6/86Percentage increase in trade between China and the Soviet Union in 1985: 45
12/87Rank of China’s annual cauliflower crop: 1
9/89Percentage of Chinese teenagers who can correctly identify the size of the world’s population: 85
Percentage of American adults who can: 35
2/90Total value of U.S. exports to China in the five months following the Tiananmen Square massacre: $2,215,100,000
8/90Percentage of rural Chinese couples who say they usually spend less than a minute on foreplay: 34
12/91Price of a single-serving pizza at Beijing’s Pizza Hut, expressed as a portion of the average worker’s weekly salary: 1/5
1/92Ratio of the number of Chinese who will watch the Super Bowl this year to the number of Americans who will: 3:1
12/92Number of people who will participate in the first annual China Beach Surfing Contest in Vietnam this month: 60
2/92Number of people who attended the sentencing to death of 35 convicted drug dealers in China last August: 40,000
8/92Bonus the Chinese government pays selected scholars and scientists each month to discourage emigration: $20
12/93Price of a gold-and-diamond pendant sold in China this year to commemorate the centennial of Mao Zedong’s birth: $10,500
5/93Number of deeds to a square inch of land in each of the fifty states bought by Chinese citizens last year: 100,000
1/94Hours the average Chinese worker must work to earn the price of an ice-cream cone at Beijing’s new Baskin-Robbins: 7
5/94Number of films designated as compulsory viewing for Beijing school children by the Chinese government last fall: 34
6/94Ratio of the size of the staff at the U.S. embassy in Paris to the size of the staff at the U.S. embassy in Beijing: 3:1
6/94Percentage of all natural-gas and oil fields licensed by Vietnam last year that are in waters claimed by China: 100
9/94Estimated number of labor disputes in China last year, according to the Chinese government: 12,358
12/95Number of stories about Hillary Clinton’s attendance of the U.N.’s women’s conference that appeared on Chinese TV: 0
5/95Ratio of the number of Chinese who own a television set to those who have hot running water: 84:1
7/95Number of the world’s twenty largest banks that are American, Chinese, or Japanese, respectively: 0,1,11
10/96Number of convicted drug traffickers executed in China last June to mark World Anti-Drug Day: 250
5/96Rank of Mexico, South Korea, and China among the largest traders cited: 1,2,3
7/96Estimated cost of sealing the U.S.-Mexican border with a replica of the Great Wall of China: $45,000,000,000
9/96Price a Paris boutique charges for an ounce of Yin Shen White Tea, “hand-picked by Chinese virgins”: $90
12/97Ratio of the number of prisoners per 100,000 people in China to the number per 100,000 in the U.S.: 2:5
2/97Ratio of U.S. defense spending to the combined total spent by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Libya: 2:1
5/97Rank of China among the least effective lobbyists in Washington, according to U.S. Ambassador Jim Sasser: 1
5/97Number of “active” dissidents in China at the end of last year, according to the State Department: 0
5/97Amount by which U.S. exports to China last year fell short of U.S. exports to Belgium: $542,000,000
6/97Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 that came from taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
7/97Percentage change since 1995 in the number of Chinese Embassy staffers assigned to U.S. congressional relations: +100
7/97Rank of chicken feet among Chinese moviegoers’ favorite snacks: 1
1/98Value of U.S. export contracts signed by China during Jiang Zemin’s U.S. visit last November: $4,260,000,000
11/98Tons of U.S. chicken feet exported last year to China: 264,000
10/99Year in which some of the nuclear “secrets” that Congress alleges China stole were published in the U.S.: 1984
11/99Percentage of the tiles included in Scrabble games produced in the U.S. this year that will be made in China: 100
12/99Days before Time Warner’s Fortune Global Forum opened in China last fall that China banned Time’s special China issue: 6
7/99Hours after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May that the U.S. apologized to China: 23
7/99Amount that the head of Chinese military intelligence gave Clinton fund-raiser Johnny Chung in 1996: $300,000
Ratio of the amount that Chung spent on himself to the amount that he gave to the Democratic National Committee: 14:1
8/99Number of live contraband Chinese chipmunks that the Dutch government ordered KLM to shred last April: 440
1/00Number of ships that sailed in the first expedition of Cheng Ho, the 15th-century Chinese explorer: 287
Minimum number of countries Cheng Ho visited over the course of his seven voyages: 30
1/00Number of years after Jews settled in China that they were first allowed to live in Russian territory: 1,045
1/00Number of Chinese engineers who accompanied the Mongol Khan Hulägu on his siege of Baghdad in 1257: 1,000
11/00Rank of the China National Petroleum Corporation among companies with the largest stake in the Sudanese oil industry: 1
12/00Number of Falun Gong members arrested in China who have died in, en route to, or shortly after their release from prison: 53
2/00Days after China announced it would begin acquiring offensive weapons that it was accepted into the WTO last fall: 7
2/00Maximum range at which China North Industries’ new “portable laser disturber” can “injure or dizzy the eyes,” in miles: 6
4/00Maximum tonnage by which pollution reduced China’s potential annual wheat production between 1994 and 1996: 10,000
6/00Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 composed of taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
8/00Amount by which last year’s WTO accord is projected to increase annual U.S. grain sales to China: $1,000,000,000
Percentage of last year’s U.S. grain sales to the European Union this represents: 96
9/00Ratio of Motorola’s commercial sales in China last year to the value of its U.S. defense contracts: 3:1
9/00Ratio of Lockheed Martin’s 1999 sales to the $13 million fine it will pay for giving secret technology to China: 1,962:1
11/01Number of sparrows requested by Chinese farmers in September to help end a plague of locusts: 20,000
2/01Number of poets scheduled to attend a literary conference in China last year before the government banned it: 200
5/01Factor by which the cost of China’s Three Gorges Dam is expected to exceed its original $4.5 billion budget: 16
Estimated number of people who will be displaced by the dam’s construction: 1,900,000
6/01Percentage change since 1995 in carbon emissions by the United States and China, respectively: +6, -15
10/02Size in acres of a billboard that a Chinese town is constructing next to its ancient giant Buddha: 10
4/02Ratio of the President’s proposed increase in U.S. military spending to China’s total military budget in 2000: 1:1
4/03Amount the U.S. withheld from the U.N. Population Fund last year, citing links to forced abortions in China: $34,000,000
Months after the State Department had cleared the U.N. of such connections that the funds were withheld nonetheless: 2
4/03Percentage of Chinese who say they have never heard of AIDS: 17
5/03Ratio of the number of Volkswagens sold in China last year to the number sold in the United States: 4:3
3/04Chance that a resident of China has never heard of AIDS: 1 in 5
3/04Number of monkeys fed a nine-course meal at last year’s Chinese Banquet for Monkeys in Lopburi, Thailand: 3,000
12/05Percentage change since 1995 in the U.S. trade deficit with China, as a percentage of U.S. GDP: +202
Percentage change with all other countries: +147
3/05Number of plastic surgeries undergone by the winner of last year’s “Miss Artificial Beauty” pageant in China: 4
Number undergone by the runner-up: 10
4/05Rank of Colombia’s stock exchange among the best performers tracked by The Economist last year: 1
4/05Rank of China among nations where world business leaders say they are “most confident” to invest this year: 1
5/05Percentage of owners of private businesses in China who are members of the Communist Party: 34
6/05Portion of the world’s motor vehicles that are in China: 1/17
Portion of the world’s annual traffic fatalities that are: 1/5
6/05Percentage change since 1994 in treatment for male infertility and erectile dysfunction in Shanghai: +100
6/05Amount a Chinese online gamer made last year by selling a virtual sword he had borrowed from a friend: $850
8/05Fine levied last year on a restaurant in southwest China for serving sushi atop naked women: $242
1/06Number of manufacturing jobs that China has lost since 1996: 21,000,000
3/06Number of copies sold in Japan since last summer of a comic book about the worthlessness of China: 180,000
5/06Percentage of China’s investable assets that are controlled by the richest half-percent of households: 62
5/06Percentage of white-collar Chinese workers who have personal blogs: 52
6/06Percentage of Chinese who say the free market is “the best system on which to base the future of the world”: 74
9/06Percentage change since 1991 in the average fee charged by smugglers of illegal Chinese immigrants into the U.S.: +100
9/06Number of Chinese illegals who have been caught by the United States but China has so far refused to take back: 39,000
Number from the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council combined: 822
12/07Estimated percentage of the world’s male smokers who live in the United States and China, respectively: 3, 31
Number this year: 3
12/07Percentage change since 2000 in the value of China’s private security and surveillance industry: +265
9/07Earliest year, in a 2004 estimate, that China was projected to surpass the United States in CO2 production: 2024
11/08Number of the 77 applications to protest during the Beijing Olympics this summer that were denied: 1
Number that were withdrawn by the petitioners or suspended for incorrect paperwork: 76
12/08Amount a Chinese investor paid in June to have lunch with Warren Buffett: $2,110,000
4/08Chance that a Silicon Valley technology company started since 1995 was founded by Indian or Chinese immigrants: 1 in 3
5/08Portion of all Chinese cancer deaths that are pollution-related, according to the government: 7/10
5/08Length, in miles, of Beijing’s newest airport terminal: 2
6/08Average number of inches by which entrepreneurs in China are taller than normal for their demographic: 0.3
2/09Rank of Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy among “music’s most anticipated album[s] ever,” according to its ad campaign: 1