jumped to nearly 1.1 million by 1992 and increased fairly evenly each year up until 2001, when it reached 2.3 million. By 2006 China had become the world's third largest automotive vehicle manufacturer and the second-largest consumer. By 2010, China was manufacturing more vehicles than the U.S. and Japan combined. Domestic sales have kept pace with production. After respectable annual increases in the mid- and late 1990s, passenger car sales soared in the early 2000s. In 2010, China became the world's largest automotive vehicle manufacturer as well as the largest consumer ahead of the
United States with an estimated 18 million new cars sold. China began exporting car parts in 1999. China began to plan major moves into the automobile and components export business starting in 2005. By 2004, twelve major foreign automotive manufacturers had
joint-venture plants in China. They produced a wide range of automobiles,
minivans,
sport utility vehicles,
buses, and
trucks. In 2003, China exported US$4.7billion worth of vehicles and components. The vehicle export was 78,000 units in 2004, 173,000 units in 2005, and 340,000 units in 2006. China's exports of cars increased significantly since 2020, boosted by
new energy vehicles. It overtook Germany and Japan in 2022 and 2023 respectively in vehicle exports, becoming the world's largest exporter of cars.
Cement industry Advanced materials industry Chemical industry Defence and aerospace China's defence industry is a rapidly advancing, state-driven sector, ranking as the top-four global arms exporter and focusing on high-tech aerospace, shipbuilding and missile systems. Fueled by massive, yet sometimes opaque investment nearing approximately US$300–470 billion annually, it seeks technological superiority by 2027 while facing internal structural challenges, corruption and recent industry revenue declines. It is mainly dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as
Norinco (land systems),
AVIC (aircraft) and
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
Electric vehicle industry with Dual Mode hybrid engine The electric vehicle industry in China is the largest in the world, accounting for around 58% of global consumption of EVs. In 2023, CAAM reported China had sold 9.05 million passenger electric vehicles, consisting 6.26 million BEVs (battery-only EVs) and 2.79 million PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles). China also dominates the plug-in
electric bus and
light commercial vehicle market, reaching over 500,000 buses (98% of global stock) and 247,500 electric commercial vehicles (65% of global stock) in 2019, and recording new sales of 447,000 commercial EVs in 2023. The plug-in market in China was dominated by Chinese companies, with
BYD Auto and
SAIC Motor occupying the top two spots, and 5 out of the top 7 spots. in 2024. The battery industry is closely related to the EV industry as
batteries constitute around 1/3 of the cost of EVs and around 80% of lithium-ion batteries in the world are used in EVs. The industry also has significant Chinese presence, with major players including world's largest
CATL,
BYD, CALB, Gotion, SVOLT and WeLion.
Semiconductor industry The Chinese semiconductor industry, including
IC design and manufacturing, forms a major part of China's IT industry. China's semiconductor industry consists of a wide variety of companies, from
integrated device manufacturers to
pure-play foundries to
fabless semiconductor companies.
Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) design and manufacture integrated circuits.
Pure-play foundries only manufacture devices for other companies, without designing them, while
fabless semiconductor companies only design devices. Examples of Chinese IDMs are
YMTC and
CXMT, examples of Chinese pure-play foundries are
SMIC,
Hua Hong Semiconductor and
Wingtech, and examples of Chinese fabless companies are
Zhaoxin,
HiSilicon and
UNISOC. China is the currently the world's largest semiconductor market in terms of consumption. In 2020, China represented 53.7% of worldwide chip sales, or $239.45 billion out of $446.1 billion. However, a large percentage are imported from multinational suppliers. In 2020, imports took up 83.38% ($199.7 billion) of total chip sales. In response, the country has launched a number of initiatives to close the gap, including investing $150 billion into its domestic IC industry, with a "Made in China 2025" goal of 70% domestic production. China leads the world in terms of number of new fabs under construction, with 8 out of 19 worldwide in 2021, and 17 fabs in total are expected to start construction from 2021 to 2023. Total installed capacity of Chinese-owned chipmakers will also increase from 2.96 million wafers per month (wpm) in 2020 to 3.572 million wpm in 2021. at a World Mobile Congress China is the world's biggest sex toy producer and accounts for 70% of the worldwide sex toys production. In the country, 1,000 manufacturers are active in this industry, which generates about two billion dollars a year. China has the second-largest reserve of computers in the world as of 2024.
Telecommunications The affordability of
mobile phones and
internet data in China has resulted in the number of mobile internet users in China surpassing the number of computer internet users. By 2023, the number of Internet users in China increased to over 1.09 billion. The proportions of Chinese netizens accessing the Internet via mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, TVs and tablet computers were 99.9%, 33.9%, 30.3%, 22.5% and 26.6%, respectively.
Business process outsourcing in China Consumer retailing China's economy is one of the world's leaders in consumer retailing, consumer internet and
mobile payments. , China has more
internet users than any other country. In mobile payments, many companies have to partner with Alibaba's Alipay or Tencent's platform services. They also control major apps and payment platforms, which limits competition in the digital space. Both Alibaba and Tencent are recognized as tech giants that are driving innovation in e-commerce, social networking, and mobile services. Alibaba generates the majority of its revenue from e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Tmall, while Tencent derives most of its revenue from social services like WeChat, gaming, and fintech.
Education Healthcare Mass media In 2020, China's market for
Chinese films surpassed the U.S. market to become the largest such market in the world. Domestic movies dominate the Chinese market.
Tourism in
Beijing China hosts the world's second
largest number of
World Heritage Sites (
59). China's
tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the national economy and is also one of the industries with a very distinct global competitive edge. According to the
World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism directly contributed CNY 1,362 billion (US$216billion) to the Chinese economy (about 2.6% of GDP). In 2011, total international tourist arrivals was 58 million, and international tourism receipts were US$48billion. The Chinese tourism industry was hit hard by both the
COVID-19 lockdowns and strained relations with many foreign nations. Foreign flights into China, both for business and tourism are way down, especially from the US. Recent much increased internal security activity decreases the desire of foreigners to live in China, or to go to China, for fear of being targeted and not allowed to leave. Thus many foreigners are leaving and others crossing it off as a travel destination.
Luxury goods Hong Kong and Macau benefit from favorable taxation rules and are favored locations for tourists from elsewhere in China to purchase luxury goods like cosmetics, jewelry, and designer fashion goods.
Porcelain has long been one of China's most important luxury exports. == Informal economy ==