China,[j] officially the People's Republic of China (PRC),[k] 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.[l] 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.[m] The
country is divided into 33[n] 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.

One of the cradles of civilization, China has been inhabited since the Paleolithic
era, with the earliest dynasties emerging in the Yellow River basin before the late
second millennium BCE. The eighth to third centuries BCE saw a breakdown in the
authority of the Zhou dynasty, accompanied by the emergence of administrative and
military techniques, 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 country. 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 failed—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.

China is a unitary one-party socialist republic led by the CCP. 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.