| Table of Contents |
| | Foreword | i |
| | Acknowledgements | iii |
| | Acronyms | xix |
| I. | Economic Geography and Administration | 1 |
| | A. | Economic geography | 1 |
| | B. | Administrative system | 4 |
| | C. | Political parties and organizations | 8 |
| | D. | Laws and jurisdiction | 8 |
| | E. | General history | 9 |
| II. | Economy | 11 |
| | A. | Ownership forms in the economy | 11 |
| | B. | Economic system and reforms | 11 |
| | C. | Economic performance | 16 |
| | D. | Economic performance in 1996 and the first nine months of 1997 | 17 |
| | E. | The Ninth Five-Year Plan and business opportunities (1996-2000) | 19 |
| | F. | Developments and prospects for major industries | 21 |
| III. | Foreign Trade | 69 |
| | A. | Trends and patterns | 69 |
| | B. | Foreign trade policy and administration | 81 |
| | C. | Recent reforms of foreign trade administration and management | 87 |
| | D. | Goals and strategies for foreign trade (1996-2000) | 89 |
| | E. | Prospects for imports | 91 |
| | F. | Prospects for exports | 92 |
| | G. | Contract engineering | 94 |
| | H. | Development of laws and regulations regarding foreign trade | 95 |
| IV. | Foreign Trade Organizations and Their Functions | 101 |
| | A. | Foreign trade organizations | 101 |
| | B. | Foreign trade organizations and their functions | 101 |
| | C. | China Council for the Promotion of International Trade | 110 |
| | D. | Institutions associated with foreign trade | 114 |
| | E. | Categories of foreign trade businesses | 119 |
| | F. | Establishment of Sino-foreign joint-venture companies | 120 |
| V. | Foreign Trade Operations and Procedures | 121 |
| | A. | Types of foreign trade | 121 |
| | B. | Selling to China | 123 |
| | C. | Buying from China | 131 |
| | D. | Sales and purchase contracts | 133 |
| VI. | The Banking System and Foreign Exchange Management | 137 |
| | A. | The banking system and the development of financial institutions | 137 |
| | B. | Financial reform and development (1996-1997) | 143 |
| | C. | Foreign exchange controls | 145 |
| | D. | Enhancing supervision of foreign financial institutions by the People's Bank of China | 147 |
| | E. | Cooperation between PBC and international financial institutions | 148 |
| | F. | Development and administration of foreign financial institutions | 151 |
| | G. | Development of Chinese financial institutions | 154 |
| | H. | China's finance industry in the twenty-first century | 155 |
| VII. | Customs Administration | 161 |
| | A. | Customs organization | 161 |
| | B. | Tariffs | 162 |
| | C. | Import and export duties | 163 |
| | D. | Price examinations and approval by customs | 165 |
| | E. | Supervision and control regulations | 166 |
| | F. | Intellectual property protection | 167 |
| | G. | Bonded warehouses | 168 |
| VIII. | Commodity Inspection | 171 |
| | A. | Commodity inspection organizations | 171 |
| | B. | Cooperation between CCIC and international inspection organizations | 175 |
| IX. | Insurance | 179 |
| | A. | Development of the insurance business | 179 |
| | B. | Organizations | 182 |
| | C. | Insurance regulations | 185 |
| X. | China's Foreign Trade Transportation | 187 |
| | A. | Modes of transportation for China's foreign trade | 187 |
| | B. | Organizations in charge of foreign shipping | 194 |
| XI. | Promotion of Foreign Direct Investment | 197 |
| | A. | Foreign direct investment in China | 197 |
| | B. | Promotion of foreign direct investment | 198 |
| | C. | Policies regarding absorption of foreign direct investment | 205 |
| | D. | Preferential tax treatment for foreign direct investment | 209 |
| | E. | Other matters of interest to foreign investors | 211 |
| | F. | Guarantee of legal rights of foreign investors | 213 |
| | G. | Setting up of joint ventures | 214 |
| | H. | Organizations in charge of joint investment | 215 |
| | I. | Examination and approval procedures for enterprises investing in the services trade | 216 |
| | J. | MOFTEC examination | 217 |
| | K. | Special procedures and examination | 217 |
| | L. | Restrictive B type projects | 217 |
| | M. | Restrictive A type projects | 218 |
| | N. | Consultation services | 218 |
| | O. | Petroleum exploration | 218 |
| | P. | Wholly foreign-funded items | 218 |
| | Q. | Finance | 219 |
| XII. | Protection of Intellectual Property Rights | 221 |
| | A. | Existing legal system for intellectual property rights | 221 |
| | B. | Concrete measures for judicial protection of intellectual property rights | 223 |
| | C. | Categories of intellectual property rights disputes | 224 |
| | D. | Basic principles governing disputes over intellectual property rights | 227 |
| | E. | Applications for Chinese patents | 228 |
| XIII. | General Information on Travel | 237 |
| | A. | Tourism development in China | 237 |
| | B. | Hotel and transportation facilities | 237 |
| | C. | Information for travel to China | 238 |
| XIV. | Basic Information on Various Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities Directly Under the Central Government | 247 |
