China surges ahead; as China's economy booms, young people are working hard to meet tomorrow's challenges.

* OBJECTIVES

Students should understand

* why Chinese students spend so much time studying.

* how China is developing into a major political and economic world power.

* TEACHING STRATEGY

Before students read the article, discuss: "Does what happens in a country half a world away matter to the lives of people in the U.S.? Why might U.S. leaders want to maintain good relations with China?" After they read the article, ask the same questions. Have their viewpoints changed?

* BACKGROUND

In 1949, Communist Party leaders took control of China, and former leaders fled to the island of Taiwan. The U.S. and other countries recognized Taiwan as the legitimate government of China. Mainland China became a closed nation as well as a shunned one. Then, in 1970-1971, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon began easing trade restrictions and opened travel between the countries. In 1971, the United Nations voted to admit the People's Republic of China in place of Taiwan.

* CRITICAL THINKING

RECALLING DETAILS: The U.S. wants China's help in persuading which country not to build nuclear weapons? (North Korea)

CAUSE AND EFFECT: When China's Communist government collectivized farms, what happened to food production? (Food production dropped, and a famine killed at least 20 million people.)

* ACTIVITY

USING RESEARCH MATERIALS: Organize a time line of Chinas most significant national leaders and social movements since Mao Zedong. Have students, individually or in small groups, research and present reports on such subjects as Mao, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping, and the Gang of Four.

Liu Min (leo meen), 15, lives with her parents, cats, and a dog in Liaojia village, a town of several hundred people in Chinas Sichuan (SECH-wan) province. Min lives in a concrete house in the midst of rice paddies, which stretch almost to the Lius' front door. (In China, people say their family names first.) When her father, a farmer, takes Min to school on his motorcycle each morning, she watches water buffalo plow the neighbors' fields.

Most days, Min rises at 6 o'clock to make breakfast, usually rice with milk. When she gets to school an hour later, she starts to study.

School is the center of Min's life. Except for Sundays, she stays there until 10 o'clock every night. Her classes include Chinese literature, physics, chemistry, English, and math. She likes English because, she says, "it's interesting and useful."

Min's school of 2,000 students doesn't have many resources. There are only a few computers, and Min has never used the Internet. There aren't even heaters; in the winter, she wears gloves and a hat during class.

Nearly 65 percent of China's 1.3 billion people (one fifth of the world's population) live in the countryside. Most of them earn only the equivalent of a few hundred U.S. dollars a year. For Min, money is tight, and her world is small. She has never traveled farther than Chengdu (chung-DOO), the capital of Sichuan province, which is an hour away by bus.

A Growing Middle Class

Qing Lang (ching long), 13, lives several hundred miles away in Chongqing (chung-CHING). The city of 10 million people is on the banks of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River), the world's third-longest river.

Both of Lang's parents are journalists. The family has an apartment on the top floor of an eight-story building. Because there is no elevator, Lang says, "we get a lot of exercise every day."

The Qing family is part of Chinas new middle class. Lang attends one of Chongqing's best middle schools. Built by a wealthy entrepreneur, the school has modern science labs and lots of computers.

Lang's favorite class is computer science. "After we finish our work," he told JS, "the teacher lets us play games." On weekends, he likes to watch movies--especially scary ones--and to eat at McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants.

Lang and Min come from different economic backgrounds, but both spend most of their time studying. China has so many people, there is room for only a small percentage of students at universities. Lang and Min agree that there is a lot of pressure on them to get good grades.

The Cultural Revolution

Today, modern China is just emerging from its economic dark ages. When the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, the government took land and money from landlords and wealthy people. It abolished private property and forced farmers to work together on collectivized farms.

The economic changes led to disaster. Food production dropped. During a famine between 1959 and 1962, at least 20 million people starved to death. At the same time, Chinas industries lagged far behind the rest of the world's.

In 1966, Mao Zedong (mow zeh-dawng), leader of the Communist Party, launched the Cultural Revolution. The movement was partly meant to correct economic imbalances. But it was largely a way for Mao and his allies to seize more power. A series of attacks on people considered to be Mao's enemies resulted in a reign of terror. Many of those attacked were China's best-educated people. The Cultural Revolution created problems for the Chinese that continue to this day.

Economic Reforms

For many years, China was closed to outsiders, who thought of it as a strange and forbidding place. But after Mao's death in 1976, Chinas leaders began to reform the economy. They encouraged foreign companies to set up factories in China. They also returned land to farmers.

These changes led to rapid economic growth. Billions of dollars have been invested in China, and production rates have soared. Today, high-rise buildings, superhighways, and other ambitious projects are under construction across the country.

The people of China can increasingly afford cars and other goods. Between 1990 and 2005, U.S. exports to China grew by 415 percent.

A Communist Government

Although the government has reshaped Chinas economy, it has done little to reform the political system. Citizens cannot elect national leaders. Chinese President Hu Jintao (hoo jihn-taow), for example, was chosen by the Communist Party.

Nonetheless, Hu is an important world leader. The United States government wants Chinas help in persuading North Korea not to build nuclear weapons. The U.S. also wants to keep peace between China and Taiwan. In 1949, Chinese leaders fled from Communist rule and set up their own government on the island of Taiwan. Since then, Taiwan's status has been a matter of international debate.

The U.S. and China have a troubled trading relationship. The value of the goods the U.S. imports from China is greater than that of the goods the U.S. exports there. To make up for this large trade deficit, the U.S. has borrowed billions of dollars from China.

U.S. officials want China to allow more democracy and personal freedoms, but they have to maintain good relations with Hu. A lot is at stake.

The Next Generation

To Min and Lang, the Chinese government seems remote. They are more focused on schoolwork. In her spare time, Min likes to ice skate at a new rink in a nearby city. Both teens enjoy watching Chinese star Yao Ming play basketball for the Houston Rockets.

Min wants to become a translator when she grows up, and travel around the world. She believes that all of her studying will pay off. "When I work hard," she says, "I'm happy. I believe I will have a good future."

Words to Know

* collectivize: put under state control.

* Communist: a type of government that controls all aspects of the economy and abolishes private ownership.

* Cultural Revolution: a movement designed to eliminate antigovernment influences in China's institutions and leadership.

* trade deficit: the annual amount that a country--its people, companies, and government agencies--spends on foreign products, minus the amount that foreign countries spend on its products.

Your Turn

THINK ABOUT IT

1. What are some of the reasons that Min and Lang study so hard?

2. The U.S. trade deficit with China is nearly $18 billion. What consequences might such an imbalance have for both countries in the future?

China.

FACTS TO KNOW

AREA: China has a land area of 3,696,100 sq mi, about the same as that of the United States.

POPULATION: China's population of 1.3 billion people is the largest in the world, more than four times as large as the population of the United States.

LANGUAGES: Mandarin, other Chinese dialects, other languages.

GOVERNMENT: Communist state. The President is Hu Jintao.

ECONOMY: China's economy is booming, but the average income of 60% of the population is still less than $1 per day.

PER CAPITA GDP *: $5,600.

RELIGION: Officially discouraged. Christianity, 3% to 4%; Islam, 1% to 2%. Less than 2% practice Confucianism, Taoism, or Buddhism.

LITERACY: Males, 95%; females, 87%.

LIFE EXPECTANCY: Males, 70 years; females, 74 years.

QUESTIONS

1. Is China north or south of the equator?--

2. The Great Wall of China is closest to which major river?--

3. Which country borders China at 45[degrees]N, 80[degrees]E?--

4. The Tropic of Cancer is one of five major parallels of latitude that circle Earth. Through which Chinese city does it pass?--

5. Which Chinese cities have populations greater than 10 million?--

6. Which city is closest to 50[degrees]N, 120[degrees]E?--

7. The Xi River empties into which body of water?--

8. Which city has the largest population: Lhasa, Wuhan, or Tianjin?--

9. In which province is Liaojia village, where Liu Min and her family live?--

10. Which area of China is most sparsely settled? Why do you think this is?--

* GDP stands for gross domestic product; per capita means per person. The amount is the value of all items produced by the country in a year, divided by the population. It is often used as a measure of wealth.

ANSWERS

1. north

2. Huang He (Yellow River)

3. Kazakhstan

4. Guangzhou (Canton)

5. Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai

6. Hailar

7. South China Sea

8. Wuhan

9. Sichuan (Szechuan)

10. The west, because of its desert, mountains, and distance from rivers and seas.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Global connections: Why China's government, economy, and relations with neighboring countries matter to the U.S.

* Individuals, groups, and institutions: How changes in China's Communist government have affected the lives of the country's people.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Chen, Da, China' s Son: Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution (Random House, 2003). Grades 6 & up.

* Jiang, Ji-li, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution (HarperCollins, 1998). Grades 6 & up.

WEB SITES

* China-Quick Facts china.org.cn/e-changshi/index.htm

* China in Brief 2005 china.org.cn