China

Focusing on China...

Facts about China:

1. Capital: Beijing
2. Population: 1.351 billion (2012) World Bank
3. Gross domestic product: 8.227 trillion USD (2012) World Bank
4. President: Xi Jinping
5. Government: Communist state, Socialist state, Single-party state
6. Official language: Standard Chinese

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state located in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, fiveautonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC also claims the territories governed by Taiwan, a separate political entity officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), as its 23rd province, a claim which is controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan.

Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area, and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.^[i] China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.

The history of China goes back to the ancient civilization – one of the world's earliest – that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (c. 2000 BCE). Since 221 BCE, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) overthrew the last dynasty in 1911, and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. After the defeat of theEmpire of Japan in World War II, the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to its present capital of Taipei.

China had the largest and most complex economy in the world for most of the past two thousand years,prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. As of 2013, it is the world's second-largest economy by both nominal total GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP), and is also the world's largest exporter and importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defence budget. The PRC has been a United Nations member since 1971, when it permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM and the G-20. China is a regional power within Asia and has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of commentators.

Read more about China at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

ADRA China:

ADRA China main office is located in Beijing

What is ADRA China?Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) China

• is your partner to help bring a better future to the world, with a priority focus on China. 
• is a Christian Humanitarian Agency established in 1996.
• has a network (internal link to other offices page)  of offices present in 120 countries globally.
• gives aid regardless to political or religious association, age, gender or race by providing sustainable community development and emergency relief.

What does ADRA China do?ADRA China works with people in poverty and distress to create just and positive change through empowering partnerships and responsible action.

Why ADRA?

• ADRA China is an agency of change and an instrument of grace and providence
• ADRA China partners with local authorities 
• ADRA China demonstrates integrity and transparency at every level
• ADRA China is internationally accredited with awards
• ADRA China assisted more than 250,100 beneficiaries in 2007-2010
• ADRA China is part of the ADRA network which covers 120 countries
• ADRA’s network touches 25 million lives each year
• ADRA International was granted General Consultative Status by the United Nations

Some Programs:

Saving Lives in China Through Community Healthcare ADRA is teaching community health workers (CHWs) across the Tibetan Plateau in Western China, where there is little health care. CHWs receive training regularly, learning key concepts for safe maternal/child health.

In the past, barefoot doctors (individuals who have received basic minimal medical training) existed in each Chinese village. Today, these traditional barefoot doctors are known as the village doctor and are very active in Zaduo’s 31 villages. Most of the village doctors work out of their homes or tents, as clinics do not exist. But even the village doctors are unable to reach all the way to Zaduo’s remote pasturelands or wintering valleys, which can be days away by horseback from the nearest rudimentary health facility. Many women deliver their babies alone at home, significantly increasing their health risks.   Your generous support helps ADRA carry out effective interventions for families living in extreme poverty in remote places.   "I am 24 years old and spent my days herding yak before ADRA trained me as a CHW (community health worker)," says Sangzhong. "While yak are our most valuable possession, being a CHW is valuable work too, even though it is volunteer work, because I am learning and helping others, and this gives me a feeling I never had herding yaks."   Sangzhong continues, "Yes, being a CHW is difficult work, as the roads are bad and easily flooded by the rains and mountain streams. We have seven months of snow and ice that is usually a minimum of 2 feet deep, and the temperature goes down to minus 15 degrees and lower. I have 10 families in my care that I see each month, and during critical times I visit a family two to three times in the month. I used to ask the villagers to share with me who the expectant mothers in the village are. Now they approach me to tell me without my asking. Everyone is seeing the importance of this work and the benefits to the community. In addition to my CHW training, I enjoy helping the village doctor, Guolai, with delivering babies. With each delivery, I learn something new. I hope ADRA will be able to provide more training so I can learn even more about health issues and how to be more help to the people in our villages."

Read more about ADRA China at http://www.adrachina.org/site/