China
This article is about the People's Republic of China. See also Republic of China and porcelain.
The People's Republic of China is a country in east Asia, the fourth largest in the world. 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 populated nation.
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| National motto: None | ||||
| Official language | Mandarin Chinese | |||
| Capital | Beijing | |||
| President | Jiang Zemin | |||
| Premier | Zhu Rongji | |||
| Area - Total - % water | Ranked 4th 9,596,960 km² 2.8% | |||
| Population
- Density | Ranked 1st
129/km² | |||
| Currency | Renminbi | |||
| Time zone | UTC +8 | |||
| National anthem | March of the Volunteers | |||
| Internet TLD | .CN | |||
History
Main article: History of China
China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Relatively early it became a large united country with an advanced culture, outpacing the rest of the world in areas like art and science. From the 15th century, just before the European era of exploration and expansion began, China pulled back from exploration and became relatively stagnant. Europe's imperialistic position forced China to adopt a defensive posture which was relatively unsuccessful although independence was never lost.
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 imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people.
After the death of Mao, China remained nominally communist, but has gradually moved towards both personal and economic freedom while maintaining elements of totalitarianism with regard to political affairs and religious and ethnic minorities, notably the Falun Gong and Tibet.
See also: Timeline of Chinese history
Politics
Main articles: Politics of China
China is a republic in that the government has some democratic forms but it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. There is resistance to the dictatorship of the leadership of the Communist Party by the Chinese democracy movement despite long prison terms suffered by advocates of democracy, censorship, and violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations such as the Tiananmen Square protests. The degree of support among the population is unknown.
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.
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 but a GDP of just $3,800 per capita, China became the second largest economy in the world after the US.
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.
China has two emerging public health problems: an emerging 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 both problems.
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 | |
| October 1 | National Day | 国庆节 | |
| 1st day of 1st lunar month | Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) | 春节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 15th day of 1th lunar month | Lantern Festival | 元宵节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 5th day of 5th lunar month | Dragon Boat Festival | 端午节 | Based on Chinese calendar |
| 15th day of 8th lunar month | Mid-autumn 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 |
| 5th Solar Term. Early April | Qingming (Ching Ming) | 清明节 | see Chinese calendar. About 15 days after Vernal Equinox Day for paying respect to the deceased |
Miscellaneous topics
- Communications in China
- Transportation in China
- People's Liberation Army
- Foreign relations of China
- Science in China
- List of China related topics
External links
- China.org.cn - China's Official Gateway
- China News