China

This article is about the People's Republic of China. For the Republic of China, 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 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]
Recognised regional languages	Mongolian Tibetan Uyghur Zhuang various others
Official written language	Vernacular Chinese
Official script	Simplified Chinese[2]
Ethnic groups	91.51% Han[3] 55 Minorities[c][show]
Religion	See Religion in China
Demonym	Chinese
Government	Unitary one-party socialist republic[4]
• Party General Secretary and President	Xi Jinping[d]
• Premier	Li Keqiang
• First Vice Premier	Zhang Gaoli
• Congress Chairman	Zhang Dejiang
• Conference Chairman	Yu Zhengsheng
• First Secretary of the Secretariat	Liu Yunshan
• Secretary of Discipline Inspection Commission	Wang Qishan
Legislature	National People's Congress
Formation
• Establishment of the first Dynasty of pre-imperial China	c. 2070 BCE
• First Unification of imperial China under the Qin Dynasty	221 BCE
• Republic established	1 January 1912
• People's Republic proclaimed	1 October 1949
Area
• Total	9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi)[e] (3rd/4th)
• Water (%)	2.8%[f]
Population
• 2016 estimate	1,373,541,278[9] (1st)
• 2010 census	1,339,724,852[10] (1st)
• Density	145[11]/km2 (375.5/sq mi) (83rd)
GDP (PPP)	2016 estimate
• Total	$20.853 trillion[12] (1st)
• Per capita	$15,095[12] (83rd)
GDP (nominal)	2016 estimate
• Total	$11.383 trillion[12] (2nd)
• Per capita	$8,239[12] (72nd)
Gini (2015)	46.2[13] high
HDI (2014)	0.727[14] high · 90th
Currency	Renminbi (yuan; ¥)[g] (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[h]
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 sovereign state in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion.^[15]
The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing.^[16] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing) and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), also claiming sovereignty over Taiwan. The country's major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.^[17][18]
Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles), China is the world's second largest state by land area^[19] and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.^[i] China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi) long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas.
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 known as dynasties, beginning with the Xia dynasty (c. 2070 BCE). Since 221 BCE, when the Qin dynasty conquered the other largest six states to form the first unified Chinese empire, China has then expanded, fractured and re-unified numerous times in the following millennia. In 1912, the Republic of China (ROC) replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the ROC government relocated to Taiwan with its present de facto temporary capital in Taipei. Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory.
China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). China is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods.^[20] China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget.^[21][22] The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BCIM and the G-20.