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This article is about the People's Republic of China. For the Republic of China (a different state),
see Taiwan. For other uses, see China (disambiguation).
"PRC" redirects here. For other uses, see PRC (disambiguation).

People's Republic of China

 中华人民共和国
 Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó

Flag

National Emblem

Anthem:

 "March of the Volunteers"

 义勇军进行曲
 Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ

MENU
0:00

Area controlled by the People's Republic of China shown in dark green;

claimed but uncontrolled regions shown in light green.

Capital Beijing[a]
39°55′N 116°23′E
 Largest city Shanghai[1]

Official languages Standard Chinese[2][b]

Official script Simplified Chinese[c]

Recognised regional Mongol (Mongolian)

languages[3]  Uygur (Uyghur)
 Zang (Tibetan)
 Zhuang
 various others

Ethnic groups  91.51% Han[4]

 55 minorities[d][show]

Religion See Religion in China

Demonym Chinese

Government Unitary one-partysocialist republic[5]

• Party General Xi Jinping[e]

Secretary
and President
• Premier Li Keqiang
• Congress Chairman Li Zhanshu
• Conference Chairman Wang Yang
• First Secretary of Wang Huning
the Party Secretariat
• Secretary of the Zhao Leji
Discipline Inspection
Commission
• First Vice Premier Han Zheng
• Vice President Wang Qishan[f]

Legislature National People's Congress

Formation

• First imperial 221 BCE

unification
• Republic established 1 January 1912
• People's Republic 21 September 1949[7][8][9]
declared
• Proclamation of the 1 October 1949
People's Republic
• Current constitution 4 December 1982
• Last polity admitted 20 December 1999
 Area
• Total 9,596,961 km2(3,705,407 sq mi)[g](3rd/4th)
• Water (%) 2.8%[h]

Population
• 2016 estimate 1,403,500,365 (1st)
[13]

• 2010 census 1,339,724,852 (1st)

[14]

• Density 145[15]/km2(375.5/sq mi) (83rd)

GDP (PPP) 2018 estimate

• Total $25.238 trillion[16](1st)
• Per capita $18,066[16] (79th)

GDP (nominal) 2018 estimate

• Total $14.092 trillion[16](2nd)
• Per capita $10,087[16] (71st)

Gini (2015) 46.2[17]

high

HDI (2016) 0.738[18]

high · 90th

Currency Renminbi (yuan; ¥)[i](CNY)

Time zone China Standard Time(UTC+8)

Date format  yyyy-mm-dd

 or yyyy年m月d日
 (CE; CE-1949)

Drives on the right[j]

Calling code +86

ISO 3166 code CN

Internet TLD  .cn

 .中國
 .中国

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a unitary one-party sovereign
state in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of
around 1.404 billion.[13] Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it
is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area,[k][19] depending on the source consulted.
Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces,
five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai,
and Chongqing), and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow
River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary
monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century
 BCE.[20] Since then, China has expanded, fractured, and re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd
century BCE, the Qin unified core China and established the first Chinese dynasty. The
succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most
advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass,[21] along with
agricultural and medical improvements. The invention of gunpowder and printing in the Tang
dynasty (618–907) completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread widely in Asia, as
the new maritime Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and Horn of
Africa.[22] Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, when a republic replaced
the Qing dynasty. The Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when
the Communist Party of China established the People’s Republic of China on Mainland China,
while the Kuomintang-led government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of
Taiwan and the ROC remains disputed.
Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the
world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates consistently above 6 percent.[23] As of 2016, it is
the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and largest by purchasing power
parity (PPP).[24] China is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of
goods.[25] China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing
army and second-largest defense budget.[26][27][28] The PRC is a permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner
of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is also a leading member of numerous formal and informal
multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO), WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, and the G20. China is a great power and a
major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.[29][30]

Contents

 1Names
 2History
o 2.1Prehistory
o 2.2Early dynastic rule
o 2.3Imperial China
o 2.4End of dynastic rule
o 2.5Republic of China (1912–1949)
o 2.6People's Republic of China (1949–present)
 3Geography
o 3.1Political geography
o 3.2Landscape and climate
o 3.3Biodiversity
o 3.4Environmental issues
 4Politics
o 4.1Communist Party
o 4.2Government
o 4.3Administrative divisions
o 4.4Foreign relations
o 4.5Sociopolitical issues, human rights and reform
o 4.6State-sponsored slavery
 5Military
 6Economy
o 6.1Economic history and growth
o 6.2China in the global economy
o 6.3Class and income inequality
o 6.4Internationalization of the renminbi
 7Science and technology
o 7.1Historical
o 7.2Modern era
 8Infrastructure
o 8.1Telecommunications
o 8.2Transport
o 8.3Water supply and sanitation
 9Demographics
o 9.1Ethnic groups
o 9.2Languages
o 9.3Urbanization
o 9.4Education
o 9.5Health
o 9.6Religion
 10Culture
o 10.1Literature
o 10.2Cuisine
o 10.3Sports
 11See also
 12Footnotes
 13References
 14Further reading
 15External links

Names
Main article: Names of China

China

"China" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese

characters

"People's Republic of China" in Simplified (top) and Traditional

(bottom) Chinese characters

Chinese name
Simplified Chinese 中国

Traditional Chinese 中國

Literal meaning "Middle Kingdom"[31] or "Central State"[32]

showTranscriptions

People's Republic of China

Simplified Chinese 中华人民共和国

Traditional Chinese 中華人民共和國

showTranscriptions

Tibetan name

Tibetan ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སི
མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ
showTranscriptions

Zhuang name

Zhuang Cunghvaz Yinzminz Gunghozgoz

Mongolian name

Mongolian

showTranscriptions

Uyghur name

Uyghur ‫جۇڭخۇا خەلق جۇمھۇرىيىتى‬

showTranscriptions

Manchu name
 Manchu script ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ
ᠨᡳᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠᡳᡵᡤᡝᠨ
ᡤᡠᠨᡥᡝ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ
(ᡩᡡᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ
ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ)

Romanization Dulimbai niyalmairgen gungheg'

gurun(Dulimbai Gurun)

The English word "China" is first attested in Richard Eden's 1555 translation[l] of the 1516 journal
of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.[m][37] The demonym, that is, the name for the people,
and adjectival form "Chinese" developed later on the model of Portuguese chinês and
French chinois.[38][n] Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn (‫)چین‬, which may be
traced further back to Sanskrit Cīna (चीन).[40] Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture,
including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE).[41] In
1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of
the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC),[42] a proposal supported by many later scholars,[43][44][45] although
there are also a number of alternative suggestions.[41][46]

The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (Chinese: 中华人民共
和国; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó (中国
), from zhōng ("central") and guó ("state"),[32][o] a term which developed under the Western
Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne.[p] 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.[48] It was often
used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians"[48] and
was the source of the English name "Middle Kingdom".[50][51] A more literary or inclusive name,
alluding to the "land of Chinese civilization", is Zhōnghuá (中华).[52] It developed during
the Wei and Jin dynasties as a contraction of "the central state of the Huaxia".[48] Before the
PRC's establishment, the proposed name of the country was the People's Democratic Republic
of China (simplified Chinese: 中华人民民主共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民民主共和國
; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Mínzhǔ Gònghéguó) during the first CPPCC held on 15 June
1949.[53][54] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the defeat of the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil
War, it was also referred to as "Communist China" or "Red China", to be differentiated from
"Nationalist China" or "Free China".[55]