Comprehensive national strength is the most important indicator to measure a country’s basic national conditions and basic resources. It is also a comprehensive indicator to measure a country’s economic, political, military, cultural, technological, educational, human resources and other strengths. The main factors included are the following eight:
1. Economic resources. Economic resources refer to gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP). GNP also includes gross domestic product (GDP) and primary income of non-residents. There are usually two calculation methods. The first method is based on official or nominal exchange rates. This method often underestimates the economic strength of developing countries and overestimates the economic strength of developed countries. The second method is based on purchasing power parity (PPP). Calculation method. The so-called purchasing power parity calculation means that 1 US dollar has the same purchasing power for domestic GNP as the US dollar has the same purchasing power for US GNP or GDP.
2. Human capital. Human capital, especially the opportunity and ability to obtain education, is considered to play a decisive role in the economic growth process. Usually, human capital is represented by the number of years a population has received education. The more years a population has received education, the more skilled the labor force will be, and the easier it will be to improve labor productivity and promote economic growth. The rich human capital in developing countries will be easier to absorb and use. New technologies introduced and diffused by developed countries. Reflecting the total human capital of a country includes two important measurement indicators. One is the population and the working-age population, such as the population aged 15-64; the other is human capital, which is usually expressed by the average number of years of education for the population over 15 years old. This indicator is quoted from the Global Education Database of Harvard University in the United States, and the Chinese data is quoted from previous national census data. In general, the labor force includes military personnel, the unemployed and first-time job seekers, but excludes domestic workers and other unpaid service providers and those working in the informal sector.
3. Natural resources. Usually refers to the abundance, quality, accessibility and cost of key natural resources. Natural resources are necessary conditions for economic development, but natural resources are limited and have become a restriction or upper limit for economic growth. At the same time, natural resources have diminishing marginal returns, and the ecological and external costs of extraction and utilization are relatively high. In addition, different resources play very different roles at different stages of development, but they all show a downward trend. On the contrary, knowledge resources play an increasingly important role. It includes four major indicators. First, agricultural planting area, which is the sum of temporarily and permanently occupied cultivated land, permanent farmland and pasture as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; second, fresh water resources, including domestic river flow, obtained from precipitation. Groundwater and river flows from other countries; the third is commercial energy use, which refers to its consumption calculation method, domestic production plus imports and inventory changes, minus exports and fuel used by ships and aircraft engaged in international transportation. The data does not include fuel wood, dry animals and other traditional fuel use; fourth is power generation, which is measured at the terminals of all generating units in the power station. In addition to hydropower, coal power, oil power, natural gas power and nuclear power, it also includes power generation from energy types such as geothermal, solar, wind, tide and wave, as well as power generation from flammable renewable materials and waste. Electricity generation includes the electrical output of power plants and combined heat and power plants designed solely to generate electricity.
4. Capital resources. According to Harvard University's Michelle Porter's definition of capital resources, it includes three types of indicators. One is total domestic investment, which is the additional expenditure on fixed assets in a country's economy plus the net change in inventory levels; the other is foreign direct investment (FDI). ), it refers to the net inflow of investment to obtain the long-term rights and interests of an enterprise operating in a country's economy. It is different from investors. It is equity capital, income reinvestment, and other long-term capital in the balance of payments. and the sum of short-term capital; third, the stock market value, also known as capital market value, refers to the sum of the capital market value of all companies listed on domestic stock exchanges. This indicator reflects the development scale of a country's financial market. In this article, we convert total domestic investment into PPP international US dollars, and the other two indicators are still calculated in current US dollars.
5. Knowledge and technology. We regard it as the most important national strategic resource, especially as the world enters the knowledge society and information society in the 21st century, its importance is increasing day by day.
Knowledge and technology resources include five indicators: first, the number of scientific papers, which reflects a country’s knowledge innovation capabilities; second, the number of patent applications by domestic residents, which reflects a country’s technological innovation capabilities; third, the number of personal computers used, This reflects a country’s ability to apply new technologies; the fourth is the number of Internet host users, which reflects a country’s information dissemination capabilities; the fifth is the amount of government expenditure on theater and development, which reflects a country’s potential knowledge Technological innovation capabilities. The above five indicators fully reflect the basic situation of promoting knowledge innovation and dissemination, and technological innovation and popularization under the conditions of the information age.
6. Government resources. Central government fiscal expenditures include current and capital expenditures, as well as business services and social service expenditures, excluding non-financial public institutions and public institutions. It reflects a country's ability to mobilize and utilize resources.
7. Military strength. It is one of the important components of a country's comprehensive national strength. It reflects the country's internal ability to maintain social stability and prevent national divisions. It also reflects the country's external strength in seeking to maximize national interests. It is also a country's comprehensive national strength. An "output" of military power is an extremely important national strategic asset, because military strength is not only an explicit function of comprehensive national strength, but also an expression function of national will. It includes two types of indicators, one is military expenditure, which includes the military expenditure of the Ministry of National Defense and expenditures of other ministries, excluding the civilian expenditure of the Ministry of National Defense; the second is armed forces personnel, which refers to active military personnel. It should be noted that these two indicators cannot reflect the quality of military resources.
8. International resources. It includes four types of indicators, the first is the export volume of goods and services trade; the second is the import trade volume of goods and services; the third is the amount of copyright and patent income; the fourth is the amount of copyright and patent expenditures; the fifth is net foreign direct investment, which has been listed in capital resources. The first two indicators reflect a country's ability to utilize and develop international markets, while the latter two indicators reflect a country's ability to create and utilize international technologies.