Introduction and Purpose
The country that I choose to examine the impact of economics, culture, and social factors on population health and examine three health issues will be China. China, also known as the People’s Republic of China is a country with long history and ancient civilization. China has a permanent population of 1.39 billion in mainland and the population of old people at the age of 60 or above amounts to 0.24 billion, accounting for 17.3% of the total population and aging is a fact in China (TCT, 2004). With a massive population in China, healthcare is available to the citizens, especially for the population of people at the 60 years old or above. We could better understand the healthcare strategic plan and the needs of China while examining China’s healthcare system through the involvement of the government, social factors, culture and the belief. The Communist Party of China was founded in 1921 and the communist cooperated with Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalists after (China Mission, 2004). However, it broke with the Nationalist after Sun died. The Communist Party then establish Red Army through long struggle under the leadership of the party and Mao, ZeDong (The chairman) The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 and had 10 years growing period during the Korea war with Americans and then struggle from natural disasters and Soviet aid for 3 years. From 1966-1976 China had cultural Revolution which a nation-wide movement against feudalism and capitalism and China’s economy was stopped (China Mission, 2004). After 1978, China began to reform under the leadership of Deng, XiaoPing and had rapid growing with the following 20 years. (China Mission, 2004)
Economics
Xi, Jinping serves as the President of the People’s Republic of China and as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2012 and is known for his assertiveness and belief in an authoritative government (Wang & Huang, 2005). His firm ideals reject Western concepts of constitutional democracy and human rights. Xi Jinping had produced no significant reforms. However, he united his authority, expel internal political enemies, and backed authoritarian policies to tighten control of civil society (Wang & Huang, 2005). China is one of the largest exporters and producers of cheap goods to the world, but the income is still below the world average. The government faced serious challenges with the slowdown in economic growth and it effect the living standard throughout the large population. China has around 21 percent of the world population, about 6 percent of the world’s freshwater and 9 percent the world’s farmlands (Wang & Huang, 2005). Northern China has only 20 percent of the nation’s water resources, but it has 65 percent of China’s cultivated land and produces half of its grain, wheat and maize. This region accounts for more than 45 percent of the nation’s GDP (Wang & Huang, 2005).
Geography and Climate
China has about 9, 634 thousand square kilometers of land area, with a land coastline of 18,000 kilometers, and has thousands of islands including the South China Sea Islands (TCT, 2004). China has a vast variety of highly different landscapes and the main rivers flow from west to east. The central of China has Yangtze river, Huang He river lied on central-east, the Amur located on northeast. and the south have the Pearl River, Mekong River, and Brahmaputra (TCT, 2004). The climate of China varies depend on different zones and regions. Beijing is located at the northern zone has winters of Arctic severity climate. Shanghai at the central zone has a generally temperate climate. GuangZhou at the southern zone has a subtropical climate.
Majority of climate had divided into four zone in China; The arid zone, semi-arid zone semi-humid zone, and humid zone (Wang & Ouyang, 1999). The arid zone is suitable for irrigated cotton, grains, vegetables and fruits and is lie in the west and northwest. Livestock is the predominant land use. The semi-arid zone is located in the upper and middle central China and the main crops are wheat, maize and cotton (Wang & Ouyang, 1999). The semi-humid zone often had floods and droughts and the main crops also include wheat, maize and soybean under irrigated conditions. Rice is the predominant crop in humid zone lie in the south and southwest. The flood season lasts from July to September, but early or late season droughts can limit crop yields. The zone near Yangtze has a subtropical climate allowing double cropping. South West subzone has a mixed tropical/subtropical climate, with rice dominant in the lowlands, and wheat and other grains in the highlands (Wang & Ouyang, 1999).