Industry produced 72.8 percent of
the People's Republic of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in
2005. Industry (including mining, manufacturing, construction, and power)
contributed 46.8 percent of GDP in 2010 and occupied 27 percent of the workforce
in 2007. The manufacturing sector produced 44.1 percent of GDP in 2004 and
accounted for 11.3 percent of total employment in 2006. China is the world’s
leading manufacturer of chemical fertilizers, cement, and steel. Prior to 1978,
most output was produced by state-owned enterprises. As a result of the economic
reforms that followed, there was a significant increase in production by
enterprises sponsored by local governments, especially townships and villages,
and, increasingly, by private entrepreneurs and foreign investors, but by 1990
the state sector accounted for about 70 percent of output. By 2002 the share in
gross industrial output by state-owned and state-holding industries had
decreased with the state-run enterprises themselves accounting for 46 percent of
China’s industrial output. In November, 2012 the State Council of
the People's Republic of China mandated a "social risk assessment" for all
major industrial projects. This requirement followed mass public protests in
some locations for planned projects or expansions.
