China

People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国 (Chinese)
Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó (pinyin)
Anthem: 
义勇军进行曲
Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ
"March of the Volunteers"
  Location of the People's Republic of China
CapitalBeijing
39°55′N 116°23′E / 39.917°N 116.383°E / 39.917; 116.383
Largest city
by urban population
Shanghai
Official languagesStandard Chinese (de jure)[a]
Simplified Chinese
Ethnic groups
(2020)[1]
Religion
(2023)[2]
Demonym(s)Chinese
GovernmentUnitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic
Xi Jinping
• Premier
Li Qiang
Zhao Leji
Wang Huning
Han Zheng
LegislatureNational People's Congress[e]
Formation
c. 2070 BCE
221 BCE
1 January 1912
24 October 1945[f]
1 October 1949
20 September 1954
4 December 1982
20 December 1999
Area
• Total
9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi)[g][5] (3rd / 4th)
• Water (%)
2.8[h]
Population
• 2023 estimate
Neutral decrease 1,409,670,000[7] (2nd)
• Density
145[8]/km2 (375.5/sq mi) (83rd)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $32.898 trillion[9] (1st)
• Per capita
Increase $23,309[9] (73rd)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate
• Total
Decrease $17.701 trillion[i][9] (2nd)
• Per capita
Decrease $12,541[9] (71st)
Gini (2020)Positive decrease 37.1[10]
medium
HDI (2022)Increase 0.788[11]
high (75th)
CurrencyRenminbi (元/¥)[j] (CNY)
Time zoneUTC+8 (CST)
DST is not observed.
Date format
Driving sideright (mainland)
left (Hong Kong and Macau)
Calling code+86 (mainland)
+852 (Hong Kong)
+853 (Macau)
ISO 3166 codeCN
Internet TLD

China,[k] officially the People's Republic of China (PRC),[l] is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the world's second-most populous country. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land.[m] With an area of nearly 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third-largest country by total land area.[n] The country is divided into 33 province-level divisions,[o] inclusive of 22 provinces,[o] five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the national capital, while Shanghai is its most populous city and largest financial center.

The region has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. Early Chinese dynasties, such as the Xia, Shang and the Zhou, emerged in the basin of the Yellow River before the late second millennium BCE. The eighth to third centuries BCE saw a breakdown in Zhou authority and significant conflicts, as well as the emergence of literature, philosophy, and historiography. In 221 BCE, China was unified under an emperor for the first time. Appointed non-hereditary officials began ruling counties instead of the aristocracy, ushering in more than two millennia of imperial dynasties including the Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. With the invention of gunpowder and paper, the establishment of the Silk Road, and the building of the Great Wall, Chinese culture—including languages, traditions, architecture, philosophy and technology—flourished and has heavily influenced East Asia and beyond.

After decades of struggle, the monarchy was overthrown in 1912 and the Republic of China (ROC) was established. Despite China's eventual victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War in general, numerous atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre left lasting effects on the country. Concurrently during this period, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) government were fighting sporadically since 1927, with a brief truce as a united front when Japan began invading the country. The second phase of the civil war resumed not long after Japan was defeated, and by 1949, the CCP had established control on most of the territories of the ROC, with the notable exception being the island of Taiwan. As the KMT retreated to Taiwan, the country was split with both sides claiming to be the sole legitimate government of China. After the land reforms, later attempts to realize communism were deemed failures—the Great Leap Forward led to a massive famine of millions of citizens, while the Cultural Revolution caused a chaotic period of persecution and zealous Maoist populism. In 1971, the PRC replaced the ROC as China's representation in the United Nations (UN). Following the Sino-Soviet split, the Shanghai Communiqué in 1972 marked the beginning of normalized relations with the United States. Economic reforms that began in 1978 led by reformists within the CCP moved the country away from a socialist planned economy toward an increasingly capitalist market economy, spurring significant economic growth, although liberal and democratic political reforms stalled after the June Fourth Incident in 1989, with the CCP surviving the revolutions that same year which befell most of the former Eastern Bloc.

China is a unitary one-party socialist republic led by the CCP, and the party de jure still considers itself committed to Marxism–Leninism. It is a founding member of the UN and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a founding member of several multilateral and regional organizations such as the AIIB, the Silk Road Fund, the New Development Bank, and the RCEP. It is a member of the BRICS, the G20, APEC, the SCO, and the East Asia Summit. Making up around one-fifth of the world economy, the Chinese economy is the world's largest economy by GDP at purchasing power parity, the second-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the second-wealthiest country, albeit ranking poorly in measures of democracy, human rights and religious freedoms. The country has been one of the fastest-growing major economies and is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. China is a nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defense budget. It is a great power and a regional power.


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  1. ^ "Main Data of the Seventh National Population Census". Stats.gov.cn. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  2. ^ 2023 approximations of the statistics from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) of the year 2018, as contained in the following analyses:
  3. ^ "Demographic Yearbook—Table 3: Population by sex, rate of population increase, surface area and density" (PDF). UN Statistics. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-24. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
  4. ^ "China". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2012-11-13. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
  5. ^ "Total surface area as of 19 January 2007". United Nations Statistics Division. Archived from the original on 2023-12-03. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference CIA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Master, Farah (17 January 2024). "China's population drops for second year, with record low birth rate". Reuters. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  8. ^ "Population density (people per km2 of land area)". IMF. Archived from the original on 2015-05-16. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  9. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2023 Edition. (China)". International Monetary Fund. 10 October 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  10. ^ "Gini index – China". World Bank. Archived from the original on 2024-03-19. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  11. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  12. ^ "China". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2019-07-27. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  13. ^ a b c "United States". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2015-05-28. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  14. ^ "China". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2016-07-03. (Archived 2016 edition)
  15. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: "United States". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2016-07-03. (Archived 2016 edition)