Background and establishment as a nation

China officially the People's Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means “Central Country” or “Middle Kingdom.” The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced “chin”), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century BC.

Location and physical dimensions
The total area of China is 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi) including inland waters. The country stretches across East Asia in a broad arc that has a maximum east-west extent of about 5,000 km (about 3,000 mi). From the country’s northernmost point to the southern tip of Hainan Island, the north-south extent is about 4,000 km (about 2,500 mi). China borders Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea on the north; Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan on the west; India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Vietnam on the south; and the Pacific Ocean and its extensions on the east.

Climate and vegetation
China is similar to the United States in terms of the range of weather conditions. China’s climates, however, tend to be more extreme, and regional contrasts are generally greater. In addition, southeastern coastal China and the island of Hainan extend into the tropics and have considerable precipitation associated with the summer monsoon.
As a result of the wide range of climates and topography, China is rich in plant species. However, much of the original vegetation in densely populated eastern China has been removed during centuries of settlement and intensive cultivation. Natural forests are generally preserved only in the more remote mountainous areas.

Social and political organization
According to the country’s 1982 constitution, China is a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat (working class) led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a united front with other parties. In practice, the CCP fully orchestrates national political activity because party members hold the most powerful government offices. Under the united front policy, the CCP permits several minor political parties to operate in China. These parties draw their members mainly from cultural, educational, and scientific circles. No truly independent political parties exist. The CCP supervises organizations serving the constituencies of youth, women, and labor. The most important of association is the Communist Youth League, which had about 68 million members in the late 1990s. This organization plays a major role in recruiting young people who wish to prepare for CCP membership, which may begin at age 18. Since the reforms of the late 1970s, the party has permitted the formation of hundreds of new associations, but all are sponsored officially or unofficially by a government or party organ. The organization and functions of the CCP are set forth in the party constitution; the current party constitution was approved in 1997 at the 15th National Party Congress. The National Party Congress is the highest organ of the CCP, but in general, it convenes only once every few years. When the party congress is not in session, the Central Committee, a smaller organ that is elected by the full congress, serves as the party’s highest body. The Central Committee in turn elects two even smaller working groups: the Politburo and the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the latter containing the most influential party members. The Central Committee also elects the party general secretary. The outcomes of these elections are predetermined by negotiations among party leaders.

Language
More than 90 percent of China’s inhabitants speak Chinese, the language of the Han people, as their native language. Spoken Chinese consists of many regional variants, often called dialects. The Chinese dialects are tonal in nature, meaning that words are assigned a distinctive relative pitch—high or low—or a distinctive pitch contour—level, rising, or falling. Because the regional dialects have different tones and syntax, they are generally mutually unintelligible. Most Chinese speak one of the Mandarin dialects. Putonghua (“standard speech”), the standard form of Mandarin spoken in Beijing, is China’s official spoken language. Putonghua is spoken by an estimated 70 percent of the population (about 870 million people), mainly in northern and central China. It is sometimes known to Westerners as Mandarin. In addition to the Mandarin dialects, there are six other Chinese dialect groups, spoken mainly in southern and southeastern China. They include the Wu dialects, spoken in the Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang area, with about 100 million native speakers; the Yue dialects (also known as Cantonese), spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, with more than 65 million native speakers; and the Kejia (Hakka) dialects, spoken in southern Fujian and also in Taiwan and by many people of Chinese descent around the world. This linguistic fragmentation, particularly in southeastern China, has provided the basis for strong regional identity and some ethnic variation within the larger Han community.


Religion
The traditional religions of China were Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. People often practiced and adhered to traditions of all three religions as well as incorporating a variety of local beliefs into their religious practice. Islam and Christianity were among the more formal and organized religions practiced in China, but these faiths had fewer followers. After gaining control in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party officially eliminated organized religion. The CCP’s move received little resistance because Confucianism is largely secular and because most Chinese adhered to aspects of all three major faiths; thus they lacked strong allegiance to any single religion. Most temples, churches, and schools of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, and Christianity were converted to secular purposes. Only with the constitution of 1978 was official support again given for the promulgation of formal religion in China. The constitution also stated that the Chinese people had the right to hold no religious beliefs and “to propagate atheism.” The constitution of 1982, the most recent constitution, allows citizens freedom of religious belief and protects legitimate religious activities as defined by the state.


Economy
In the 1950s China’s Communist government began bringing a majority of economic activity under state control and determining production, pricing, and distribution of goods and services. This system is known as a planned economy, also called a command economy. In 1979 China began implementing economic reforms to expand and modernize its economy. The reforms have gradually lessened the government’s control of the economy, allowing some aspects of a market economy and encouraging foreign investment; however, the state-owned sector remains the backbone of China’s economy. China refers to this new system as a socialist market economy. As a result of the reforms, China’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 10.2 percent in the 1980s and by 9.7 percent annually in the period of 1990–2002. This was among the highest growth rates in the world. However, the reforms also have caused problems for China’s economic planners. Income gaps have widened, unemployment has increased, and inflation has resulted from the extremely rapid and unbalanced development.

People and culture
More than 20 percent of the world’s population lives in China. Of the country’s inhabitants, 92 percent are ethnic Han Chinese. The Han are descendants of people who settled the plains and plateaus of northern and central China more than 5,000 years ago, and of people in southern China who were absorbed by the northerners more than 2,000 years ago and gradually adopted a shared culture with them. The remaining 8 percent of China’s population consist of minority nationalities, such as Tibetans and Mongols. Most of the minority nationalities are concentrated in the sparsely settled areas of western and southwestern China.
Communism has brought about far-reaching changes in China, as the way of life of China’s people has incorporated and adjusted to shifting ideological currents. Traditionally, the average Chinese citizen, especially the more than 90 percent of the population who resided in rural areas, had little or nothing to do with the central or local government. Most people’s lives were centered on their home village or town, and the family was the main unit of social activity and economic production. The Communist revolution injected the Communist Party into every level of urban and rural life and every institution of society. Thus for the average Chinese citizen, whether urban or rural dweller, Communism has brought a far more intrusive role of government in daily life and in the operation of all significant facets of the economy and society.

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