People's Republic of China

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Jump to: navigation, search "PRC" redirects here. For other uses, see PRC (disambiguation). "China" is often linked here. For Chinese civilization, see China. Not to be confused with the Republic of China. The People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, is the most populous state in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, it is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China (CPC).[11] The PRC exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly administered municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two highly autonomous [12] special administrative regions (SARs) Hong Kong and Macau. Its capital city is Beijing.[13] At about 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles), the PRC is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area, depending on the definition of what is included in that total,[14] and the second largest by land area.[15] Its landscape is diverse, with forest steppes and deserts (the Gobi and Taklamakan) in the dry north near Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, and subtropical forests in the wet south close to Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. The terrain in the west is rugged and elevated, with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with India, Nepal and Central Asia. In contrast, mainland China's eastern seaboard is lowlying and has a 14,500-kilometre (9,000 mi) long coastline (the 11th longest in the world), bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea, beyond which lie the Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. The ancient Chinese civilizationone of the world's earliestflourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River which flows through the North China Plain.[16] China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies (also known as dynasties) from time of the Xia (approx. 2000 BC). However, it was the Qin Dynasty that first unified China in 221 BC. The last dynasty, the Qing, ended in 1911 with the founding of the Republic of China (ROC) by the Kuomintang (KMT), the Chinese Nationalist Party. The first half of the 20th century saw China plunged into a period of disunity and civil wars that divided the country into two main political camps the Kuomintang and the communists. Major hostilities ended in 1949, when the communists essentially won the civil war and established the People's Republic of China in mainland China. The KMT-led Republic of China relocated their capital to Taipei on Taiwan; its jurisdiction is now limited to Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu and several outlying islands. Since then, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been involved in political disputes with the Republic of China over issues of sovereignty, the political status of Taiwan, and battle for international diplomatic recognition. Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's fastest growing major economy,[17] the world's largest exporter and second largest importer of goods. It is the world's second largest economy by both nominal GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP)[18] and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also a member of formal/informal multilateral organizations including the WTO, APEC, BRIC, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and G-20. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army with the second-largest defense budget. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of academics,[19] military analysts,[20] and public policy and economics analysts.[21]

Geography
Main article: Geography of the People's Republic of China

Topography of China

Longsheng Rice Terrace

Li River in Guangxi

Mount Everest in

Tibet

South China Sea coast of Hainan

The People's Republic of China is the second largest country in the world by land area[15] and is considered the third or fourth largest in respect to total area.[34] The uncertainty over size is related to (a) the validity of claims by China on territories such as Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract (both territories also claimed by India),[35] and (b) how the total size of the United States is calculated: The World Factbook gives 9,826,630 km2 (3,794,080 sq mi),[36] and the Encyclopdia Britannica gives 9,522,055 km2 (3,676,486 sq mi).[37] The area statistics do not include the 1,000 square kilometres (386.1 sq mi) of territory ceded to the PRC by the Parliament of Tajikistan on 12 January 2011, which ended a centuries-long dispute.[38] China borders 14 nations, more than any other country (shared with Russia); counted clockwise from south: Vietnam, Laos, Burma, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan,[39] Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and North Korea. Additionally the border between the PRC and the ROC is located in territorial waters. China has a land border of 22,117 km (13,743 mi), the largest in the world. The territory of China lies between latitudes 18 and 54 N, and longitudes 73 and 135 E. It contains a large variety of landscapes. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, grasslands can be seen. Southern China is dominated by hill country and low mountain ranges. In the central-east are the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west, major mountain ranges, notably the Himalayas, with China's highest point at the eastern half of Mount Everest, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. A major issue is the continued expansion of deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert.[40] Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices result in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan. According to China's environmental watchdog, Sepa, China is losing a million acres (4,000 km ) per year to desertification.[41] Water, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could also lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people.[42] China has a climate mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which leads to temperature differences between winter and summer. In winter, northern winds coming from high latitude areas are cold an dry; in d summer, southern winds from sea areas at lower latitude are warm and moist. The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's extensive and complex topography.

Biodiversity
Main article: Wildlife of China The Giant Panda

One of 17 megadiverse countries,[43] China lies in two of the world's major ecozones, the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. In the Palearctic zone are found such mammals as the horse, camel, tapir, and jerboa. Among the species found in the Indomalaya region are the Leopard Cat, bamboo rat, treeshrew, and various species of monkeys and apes. Some overlap exists between the two regions because of natural dispersal and migration, and deer or antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and rodents are found in all of the diverse climatic and geological environments. The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Yangtze. There is a continuing problem with trade in endangered species, although there are now laws to prohibit such activities. China contains also a variety of forest types. Both northeast and northwest reaches contain mountains and cold coniferous forests, supporting animal species which include moose and Asiatic black bear, along with some 120 types of birds. Moist conifer forests can have thickets of bamboo as an understorey, replaced by rhododendrons in higher montane stands of juniper and yew. Subtropical forests, which dominate central and southern China, support an astounding 146,000 species of flora. Tropical rainforest and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, actually contain a quarter of all the plant and animal species found in China.

Science and technology

After the Sino-Soviet split, China started to develop its own nuclear weapons and delivery systems, successfully detonating its first surface nuclear test in 1964 at Lop Nur. A natural outgrowth of this was a satellite launching program, which culminated in 1970 with the launching of Dong Fang Hong I, the first Chinese satellite. This made the PRC the fifth nation to independently launch a satellite. In 1992, the Shenzhou manned spaceflight program was authorized.[171] After four unmanned tests, Shenzhou 5 was launched on 15 October 2003, using a Long March 2F launch vehicle and carrying Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, making the PRC the third country to put a human being into space through its own endeavors.[172] China completed its second manned mission with a crew of two, Shenzhou 6 in October 2005. In 2008, China successfully completed the Shenzhou 7 mission, making it the third country to have the capability to conduct a spacewalk. In 2007, the PRC successfully sent the Chang'e spacecraft, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess, to orbit and explore the moon as part of their Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. China has plans to build a space station in the near future and to achieve a lunar landing in the next decade. There are also plans for a manned mission to planet Mars.[173] China has the world's second largest research and development budget, and is expected to invest over $136 billion in 2006 after growing more than 20% in 2005.[174] The Chinese government continues to place heavy emphasis on research and development by creating greater public awareness of innovation, and reforming financial and tax systems to promote growth in cutting-edge industries.