China
This article is about Mainland China or the People's Republic of China. For the Chinese government on Taiwan, see Republic of China. "China" is also a type of porcelain.
The People's Republic of China or PRC is a country in east Asia, variously identified as a socialist, communist, or authoritarian state. It is the fourth largest country in land area in the world. It is a member of the United Nations under the name of China (中国, pinyin zhōngguó, literally meaning 'Middle Kingdom' or 'Middle Country'). China borders 14 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam. With a population over 1,250,000,000, it is the world's most populous country.
The whole of China is not under the control of the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China, based in Taiwan, still claims to be a legal Chinese government and is recognised by some countries around the world. Due to this reason, the term Mainland China is sometimes used to denote the part of China under PRC's rule (sometimes also excluding the two Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau.)
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| National motto: None | ||||
| Official language | Mandarin Chinese | |||
| Capital | Beijing | |||
| President | Hu Jintao | |||
| Premier | Wen Jiabao | |||
| Area - Total - % water | Ranked 4th 9,596,960 km² 2.8% | |||
| Population
- Density | Ranked 1st
129/km² | |||
| Establishment
- Established | Chinese Civil War
October 1, 1949 | |||
| Currency | Renminbi | |||
| Time zone | UTC +8 | |||
| National anthem | March of the Volunteers | |||
| Internet TLD | .CN | |||
| Calling Code | 86 | |||
The English words China and Sino- come from the Chinese word 秦 (pinyin qín) of Qin Dynasty. It passed through many languages along the Silk Road before it finally reached Europe.
During the Sino-Japanese Wars, China was called "Shina" (支那), a derogatory term in Japanese for China. In Chinese, 支那 is only used to refer to other territories invaded by Japan such as "Indochina" (印度支那).
See also: China in world languages
History
Main articles: History of China, history of the PRC
China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization, and became a large united country with an advanced culture at a very early age, outpacing the rest of the world in areas like art and science. Over the course of century China underwent periods of unity and disunity, order and disorder.
In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, while simultaneously falling behind technologically with Europe. This set the stage for the 19th century, where China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while simultaneous extending control into Central Asia.
In the early 20th century, the institution of the Emperor of China disappeared and China entered a period of disunion. After World War II, the Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang ended with the communist in control of mainland China in 1949. The Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, while Mao Zedong established a dictatorship that cost the lives of tens of millions of people.
After the death of Mao, China remained nominally communist, but has gradually loosened governmental control over people's personal lives and engaged in reforms to transform its planned economy into a market based one. Nevertheless the government remains intent on maintaining the political control of the Communist Party of China and has maintained repressive policies against groups which it feels are a threat to its political control. (see Falun Gong and Tibet).
See also: Timeline of Chinese history
Politics
Main article: Politics of China
Attempts to simply characterize the nature of the political structure of China fail. The regime has various been described as authoritarian, a republic, communist, socialist and various combinations of the those terms. All such characterizations contain some element of truth, but do not tell the whole story.
China is a republic in that the government has some democratic forms but it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Groups which oppose the regime include separtists in Tibet and Xinjiang, Falun Gong, and the Chinese democracy movement. The regime also has dealt with unrest among unemployed workers. The Communist Party has used authoritarian methods to deal with dissent including long prison terms for opposition leaders, while at the same time attempting to reduce dissent by improving the economy, allowing expression of personal greivances, and rather lenient treatment for persons expressing dissent who the regime does not believe are organizers. One significant crisis that the regime has faced is the violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations such as the Tiananmen Square protests.
The support the Chinese Communist Party has among the Chinese population as unclear as there are no national elections. The emerging middle class is appreciative of the role that the government plays in maintaining social stability that has allowed the economy to grow without interruption. Political concerns include the growing gap between rich and poor in China and growing discontent with the corruption rife among the leadership.
International Relations
Main article: International relations of China
The United Nations recognizes the People's Republic as the sole legitimate government of China and Taiwan as province of China. China is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Provinces & Regions
Main article: Provinces of China
Mainland China has 22 provinces (省), though the government of the People's Republic of China considers Taiwan (台湾) to be its 23rd province. See Political status of Taiwan for more information. Apart from provinces there are 5 autonomous regions (自治区) containing concentrations of several minorities; 4 municipalities (直辖市) for China's largest cities and 2 special administrative regions (SAR) (特别行政区).
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Provinces |
Autonomous regions
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Geography
Main article: Geography of China
China is the fourth largest country in the world and as such contains a large variety in landscapes. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are found extensive and densely populated alluvial plains; the shore of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hill country and lower mountain ranges. In the central-east are found the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Huang He and Chang Jiang. Other major rivers include the Xi Jiang, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur.
To the west, major mountain ranges, notably the Himalaya with China's highest point Mount Everest, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscape of deserts such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert. Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices dust storms have become usual in the spring in China. According to China's Environmental Protection Agency, the Gobi Desert has been expanding and is a major source of dust storms which affect China and other parts of northeast Asia such as Korea and Japan. [1]
Economy
Main article: Economy of China
Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been moving the economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented economy but still within a rigid political framework of Communist Party control. To this end the authorities have switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. This has resulted in China's shift from a command to a mixed economy.
The government has emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introducing new management systems to help increase productivity. The government also has focused on foreign trade as a major vehicle for economic growth, for which purpose it set up over 2000 Special economic zones (SEZ) where investment laws are relaxed in order to attract foreign capital. The result has been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. In 1999, with its 1.25 billion people and a GDP of just $3,800 per capita, China became the sixth largest economy in the world by exchange rate and second largest in the world after the US by purchasing power.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of China
China in an attempt to limit its population growth has adopted a policy which limits urban families (ethnic minorities such as Tibetans are an exception) to one child and rural families to two children when the first is female. Because males are considered to be more economically valuable in rural areas, there appears to be a high incidence of sex selective abortion and child abandonment in rural areas to ensure that the second child is male.
This has resulted in a sex ratio of 115 boys being born for every 100 girls which is considerably different from the natural rate, but which is comparable to the ratios in South Korea. The Chinese government is attempting to mitigate this problem by emphasizing the worth of women and has gone so far as to prohibit medical providers from disclosing to parents the sex of an expected baby.
Public Health
Main article: Public health in China
China has several emerging public health problems: the recent development of Severe acute respiratory syndrome, a progressing HIV-AIDS epidemic and hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers. The HIV epidemic, in addition to the usual routes of infection, was exacerbated in the past by unsanitary practices used in the collection of blood in rural areas. The problem with tobacco is complicated by the concentration of most cigarette sales in a government controlled monopoly. The government, with limited resources, and dependent on tobacco revenue seems sluggish in its response to the tobacco and other public health problems; this characteristic has drawn unfavorable international attention in the case of SARS
Hepatitis B is endemic in China, the majority of the population eventually contracting the disease, with about 10% being seriously affected. Often this causes liver failure or liver cancer, a common form of death in China. A program initiated in 2002 will attempt over the next 5 years to vaccinate all newborns in China.
Culture
Main article: Culture of China
| Date | English Name | Local Name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year | 元旦 | |
| May 1 | Labor Day | 劳动节 | |
| May 4 | Youth Day | 青年节 | Comemorating May Fourth Movement |
| July 1 | CPC Founding Day | 建党节 | Formation of 1st National Congress on July 1, 1921 |
| August 1 | Army Day | 建军节 | Nanchang Uprising (南昌起义) on August 1, 1927 |
| October 1 | National Day | 国庆节 | Founding of PRC on October 1, 1949 |
| 1st day of 1st lunar month | Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) | 春节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 15th day of 1th lunar month | Lantern Festival | 元宵节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 5th Solar Term. Early April | Qingming (Tomb Sweeping Day) | 清明节 | see Chinese calendar. About 15 days after Vernal Equinox |
| 5th day of 5th lunar month | Dragon Boat Festival (Dragon Festival) | 端午节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 15th day of 7th lunar month | Spirit Festival (Ghost Festival) | 中元节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 15th day of 8th lunar month | Mid-autumn Festival (Moon Festival) | 中秋节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 9th day of 9th lunar month | Double Ninth Festival | 重阳节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
Miscellaneous topics
- Communications in China
- Transportation in China
- People's Liberation Army
- Foreign relations of China
- Science in China
- Human Rights in China
- Chinese Justice System
- Falun Gong
- List of China-related topics
External links
- China.org.cn - China's Official Gateway
- China News