TABLE 1 - SWOT ANALYSIS - STRENGTHS
Growth
* National strength since reform in 1978.
* Accelerated economic development.
* Increased comprehensive national strength. GNP increasing an average of 9% annually (Benson, 1996) and ranked third in the world.
* Export growth of 25% and imports up 15%.
* Will continue to dominate light and medium-tech industries because of the large market in China and the pool of labor.
Key Money Recipient and Direct Foreign
Investment
* Leads world in direct foreign investment - $135 billion (Taninecz, 1996). Foreign invested companies represented 31.5% of all China's exports (or about $46.9 billion). This netted about $8.4 billion in taxes (Taninecz, 1996 and "China: The Numbers Game," 1995.
* Moving to a market economy.
* Will be one of the world's six largest economies by 2020 with Japan, Indonesia, India, and Korea and the U.S., according to the World Bank.
National Resources
* Rich reserves of natural resources.
* Chinese prefer to work with U.S. companies for oil exploration and coal mine development.
* Chinese allow compensation, trade, or cooperative development for ventures.
Large Population Base and Potential Customers
* Per capita consumption is low, but with a large population, opportunity is incredible, especially for low-end products. Also represents large future potential as buying power is increasing rapidly. Strong materialistic outlook, as citizens abandon the original collective party doctrine.
* 1.2 billion citizens in China ("Coke Pours Into Asia," 1996) and 2.75 billion in the Asian Pacific Region which equals 10 times the population of the U.S.
* Large consumer base as well as a low labor cost factor.
* World's most lucrative market (Schafer, 1996) of which China represents one-sixth of the