It was only since the founding of the People´s Republic of China in 1949 that China endeavored to expand its natural rubber industry. By 1998, the area under rubber had increased to 600, 000 ha, which was 214 times larger than that in the pre - 1949 period. Production registered an increase of 2250 times this period, the production in 1998 was 450 000 t. This made China one of the major natural rubber producing contries in the world, area ranking fourth and production ranking fifth among the NR producers

After joining WTO, the low - priced natural rubber will rush Chinese rubber market, which will bring pinch to Chinese natural rubber industry. For this reason, a clear understanding of the situation should be kept in mind and measures should be taken in advance. In this article, some suggestions for natural rubber development in China are proposed.