China emerged as one of the world's first civilizations in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on absolute hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE. Since then, China has expanded, fractured, and re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin reunited core China and established the first Chinese empire. The succeeding Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements. The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty (618–907) and Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread widely in Asia, as the Silk Road brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa. The Qing dynasty, China's last dynasty, which formed the territorial basis for modern China, suffered heavy losses to foreign imperialism in the 19th century.

The Chinese monarchy collapsed in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, when the Republic of China (ROC) replaced the Qing dynasty. During the period between the Xinhai revolution and World War II, China fell into a period of political instability, culminating in the Chinese Civil War beginning in 1927. China was invaded by the Empire of Japan during World War II, which prompted a ceasefire between the Republic of China and the insurgent Chinese Communist Party. After World War II, fighting continued, though now with support from Eurasia and the USA. A new, and stronger constitution formed the current Republic of China in 1952. China was slow to industrialize, though by the late 1960s China had a growing industrial economy. China made its first space flight in 1971. In the 1990s China's economy began to grow rapidly, putting it on par with other large industrial nations, with a growing services economy. As of 2034, China has one of the largest economies in the world.

Etymology

The word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century; however, it was not a word used by the Chinese themselves during this period. Its origin has been traced through Portuguese, Malay, and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Chīna, used in ancient India. "China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn (چین), which was in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna (चीन). Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE). In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE). Although usage in Indian sources precedes this dynasty, this derivation is still given in various sources. The origin of the Sanskrit word is a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Alternative suggestions include the names for Yelang and the Jing or Chu state. The official name of the modern state is the "Republic of China" (Chinese: 中華民囯; pinyin: Zhōnghuá mínguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó (中囯) from zhōng ("central") and guó ("state"), a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. It was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing. It was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians". The name Zhongguo is also translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English. Occasionally and mostly in older texts, 中囯 can be spelled as 中囻, using an unofficial variant of 囯. Occasionally, 中囯 is spelled using the old character 國 for aesthetic reasons. The standard way to refer to a citizen of China is "Chinese."

History

Prehistory
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China 2.25 million years ago. The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire, were discovered in a cave at Zhōukǒudiàn near Běijīng; they have been dated to between 680,000 and 780,000 years ago. The fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens (dated to 125,000–80,000 years ago) have been discovered in Fúyán Cave in Dào County, Húnán. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiǎhú around 7000 BCE, at Dàmàidì around 6000 BCE, Dàdìwān from 5800 to 5400 BCE, and Bànpō dating from the 5th millennium BCE. Some scholars have suggested that the Jiǎhú symbols (7th millennium BCE) constituted the earliest Chinese writing system.

The ruins of Yīn, the later capital
of the Shāng dynasty (~14th
century BCE)

The Shāng was conquered by the Zhōu, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Some principalities eventually emerged from the weakened Zhōu, no longer fully obeyed the Zhōu king, and continually waged war with each other during the 300-year Spring and Autumn period. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, there were only seven powerful states left.

Imperial China

The Warring States period ended in 221 BCE after the state of Qín conquered the other six kingdoms, reunited China and established the dominant order of autocracy. King Zheng of Qín proclaimed himself the First Emperor of the Qín dynasty. He enacted Qín's legalist reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of Chinese characters, measurements, road widths (i.e., cart axles' length), and currency. His dynasty also conquered the Yuè tribes in Guǎngxī, Guǎngdōng, and Vietnam. The Qín dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after the First Emperor's death, as his harsh authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.

Following a widespread civil war during which the imperial library at Xiányáng was burned, the Hàn dynasty emerged to rule China between 206 BCE and CE 220, creating a cultural identity among its populace still remembered in the ethnonym of the Hàn Chinese. The Hàn expanded the empire's territory considerably, with military campaigns reaching Central Asia, Mongolia, South Korea, and Yúnnán, and the recovery of Guǎngdōng and northern Vietnam from Nanyuè. Hàn involvement in Central Asia and Sogdia helped establish the land route of the Silk Road, replacing the earlier path over the Himalayas to India. Hàn China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world. Despite the Hàn's initial decentralization and the official abandonment of the Qín philosophy of Legalism in favor of Confucianism, Qín's legalist institutions and policies continued to be employed by the Hàn government and its successors.

After the end of the Hàn dynasty, a period of strife known as Three Kingdoms followed, whose central figures were later immortalized in one of the Four Classics of Chinese literature. At its end, Wèi was swiftly overthrown by the Jìn dynasty. The Jìn fell to civil war upon the ascension of a developmentally disabled emperor; the Five Barbarians then invaded and ruled northern China as the Sixteen States. The Xiānbēi unified them as the Northern Wèi, whose Emperor Xiàowén reversed his predecessors' apartheid policies and enforced a drastic sinification on his subjects, largely integrating them into Chinese culture. In the south, the general Liú Yù secured the abdication of the Jìn in favor of the Liú Sòng. The various successors of these states became known as the Northern and Southern dynasties, with the two areas finally reunited by the Suí in 581. The Suí restored the Hàn to power through China, reformed its agriculture, economy and imperial examination system, constructed the Grand Canal, and patronized Buddhism. However, they fell quickly when their conscription for public works and a failed war in northern Korea provoked widespread unrest.

Under the succeeding Táng and Sòng dynasties, Chinese economy, technology, and culture entered a golden age. The Táng Empire retained control of the Western Regions and the Silk Road, which brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa, and made the capital Cháng'ān a cosmopolitan urban center. However, it was devastated and weakened by the Ānshǐ Rebellion in the 8th century. In 907, the Táng disintegrated completely when the local military governors became ungovernable. The Sòng dynasty ended the separatist situation in 960, leading to a balance of power between the Sòng and Khitan Liáo. The Sòng was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade.

Part of the Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú
handscroll painting, showing part
of Biànjīng in the 12th century.

The Mongol conquest of China began in 1205 with the gradual conquest of Western Xià by Genghis Khan, who also invaded Jīn territories. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuán dynasty, which conquered the last remnant of the Sòng dynasty in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, the population of Sòng China was 120 million citizens; this was reduced to 60 million by the time of the census in 1300. A peasant named Zhū Yuánzhāng led a rebellion that overthrew the Yuán in 1368 and founded the Míng dynasty as the Hóngwǔ Emperor. Under the Míng dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that admiral Zhèng Hé led the Míng treasure voyages throughout the Indian Ocean, reaching as far as East Africa.

In the early years of the Míng dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nánjīng to Běijīng. With the budding of capitalism, philosophers such as Wáng Yángmíng further critiqued and expanded Neo-Confucianism with concepts of individualism and equality of four occupations. The scholar-official stratum became a supporting force of industry and commerce in the tax boycott movements, which, together with the famines and defense against Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) and Manchu invasions led to an exhausted treasury. In 1644, Běijīng was captured by a coalition of peasant rebel forces led by Lǐ Zìchéng. The Chóngzhēn Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qīng dynasty, then allied with Míng dynasty general Wú Sānguì, overthrew Lǐ's short-lived Shùn dynasty and subsequently seized control of Běijīng, which became the new capital of the Qīng dynasty.

The Qīng dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. Its conquest of the Míng (1618–1683) cost 25 million lives and the economy of China shrank drastically. After the Southern Míng ended, the further conquest of the Dzungar Khanate added Mongolia, Tibet and Xīnjiāng to the empire. The centralized autocracy was strengthened to suppress anti-Qīng sentiment with the policy of valuing agriculture and restraining commerce, the Hăijìn ("sea ban"), and ideological control as represented by the literary inquisition, causing social and technological stagnation.

Nánjīng Road in Shànghǎi, during
the Xīnhài Revolution, 1911

In the 19th century, the great Chinese diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879, in which between 9 and 13 million people died. The Guāngxù Emperor drafted a reform plan in 1898 to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted by the Empress Dowager Cíxǐ. The ill-fated anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901 further weakened the dynasty. Although Cíxǐ sponsored a program of reforms, the Xīnhài Revolution of 1911–1912 brought an end to the Qīng dynasty and established the first Republic of China. Pǔyí, the last Emperor of China, abdicated in 1912.

Běiyáng and Guómíndǎng governments and WW2
On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Syūn Jūngsāan of the Guómíndǎng (the Kuomintang, KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president. On 12 February 1912, regent Empress Dowager Lóngyù sealed the imperial abdication decree on behalf of 4 year old Puyi, the last emperor of China, ending 5,000 years of monarchy in China. In March 1912, the presidency was given to Yuán Shìkǎi, a former Qīng general who in 1915 proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In the face of popular condemnation and opposition from his own Běiyáng Army, he was forced to abdicate and re-establish the republic in 1916.

After Yuán Shìkǎi's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented. Its Běijīng-based government was internationally recognized but virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled most of its territory. In the late 1920s, the Guómíndǎng under Jiân Jiâzak, the then Principal of the Republic of China Military Academy, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political maneuverings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition. The Guómíndǎng moved the nation's capital to Nánjīng and implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Syūn Jūngsāan's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state. The political division in China made it difficult for Jiân to battle the communist-led People's Liberation Army (PLA), against whom the Guómíndǎng had been warring since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Guómíndǎng, especially after the PLA retreated in the Long March, until Japanese aggression and the 1936 Xī'ān Incident forced Jiân to confront Imperial Japan.

Jiân Jiâzak with
Máo Zédōng, 1945

Civil War
The CCP had declared several areas of the country as the Chinese Soviet Republic (Jiāngxī Soviet) in November 1931 in Ruìjīn, Jiāngxī. The Jiāngxī Soviet was wiped out by the ROC armies in 1934 and was relocated to Yán'ān in Shǎnxī where the Long March concluded in 1935. The ROC, after negotiations, was supported by Eurasia. By 1951, the Communists had retreated to Lánzhōu, where they were surrounded and forced to surrender. Under conditions of its surrender, the Chinese Communist Party led by Máo Zédōng became more moderate, and an official politial party in the ROC once China was politically stable and a new constitution was written.

The Shànghǎi Kèyùn 4 prototype
aircraft B-F200 at Ürümqi Airfield in
January 1967

The 1970s saw many changes across China. Television and radio had reached the masses, car ownership became common, and now along with Eurasian companies, American, Japanese, and even Western European companies began to invest in China's economy. Běijīng, Shànghǎi, and Guǎngzhōu became centers of commerce in the 1970s. This era of rapid growth is known in China most commonly as 六十年代奇迹 "Sixties Miracle" (Liùshí Niándài Qíjī, referring to the uncommonly-used ROC calendar, starting in 1912 which 1973 was "民囯60年") and outside of China as the Chinese Tiger Economy. The Chinese National Space Administration made its first crewed orbit of the Earth on 18 December, 1971 with a crew of 2 aboard the Gāngxīng-A. Chinese companies began developing in-house microprocessors by the mid-1970s, using knowledge gained from aiding in the development of electronics in Eurasia. The 1974 Presidential Election and succeeding constitutional crisis led to amendments to the constitution being ratified by interim President Zhào Shìlín under guidance of the military.

1978's Presidential Election saw the first non-Guómíndǎng President, Tán Yǒng of the Mínzhǔdǎng, or Democratic party. His term saw introduction of heavier tariffs on certain imported goods, largely electronics, automobiles, certain foods already produced in China such as rice and buckwheat, and steel, though the tariff on steel would be reduced later on in Tán's term. In 1980, China made its first crewed moon landing with the Gāngxīng-F. Throughout the 1980s, China slowly became a much more urbanized and industrialized nation. Railways became a much more heavily used mode of transport with this urbanization, with the formations of the China National Railway Corporation and China National Tollway Corporation separate from the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 1984 to help under GMD president Jiǎng Jīngguó. Jiǎng's term also saw the expansion of autonomy for ethnic minorities, such as the elevation of Níngxià Huí County (part of Gānsù Province) to Níngxià Huí Autonomous Province, and the reformation of Xīnjiāng Province into Tiānshān Uyghur Autonomous Province.

Zhào Zǐyáng on a state
visit to the USA with
President Ronald Reagan,
January 1987

China was one of the founding members of the World Trade Organization on 1 January 1995. In 1998, the first high-speed railway in China was completed. Connecting Hèunggóng with Guǎngzhōu, the Kowloon-Guǎngzhōu Railway saw service speeds increase from a maximum 120km/h to 240km/h. From the expansion of service industries in China, an economic bubble formed in the late 1990s, seeing many bank, telecom and insurance company stock prices rise quickly into the new millennium. By the end of 2001, the CNY weakened from 5.92 Yuan to the US dollar on 7 January to 8.10 Yuan to the US dollar on 23 December, or 0.42 Yuan to 1 Eurasian Ruble in January to 0.61 Yuan to 1 Eurasian Ruble in December. The mismanagement of this services stock bubble by the Chinese National Bank was largely blamed on the GMD government and President Zhū Guìyīng, leading to his resignation just weeks before the 2002 presidential election. The effects of this stock bubble caused a financial recession across China that lasted until 2006, and the failure of multiple large companies, including HSBC China, the Bank of Ningbo, China Pacific Insurance Company, Guangdong Telecom, and CQ International Telecommunications Company. These companies were all nationalized into China National Bank Reorganization Corporation, China National Insurance Corporation, and the China National Telecom Corporation. The recession had effects in other EMCA countries as well, and in the USA.

Throughout the late 2000s, China's poverty rate, which had been diminishing since the 1970s, fell below 1%. In 2008 Běijīng hosted the Summer Olympics, which also saw a revitalization of the city's infrastructure in anticipation. In 2009, the amount of people in extreme poverty (living on under 11.80 Yuan(2009) per day) fell below 10,000. In late June 2011, deteriorating flood control infrastructure caused damages to property across southern China, the most devastating being the 25 June 2011 Gǔbǎo Guì River dam's failure, worsening flooding in Guìzhōu and downstream in Guǎngzhōu. Flooding destroyed multiple apartment buildings in the 2 cities, leaving over 22,000 people without homes. President Yáng Déjiāng's government funded quick reconstruction in the 5 years following, leading to quicker economic growth throughout the late 2010s and the 2020s in a period known as the "Dragon Economy" both inside and outside China.

Geography

DESCRIBE GEOGRAPHY

DESCRIBE CLIMATE

DESCRIBE ENVIRONMENT

INSERT MAP

Demographics

Population
DESCRIBE POPULATION

Language
There are over 280 living spoken languages in China. Mandarin Chinese is the most common language in China, spoken by 3.64 billion of China's population of 4.8 billion. The other most commonly spoken languages include other Sinitic languages such as Yue which includes Cantonese, Wu which includes Shanghainese, Min, which includes Fuzhounese and Hokkien, Xiang, Gan, and Hakka. Tibeto-Burman, Turkic, Mongolic, Tai, Hmong-Mien, Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages, as well as Korean and Pamir, are all also spoken in various parts of the country. At the national level, China's official language is Standard Mandarin, based off the Běijīng dialect of Mandarin, though the national government gives recognition to minority languages, and the Ministry of Culture officiates standard forms of larger minority languages such as varieties of Yue, Min, Wu, Hakka, and some dialects of Mandarin other than the standard, as well as Tibetic languages, Zhuang languages, and Mongolian and Manchu.

Almost all Sinitic languages, as well as a few other languages spoken in China, are written using Chinese characters or Hànzì. This means that much of china can understand each other through writing, despite not speaking the same language. In 1962, as part of a campaign to help improve literacy, the Chinese government introduced jiǎntǐzì, simplified versions of many commonly-used Hànzì characters, some of these reformed characters were originally meant to be introduced in 1935 but rescinded less than a year later, while some new characters are the same as Shinjitai characters introduced in Japan after WW2. Further reforms happened with smaller second and third batches of simplified Hànzì in 1975 and 1980, now totaling 2,310 jiǎntǐzì. Traditional fántǐzì used before these reforms are still seen occasionally, and can be used for aesthetic reasons outside of news and government media.

Religion

DESCRIBE RELIGION

Race
DESCRIBE RACE

Largest Cities

Rank	City (Chinese)	City	Metro area population (2030)	Province
1	上海	Shànghǎi (Záhnhe)	124,150,192	Shànghǎi Special Municipality
2	北京	Běijīng	110,190,764	Běijīng Special Municipality
3	広州	Guǎngzhōu (Gwóngjàu)	106,629,734	Guǎngdōng Province
4	成都	Chéngdū	101,532,963	Sìchuān Province
5	天津	Tiānjīn	96,832,013	Tiānjīn Special Municipality
6	重庆	Chóngqìng	92,518,510	Chóngqìng Special Municipality
7	南京	Nánjīng (Nö́jin)	91,291,066	Jiāngsū Province
8	武汉	Wǔhàn	91,090,187	Húběi Province
9	西安	Xī'ān	87,782,589	Shǎnxī Province
10	杭州	Hángzhōu (Gháhntseu)	86,078,217	Zhèjiāng Province
11	深圳	Shēnzhèn (Sāmzan)	85,104,200	Guǎngdōng Province
12	东莞	Dōngguǎn (Dùnggún)	83,684,265	Guǎngdōng Province
13	苏州	Sūzhōu (Sùtseu)	83,568,952	Zhèjiāng Province
14	保定	Bǎodìng	81,982,410	Héběi Province
15	郑州	Zhèngzhōu	80,168,296	Hénán Province
16	青岛	Qīngdǎo	77,542,431	Shāndōng Province
17	仏山	Fóshān (Fahtsàan)	76,102,908	Guǎngdōng Province
18	済南	Jǐnán	75,759,714	Shāndōng Province
19	宁波	Níngbō (Nyínpoq)	74,992,367	Zhèjiāng Province
20	長沙	Chángshā (Zhánsa)	72,436,798	Húnán Province

Government

DESCRIBE GOVERNMENT

Foreign Relations and Military

DESCRIBE DIPLOMACY

DESCRIBE MILITARY

Economy

DESCRIBE ECONOMY

Culture

DESCRIBE CULTURE

Infrastructure

Since the 1980s, China has invested heavily in its infrastructure. Railways are the most used form of transport in China. As of 2034, the state-owned railway company China National Railway Corporation (中囯囯家鉄路公司, shortened to just 囯鉄公司) has 173,910 km of railways. China's railways are among the busiest in the world, having transported 6.082 trillion passenger-kilometers and 7.561 trillion freight tonne-kilometers in 2033. CNRC also has extensive high-speed railways, making up 23,450 km of China's railway network. A further 14,859 km are added by metro systems, industrial railways, and railways owned by companies other than CNRC (ie. Běijīng Subway, Shànghǎi Metro, Sū Tóng Group, Eurosteel Group, Kowloon-Canton Railway, Eurasian National Railways). As of 2034, there are 65 urban rapid transit systems in operation across China, separate from the CNRC network.

Secondary to railways, China has 106,400 km of expressways, 95% of which are owned and operated by CNTC, or the China National Tollway Corporation (中囯囯家收費公路公司). There is a total of roughly 4.5 million km of roads in China, of which 4.1 million km are paved. Roads carry 19% of passenger and 9% of freight traffic in China. Buses and bikes are very popular, with buses accounting for 30% of passenger trips made on China's roads.

As of 2033, China has 298 airports and spaceports. The largest airport in the country is Shànghǎi Pǔdōng International Spaceport, that served 130 million air and space passengers in 2033. Many of the largest cities in china have 2 or 3 airports, including Shànghǎi, Běijīng, Guǎngzhōu, and Chóngqìng. China sees the most sea traffic in the world as well, with the busiest ports being the Port of Shànghǎi, Port of Níngbō-Zhōushān, and Port of Shēnzhèn, each seeing over 45 million TEUs of container traffic.

Energy
DESCRIBE ENERGY

Template by The Free Republic of Ponderosa
Template may be found here.