COMMUNIST CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A000100010001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 111
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 23, 2009
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 1, 1966
• Content Type: IM

Approved For Release 2009/04/23: CIA-RDP79T00826A000100010001-3
58
1 January 1966
OCI No. 0942/66
INTELLIGENCE HANDBOOK
COMMUNIST CHINA
DOE review
completed.
DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE
DIA review(s)
completed.
Office of Current Intelligence
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A3-n ult.nl
COMMUNIST CHINA
1 January 1966
This handbook is designed to give the reader ready ac-
cess to the salient facts about Communist China and its cur-
rent problems. It is not a document intended to provide com-
prehensive basic intelligence on China or to speak with the
authority of coordinated national intelligence. The informa-
tion presented. is the best available as of the date at the top
of each page.
Though issued by the Office of Current Intelligence,
this handbook is actually the product of joint effort by a num-
ber of different offices, inside and outside of the Directorate
of Intelligence. The Office of Research and. Reports contrib-
uted Section III and parts of Sections I and VII.
the Office of Central Reference con-
tributed Section VI and part of Section VII. The Office of
Basic Intelligence, through a number of different components,
contributed to Sections I and VII, did extensive work in graphics,
and made available material from the forthcoming NIS General
Survey on Communist China. The Office of Scientific Intelligence
of the Directorate of Science and Technology contributed Sec-
tion V and part of Section VII.
Suggestions will be welcomed as to how such a quick ref-
erence document might be made more useful to the consumer;
comments should be directed to the Office of Current Intelli-
gence.
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011, Ult.L' I
Page
A.
B.
Land
People
I-3
C.
Chronology
1-7
A.
Government Structure
II-1
B.
Communist Party
11-3
C.
National Policies
11-6
D.
Dissidence and Control
11-8
E.
Diplomatic Relations
11-9
F.
Border Disputes
11-14
G.
Significant International Commitments
11-15
H.
Relations with Foreign Communist Parties
11-16
A.
Agriculture and Food Supply
III-1
B.
Industry
111-4
C.
Transportation and Communication
111-5
D.
Labor Force
111-7
E.
Trade and Foreign Aid
111-7
A.
Key Military Officials
IV-1
B.
Ground Forces
IV-1
C.
Navy
IV-4
D.
Air Force
IV-5
V:
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
V-1
A.
Research Fields
V-1
B.
Scientific Resources
V-7
C.
Organization and Role
V-8
iii
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COMMUNIST CHINA
January 190
A. Land (area, topography, climate)
Communist China, slightly larger than the
United States, is a country of great topographic
and climatic diversity. It is characterized by
virtually uninhabited gravel and sand deserts in
the northwest, forested low mountains in the north-
east, densely populated plains and river basins in
the east, jungle-covered gorges and mountains in the
south, and barren plateaus and high, rugged mountain
ranges in the western interior. The climate ranges
from polar in some of the high mountain and plateau
regions to tropical in the south.
The main centers of agriculture and industry
are isolated from one another by areas of mountainous
terrain or by major rivers, most of which flow from
west to east. These features have hindered develop-
ment of the internal transportation networks and in-
tensified the problems of developing political co-
hesion in this large country. The population, mainly
agricultural, is concentrated on the plains in the
east near the coast and along navigable rivers, where
most of the arable land lies.
In the northeast, the gently undulating sur-
face of the Manchurian Plain is interrupted only by
low hills that form a divide between the northeast-
ward-flowing Sungari River and the southward-flowing
Liao. Except along the Gulf of Liaotung in the
south, the plain is bordered by partly forested
mountains, which are the chief source of minerals
for the industrial cities along the eastern edge of
the plain. Winters in the northeast are long, dry,
and bitterly cold, and summers are short, hot, and
moderately wet.
The great plain of North China, a vast flat
bed of alluvial deposits of the Yellow River, forms
a broad arc between Peking and Nanking. The plain
is the heart of the wheat and dry grain region of
China and is intensively cultivated. Diked streams
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IMAUNIST CHINA
anuary 1966
and drainage canals cross its surface, and large
salt evaporators flank the coast in many places.
Although the Yellow River--often referred to as
"China's Sorrow" because of its destructive floods
the past--has been brought under some measure of
control, the plain is still harassed by summer floou-
waters from other rivers that flow across its strr-
+ace. West of the plain is an extensive, treeless,
and deeply eroded terraced plateau of very thick
t r>c,ss deposits whicn fcr centuries have blown in
from the deserts of interior China anc which now
e?over most of the hills and lower slot es of moun-
,ains in the area. North China has ccid dry winters
with strong northwest winds, usually gusty, ana not
moderately wet summers.
South of the plain is the densely populated
Yangtze Basin, where discontinuous fertile and in-
.;cnsively cultivated alluvial plains stretch along
the lower course of the Yangtze River ind its main
i.r? butaries. Upstream along the river and separateua
from the lower Yangtze Basin by a sma_ i chain of
mountains is the Szechwan Basin, a moa.,ntain-rimmed
depression of intensively cultivated 'rains and low
i. 3.s-. The Yangtze is the main artery of the largest
a,snd most widely used inland waterway :system of China.
I,- links the delta region around Shant_nai, the most
important industrial city in the country, with other
=ca.ior industrial cities along its banks in the in-
,crior--Nanking, Wu-roan, and Chungking. The agri-
:uitural landscape of flooded terracec rice fields,
(Liked canals, fishponds, and bamboo groves of the
Yangtze Basin is typical of all South China. The
r.Lmate of the Yangtze Basin is trans::t.ional betweei
he dry continental north and the wetter, milder
,soouuth. The lower basin is subject to occasional
iserious flooding after periods of unusually heavy
rninfall.
The mountains cat South China nr?e inter-
.teersed with intensive _y cultivated f at plains.
?e largest and most densely populates; plains are
;i l