Three things you didn’t know about China

BEIJING — China is a vast country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion (280 times that of Costa Rica).

Furthermore, we know less about the country than we think, and the news we receive is usually economic and political.

China is a world unto itself, and like any undiscovered planet, it has some interesting things to learn about.

Three things you didn’t know about China:

No one uses cash in big cities

Yes, it depends on how you read it. You go to the supermarket, to the bar counter, or even to a roadside stall, and everything is paid for with your mobile phone.

The account appears in a QR code that can be scanned using the WeChat app, the most commonly used payment method and a hybrid of WhatsApp and Facebook.

WeChat and Wechat (another mobile payment method) have 938 million active users, and between 2013 and 2016, transaction volume increased from 3.7 billion to 97 billion.

You rarely see Chinese cars in China

Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, the fact is that Chinese brand cars are rare. Generally speaking, in car-producing countries, it is the domestic brands that lead the market (go and see how many Korean cars there are in Japan…) But in China, it is not the case, the leaders are the Germans and Japanese.

Last year, 57% of the nearly 25 million cars sold were foreign brands.

In fact, the automobile industry is one of the protected industries because it still has problems in developing good quality engines.

In recent months, North American pressure has succeeded in getting China to lower its entry tariffs on imported cars, which will benefit consumers in terms of price.

China’s plan is to open up protected industries as they become competitive.

Abortion is legal and free in China

Despite what Westerners may think, abortion is legal and free in China. The root cause is the country’s one-child law, which took effect only a few years ago.

Since a couple can only have one child, if they get pregnant again, women can have an abortion. This not only complies with the law, but also takes care of women’s health. Otherwise, they have to resort to secret abortions.

To avoid selecting the sex of the fetus (China traditionally gives priority to boys), prenatal diagnosis is banned.

Although there are no statistics on abortion, it is estimated that approximately 13 million abortions were performed in 2008.