Trade Pattern between China and Developing Countries
by Region and Income Level

I. Introduction

The trade relationship between China and developing countries has been enhancing over the past years. According to statistics, China’s export to developing countries was 9.1% of its total export in 1990 and increased to 16.9% in 2005. At the same period, China’s import from developing countries increased from 9.3% to 23.1% . It’s easy to find that developing countries as a whole are significant in China’s total trade and still have a great potential. However, because China has a similar position in international labor division with developing countries, it is unavoidable to be competitive each other in world market. In addition, developing countries’ trade protection against Chinese products is getting more severe. Therefore, strengthening multi-lateral, regional and bilateral policy coordination and further deepening trade and investment relationship through South-South cooperation is meaningful for the healthy and sustainable development of China’s foreign trade.

This paper examines China’s trade relationship with developing countries in terms of regional location and development stage in order to reveal the basic trend and characteristics, faced problems, and policy implications. There are three sections in this study. In section one, it provides an empirical study on China’s trade relationship with all other developing countries in different regions and development level based upon an empirical analysis. In section two, we focus on the main determinants that affect the import and export of China from and to other developing countries employing a revised gravity models. In section three, it discusses the policy implications of the former analysis.

II. China’s Trade with Developing Countries: Characteristics and Trends

2.1 China’s trade relationship with developing countries as a whole
Developing country as a whole is China’s important trade partner. In 1950s, China mainly traded with the former Soviet Union and eastern European countries. From 1960s, China’s foreign trade shifted to developed countries. By the end of 1980s, the trade volume between China and developed countries was about 90% of its total trade, and its trade with developing countries was less than 10%. In order to decrease foreign trade risk and expand overseas market, China began to carry out the strategy of market diversification in 1980s and have seen some positive effects. With the economic development of both China and developing countries, their trade relationship will be further strengthened. China’s export to developing countries was 9.1% of its total export in 1990, but in 2005 this rate was increased to 16.9%. China’s import from developing countries was 9.3% of its total import, but in 2005 it was 23.1% (see table 2.1 and table 2.2). China’s trade with developing countries has been growing rapidly. After 2000, in most years, the growth rate of China’s export to developing countries is 30%-40% (Table 2.1), and import 20%-57% (Table 2.2). The annual growth rate of China’s trade with developing countries increases faster than that of China’s total trade, and the differences between these two rates is getting greater, which means that trade with developing countries has become an important drive for China’s foreign trade.

However, China’s trade with developing countries fluctuates overtime greatly. This instability is influenced by changes in each country’s trade policy and the international environment. Generally speaking, developing countries’ trade policy is usually not as stable as that of developed countries, and their ability to adjust according to the changes in international environment are rather limited.

Let look at the balance of trade. China’s trade surplus to developing countries has changed to trade deficit in 2000 which tends to be larger in the following years. China is relatively short of resource and its demand for resource products becomes huger and huger after a rapid economic growth. After 2000 China’s import of primary products such as beans, oil, mining materials as well as industrial manufactured increases rapidly. According to statistics from China customs, in 2000 China’s import of primary products increases 79% (China Customs Statistics Yearbook 2001). Although China’s export increases rapidly, but the huge demand for import still results in trade deficit in China’s trade with developing countries. China’s trade surplus to developed countries and trade deficit to developing countries also can be explained by its position in international vertical division of labor. China takes advantage of its relatively cheaper labor to import raw materials and intermediaries from developing countries and export manufactured products to developed countries. In terms of balance of trade, China has trade surplus in most years . After 2000, China offsets its trade deficit with developing countries by its trade surplus with developed countries. China’s trade deficit with developing countries has a great positive influence on the economic development of developing countries.





2.2 China’s Trade Ties with Developing Countries in Different Regions

2.2.1 The General Profile

China’s trade with developing countries in different continents has different characteristics. Asia is China’s largest trade partner, with America the second and Oceania the smallest. The geographic structure of trade between China and developing countries in different regions is decided by the elements such as the degree of complementarities in economy and trade, geographic distance, trade restriction measures, political and economic relationship in history, etc. Asia holds an advantageous position in China’s foreign trade in terms of these elements and accounts for 70% of China’s total trade with developing countries. However, Asian advantageous position is declining with the rapid economic development of African and American countries. While, in recent years, regional trade proportion in China’s total trade is relatively stable, this indicates a relatively fixed geographic distribution of China’s export market.



2.2.2 The Degree of Market Concentration
The more decentralized a country’s foreign trade market is, the lower the foreign trade risk it will face. The degree of market concentration of China’s trade with developing countries can be analyzed by Hirschman index (abbreviated as HHI) as the following

In the above formula, is the market share of market and the total number of export markets is . HH index is the square sum of each export market’s trade proportion in a country’s total export. HH index is between 0 and 1. When the HH index is close to 1, the market structure is more like a monopoly market, indicating a centralized geographic structure of export products. When the HH index is close to 0, the market structure is more like a complete competitive market, indicating a decentralized geographic structure of trade.

The geographic structure of China’s trade with all developing countries has been changing since 1990. The HH index of China’s geographic structure of trade with all developing countries tends to be smaller (see Table 6 and 7), indicating a success of China in foreign trade market diversification strategy.

However, the change differs a lot in import and export. In terms of export, the HH index in Asia and America become smaller, but greater in Africa and Oceania (see Table 2.6). In terms of import, the HH index in Asia, America and Oceania tends to be smaller, but become greater in Africa (see Table 2.7). In recent years, in spite of Oceania the indexes show decreases in Asia, America and Africa, indicating that more and more developing countries have involved in trade with China. However, the increase of HH index in Africa’s import and export and in Oceania’s export means that there is still a long way to go for this strategy.


2.2.3 The Balance of Trade

China’s trade balance with developing countries experiences a change from trade surplus to trade deficit, and the change tends to be enhancing. Before 1998 China had trade surplus to Asian developing countries, but under the influence of financial crisis in South-East Asian and the currency devaluation in these countries, China began to suffer trade deficit after 1998. In recent years, China’s annual trade deficit to Asian developing countries is over $10 billion (see Table 2.8). This situation is closely related with China’s division of labor in international market by importing intermediaries and semi-manufactured products from ASEAN countries and exporting to Europe and America. Before 2003 China’s trade surplus to African countries increased fast due to less import from Africa. After that China’s trade surplus to African countries declines and changes to trade deficit gradually. China’s trade balance with American countries experiences three periods: 1990-1993 is the period of trade deficit; 1994-2002 is the period of trade surplus (with a trade deficit in 1996); and after 2003 it shows again trade deficit. Regarding to Oceania, China has been suffering a trade deficit in most of the year after 1990. China’s trade deficit to developing countries contributes to the economic development of these developing countries.


2.3 China’s trade tie with developing countries at different development levels

2.3.1 The General Profile

China’s trade with developing countries at different development levels has different characteristics. We divide all developing countries into three groups: high-income, medium-income and low-income countries and see their trade relationship with China respectively. According to the statistics, Medium and low-income developing countries are China’s main trade partners, they contribute 80% of China’s total trade with developing countries. The reason why high-income countries have such a small proportion in China’s foreign trade is that they are small in numbers. The income gaps between China and medium-income countries are relatively small and therefore their trade volume should be the largest in accordance with the theory of Demand Preference Similarity. After 2001 medium-income countries’ proportion in China’s export and low-income countries’ proportion in China’s import keep increasing while high-income countries’ remains unchanged, which is mainly caused by the difference in export supply and import demand ability of different countries caused by different growth rate of income per capita.



2.3.2 The Degree of Market Concentration

According to the HH index, the market structure of China’s trade with high and low-income developing countries has been apparently diversified, but the export market are relatively concentrated in low-income developing countries. Comparing with 1990, 2005’s export HH index of high-income countries decline from 0.212 to 0.199; HH index of medium-income countries declines from 0.172 to 0.097; but low-income countries’ export HH index increases from 0.094 to 0.096 (see Table 2.11). It shows that although the growth rate of China’s export to low-income countries increases rapidly in recent years, the market structure of export becomes more unbalanced, which is mainly caused by the difference in economic growth rate of different countries. Comparing with 1990, 2005’s import HH index of these three groups decline greatly, especially the high–income and low-income countries’. It shows that the market structure in China’s import becomes more favorable than before.


2.3.3 The Balance of Trade

In most years before 2000, China had trade surplus with developing countries at different development levels, but after 2000 China suffered great trade deficit, which is mainly caused by China’s huge demand for resource products. China has the largest trade deficit with medium-income countries which is about US$ 10 billion in recent years because it has imported a great deal of intermediaries. China’s trade deficit with low-income countries remains the smallest in these three groups, with an amount below US$ 5 billion (see table 2.13).


III. Causes and Evidences: A Gravity Model Analysis

3.1 The Model and Data
Trade theory can explain the direction of international division of labor, but it can not tell why trade ties among some countries are stronger than that of others, and why trade volume change over the time. In recent years, gravity model is used to analyze the bilateral trade flows because its requirements for data are relatively easy to meet. Therefore, it’s simple and reliable model to analyze trade between developing countries which cannot provide necessary statistic data. The basic form of gravity model used here is as follows,

3.2 Procedure and Method

First of all, we set up China’s basic export model and basic import model respectively with variables in Table 2.3.1 to analyze their influence on China’s import and export. Secondly, we take regional arrangements into account and set up the expanded export model I and import model I to see the impact of regional arrangement on the bilateral trade between China and developing countries. Variables representing regional arrangements are shown in the following table 3.2.

Then, we construct expanded export model Ⅱ and expanded import model Ⅱrespectively in view of country j’s development level using the variables in table 3.3.



3.3 Regression Results of China’s Export Gravity Model and Analysis

3.3.1 The Basic Export Model

As the first step, we get equation (1) with variables in table 2.3.1 (note that variable is not included), then undertake regression to eliminate variables with indistinctive t value, and finally we have equation (4). It constitutes the start point to undertake further analysis. The results are shown in table 3.5.

According to equation (4), China’s GDP and country j’s GDP are both important variables that determine China’s export to developing countries, but the former has greater influence. This indicates supply side impact exceeds that of demand side. 1% growth of China’s GDP can result in a 1.47% increase in its export to developing countries. While with relatively low income, developing countries usually have a huge demand for domestic necessities therefore their import demand expand slower than that of GDP.

Distance shows an important role in China’s export. 1% increase in distance can cause a 0.78% decline in China’s export. This means the counteracting influence of distance on China’s export gets weaker when distance increases. Even more, we can see that a common borderline is not an important variable in China’s export. Frontier trade is less than 1% of China’s foreign trade.

WTO is an important variable that affects China’s export, but APEC isn’t. This shows that multilateral trade arrangement and its non-discriminating principle greatly promote the China’s export to other developing counties. However, regional trade arrangement such as APEC has not significant influence on China’s export performance. This might be the openness and voluntary principle deters it from significant achievements in trade liberalization that really make sense in this context.

The fact that a country has joined into a preferential trade arrangement with developed countries doesn’t cause obvious decline in China’s export to developing countries. On the contrary, it fosters China’s export to it at 10% remarkable level. This shows the expansion of China’s import caused by improvements in developing countries’ economy, mechanism and policy offsets the decrease of China’s import caused by trade diversion effect of free trade area.
3.3.2 Expanded Export Model I: Regional Picture
Adding variables representing different region to equation (4), we can get equation (5) and the results are listed in Table 3.6. The results show that regional location is an important explaining variable for China’s export. When other factors remain the same, China’s export market, ranking from the largest to the smallest, are Asia, America, Africa and Oceania respectively.

Asian countries are close to China and have similarity with China in culture and history. They are economically complementary to China. Their FDI in China is 50% of China’s total from developing countries. China’s overseas investment to developing countries are also mainly in Asia. All these determine that China’s export to Asian developing countries should be the largest when other variables remain unchanged. American countries have the highest trade openness among developing countries and have also high trade complementarities with China. African countries’ FDI in China holds 30% of China’s total from developing countries. Oceania countries have the lowest trade openness, and their FDI in China is only 3% of China’s total from developing countries.

3.3.2 Expanded Export Model I: Regional Picture

Adding variables representing different region to equation (4), we can get equation (5) and the results are listed in Table 3.6. The results show that regional location is an important explaining variable for China’s export. When other factors remain the same, China’s export market, ranking from the largest to the smallest, are Asia, America, Africa and Oceania respectively.

Asian countries are close to China and have similarity with China in culture and history. They are economically complementary to China. Their FDI in China is 50% of China’s total from developing countries. China’s overseas investment to developing countries are also mainly in Asia. All these determine that China’s export to Asian developing countries should be the largest when other variables remain unchanged. American countries have the highest trade openness among developing countries and have also high trade complementarities with China. African countries’ FDI in China holds 30% of China’s total from developing countries. Oceania countries have the lowest trade openness, and their FDI in China is only 3% of China’s total from developing countries.

3.3.3 Expanded Export Model Ⅱ: Development Level

Adding variable representing development level to equation (5), we can get expanded export model Ⅱin table 3.7. Table 3.7 reveals that development level is not an important variable determine China’s export to developing countries with different income level. Trade between China and developing countries is mainly caused by factor endowment differences and there is not much intra-industry trade among them. Therefore, theory of Demand Preference Similarity seems does not hold in explaining the trade between China and developing countries.

3.3.4 Expanded Export Model Ⅲ: Overseas Investment

Integrated the cross-section data in 2004 into equation (5), we have equation (8). Then we put oversea investment variables into the equation and get equation (9) with an oversea investment capital flow in 2003, equation (10) with a capital flow in 2004, and equation (11) with a capital stock in 2004. Due to lack of data from 62 countries, these models only contain 51 countries or regions .

The results show in table 3.8 that overseas investment isn’t an important explaining variable of China’s export. China’s overseas investment to developing countries is small in sum. By 2004, the total of China’s overseas investment stock in these 51 countries is only US$ 1.9 billion, and 90% of it is in the mining and service industries, less than 10% are in the manufacturing industry.

Taking regional variables into the consideration, we can find out the impact of China’s overseas investment on its export by regions. The steps taken to study here is as following: (a) making regression according to each region’s variables in equation (1) based on cross-section data in 2004, and then (b) removing unimportant variables to get a new regression equation; (c) introducing China’s overseas investment flow in 2003 and 2004 respectively and the overseas investment stock by 2004 as explaining variables into the new regression equation to examine overseas investment impact on China’s export.

With the above mentioned method, we can get a new regression equation (12) for Asian countries. Then introducing investment flow in 2003 and 2004, investment stock in 2004 respectively as explaining variables, we can get regression equation (13), (14) and (15) in table 3.9.

Table 22 shows that overseas investment flow in 2003 and that in 2004 are important explaining variables for China’s export to Asian developing countries, while overseas investment stock in 2004 isn’t. Using the same method to examine America, Africa and Oceania, we find that overseas investments are important explaining variables for China’s export to these continents.

3.4 Regression result of China’s import gravity model and analysis

3.4.1 Basic Import Model
At the very beginning, we are able to set up the regression equation (16) with variables in Table 3.9 ( excluded). Then we remove one by one the variable with the least remarkable t value to get regression equation (17).

Regression equation (17) shows that both China’s GDP and country j’s GDP are important variables that influence China’s export, while the former has greater positive influence. 1% growth of China’s GDP can bring about 1.65% increases in its import from developing countries. With the rapid growth of China’s GDP and the increasing demand for resource products, the growth rate of import form developing countries exceeds growth of China’s GDP.

Taking different regions into consideration, we can examine the impact of China’s overseas investment on its import by regions. The analytic steps taken here is the same as that in the export model, then we get equation （26）,（27）, and（28）in Table 3.13 for Asian countries.


Table 3.13 shows that overseas investment stock in 2004 is an important explaining variable for China’s import from Asian countries, while overseas investment flow in 2003 and 2004 isn’t. Using the same method to examine America, Africa and Oceania, we can conclude that none of the overseas investment variables is an important explaining variable for China’s import from these continents. The reason why overseas investment stock in 2004 can stimulate China’s import from Asia is that China’s overseas investment mainly flows to this region. As trade growth caused by investment has time lag effect, so overseas investment flows in 2003 and 2004 did not show an importance in China’s import from Asia.

IV. Comparison between Actual and Simulated Trade

We can analyze trade between countries by simulating potential trade volume (fitted value) in theory and comparing it with the actual trade volume. If the actual trade volume is bigger than the fitted value, there exists an excessive trade. If the real trade volume is smaller than the fitted value, trade between countries is not sufficient. In this way, we can examine China’s trade potential with developing countries. The results are shown in Table 4.1, in which we divide developing countries into four groups: excessive export & import, excessive export & insufficient import, insufficient export & import, and insufficient export & excessive import.

There are 42 countries in the group of excessive export & import, which account for 37.2% of the total sample countries. They are mainly low-income countries in Asia, Africa, and medium-income countries in America. Most of these Asian countries are members of ASEAN whose economies are highly complementary to each other. Most American countries are Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) countries. China became an observer of LAIA in 1994. LAIA countries are called “developed countries among developing countries” and their economies are highly complementary to China’s economy. Most African countries are low-income countries in West and South Africa whose economic development level is higher than African countries. Oceania countries are Fiji and Papua New Guinea which are China’s most important developing trade partners in this region.

There are 25 countries in the group of excessive export & insufficient import, which account for 21.2% of the total sample countries. They are mainly low-income countries in Asia, Africa, and medium-income countries in America. Asian countries in this group are Brunei Darussalam, Oman and Uzbekistan. American countries include Venezuela, Bolivia, Suriname and Guyana, which are mainly South American countries. African countries are some low income countries in Middle and South Africa. These countries mainly export a few resources extensive products and their limited supply ability is the main reason for insufficient trade with China.

There are 22 countries in the group of insufficient export & import, which account for 18.6% of the total sample countries. They are mainly low-income countries in Asia and Africa. Asian countries in this group are mainly countries which are instable in politics because civil wars in recent years or have not a trade relations with China in history such as Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Nepal and India. American countries include Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Dominican Rep. and Haiti. African countries in this group are Cameroon、 Malawi、Sierra Leone、Uganda. These countries all have a relatively small economy scale, and their export and import ability are very limited. Some countries, such as Sierra Leone and Uganda once have unstable political situation in history.

There are 24 countries in the group of insufficient export & excessive import, which account for 21.2% of the total sample countries. Asian countries in this group are Western Asian countries such as Jordan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, etc. China imported a lot of oil and natural gas from these countries every year, but these countries’ import mainly concentrated in Arabian countries, causing China’s export to them insufficient and import from them excessive. American countries mainly include Antigua and Barbuda, Antilles, Ecuador, Honduras and Panama. African countries are Congo、Djibouti、Kenya、Mauritius and Egypt. And Oceania country is Marshall Islands. These countries’ import mainly concentrated in the local areas or the developed countries.

Dividing developing countries into the above four groups can help us understand the reasons why China has insufficient trade with some developing countries. Generally speaking, it relates to (a) political, historical reasons; (b) stability of political situation; (c) degree of openness to the outside world and trade restriction measure; (d) influence of regional preferential trade agreements; (e) degree of bilateral trade complementarities. Correctly identifying these reasons is quite meaningful for promoting trade between China and developing countries.

Table 4.1 Comparison between true value and stimulation result

V. Conclusions

As a member of developing countries, actively participating in South-South cooperation has become an important part of China’s strategy. Developing South-South trade can promote the economic growth of developing countries including China. Trade between China and developing countries has been growing rapidly and healthily due to the increased economic development of both China and developing countries, the improvement of WTO’s function, and the gradual liberalization of trade and investment. To further explore trade potential between China and developing countries, and to improve the quality and quantity of trade is quite meaningful for expanding South-South cooperation.

5.1 Advancing multi-lateral trade negotiation of WTO
According to the analysis above, WTO is an important variable for the development of trade between China and developing countries but APEC isn’t. The major difference between WTO and APEC is that the former stresses on the equity between rights and obligations and has a legal restriction mechanism, while the latter pursues open regionalism and non-compulsory restriction. The APEC mandate determines its limited influence on promoting trade among member countries. Therefore, it is very important to push trade liberalization in multi-lateral system and APEC must reform its restriction mechanism if it would like to exert more influence on promoting trade.

By the end of 2005, WTO has had 149 member countries, but there are still some developing countries and regions that are out of it. To help these countries entering into WTO is meaningful for world trade. Restarting Doha negotiation and accelerating multi-lateral trade negotiations are vital for world trade and trade among developing countries.

5.2 Non-traditional gains of free trade area
The study of this paper shows that the preferential trade arrangement between developing countries and developed ones doesn’t have much negative influence on their trade with China. On the contrary, it increases China’s export to developing countries at the 10% remarkable level. In spite of having trade creation effects, FTA between developing countries and developed countries can also bring about non-traditional gains for developing countries. For example, it can accelerate economic and political reforms, keep the stability and consistency of policy, and help the outside world know the government’s determination and the bright future for economic development by “sending out signals”. These non-traditional gains can increase developing countries’ export supply and import demand abilities and offset trade diversion effect of the FTA. Therefore, it is important for developing countries to make different kind of free trade arrangements with developed countries to get non-traditional gains.

In today’s world, most developing countries have entered one or more preferential trade arrangements. The mixed up and lapped over preferential trade arrangements may cause confusion or conflicts, and lead to low efficiency. How to solve this problem has become a serious problem that many countries must face. In EU’s tentative plan for establishing free trade area (with MERCOSUR, countries along the seacoast of the Mediterranean, Gulf Co-operation Council), it created the South-South-North model, i.e. to increase economic and trade integration of South countries through aid and non-preferential trade arrangements first, then establish free trade areas with regional group of South-South integration. On the one hand, this model can make full use of advantage of South-North integration, on the other hand, it preserves the merit of South-South cooperation, thus greatly weakens the negative effects of too much preferential trade arrangements. This model can be used for reference by developing countries.

5.3 Encouraging investment to each other among developing countries
More than half of China’s overseas investment flows to Asia and concentrates mainly on manufacturing industry. The study of this paper shows that China’s overseas investment can promote its trade with Asian developing countries. Promoting mutual investment among developing countries has remarkable influence on trade between developing countries. Mutual investment is good for developing countries to share natural resources, comparative advantages and advanced technology.

5.4 Upgrading industrial structure and expanding the scpe of cooperation
This paper shows that China’s trade with developing countries is mainly inter-industry trade determined by comparative advantages. The economic development level isn’t an important explaining variable for China’s trade with developing countries. Problems of low economic development level, poor economic foundation, fund shortage and similar economic structure are common for developing countries. Comparative advantage between China and developing countries is mainly determined by natural resource endowment, which greatly restricts the level and quality of their work division. Therefore, China has to upgrade its industrial structure, expand the capital and technology intensive industry, which is of vital importance for China to enhance the quality and quantity of its trade with the developing countries.

References
(1) Bergstrand, J. H. (1985), “The gravity equation in international trade—some microeconomic foundations theory in international trade”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 67, 474-481.
(2) Eichenggreen Barry, Irvin, Douglas A. (1998) “The role of history in bilateral trade flows,” in J.A. Frankel, ed., The regionalization of the world economy, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998, 33-64.
(3) Sheng Bin, Liao Mingzhong(2004): China’s trade flow and export potentials: study of gravity model, World Economy,2004(2), page 3-12
(4) Wei Hao, Ma Yetsing（2006）：Analysis on geographic structure of China’s export, World Economy, 2006 (5), page 22-31
Appendix 1 Classification of sample developing countries

Handbook of Statistics (UNCTAD) 2005 lists 165 developing countries. With China mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Singapore excluded and Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan included, there are all together 164 developing countries for reference.

According to the GDP per capita in 2000, countries with GDP per capita higher than 4500 USD are high-income countries, lower than 1000 USD are low-income countries; in-between are medium-income countries.

To meet the requirement of this study, we take 119 countries as separate sample, all their trade with China are over US$10 million, all the countries they have a trade volume with China less than US$10 million are classified into other countries.

I. Classification by region

(1) Asia ( 39 countries and regions)
Separate sample（35 countries and regions）
Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan.
Other countries (4 countries and regions)
Palestinian, Bhutan, Maldives, Timor-Leste.

(2)America (49 countries and regions)
Separate sample（33 countries and regions）
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greenland, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.
Other countries (16 countries and regions)
Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands.

(3) Africa (55 countries and regions)
Separate sample（45 countries and regions）
Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Other countries（10 countries and regions）
Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Reunion, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles.

(4) Oceania（21 countries and regions）
Separate sample ( 6 countries and regions）
Fiji, French Polynesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands.
Other countries incude:
American Samoa, Cook Islands, Guam, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna islands.

Ⅱ. Classification by income

(1) High-income developing countries （45 countries and regions）
Separate sample （23 countries and regions）
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, French Polynesia, Greenland, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Other countries:
Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Reunion, Seychelles, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau.

(2) Medium-income countries（52 countries and regions）
Separate sample ( 38 countries and regions）
Algeria, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan.
Other countries（14 countries and regions）
Palestinian, Maldives, Cape Verde, Saint Helena, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna islands.

(3) Low-income countries（67 countries and regions）
Separate sample （58 countries and regions）
Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Others （9 countries and regions）
Bhutan, Timor-Leste, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Sao Tome and Principe, Kiribati.

Appendix 2 List of 51 countries
a) Asia（19 countries and regions）：
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Dem. People's Rep. of Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lao People's Dem. Rep. , Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey , United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam, Yemen.

b）America（11 countries and regions）：
Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.

c）Africa（21 countries and regions）：
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.