About Us

China (Chinese: 中国, zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), also informally referred to as Communist China, is a country in East Asia. With over 1,4 billion inhabitants, roughly one-sixth of the world's population, it was, in 2023, the second most populous country in the world after India. The majority of the population is concentrated in the eastern part of the country. It has six metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants: the capital Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as well as more than thirty cities with at least two million inhabitants. With an area of 9,600,000 km² according to the UN or 9,596,960 km² according to The World Factbook, China is also the largest country in East Asia and the third or fourth largest country in the world by area. China extends from the Pacific Ocean coast to the Pamir and Tian Shan mountains, and from the Gobi Desert to the Himalayas and the northern Indochinese Peninsula.
China is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the Republic of China until 1971, and the People's Republic of China since then). It is the world's leading exporter and possesses nuclear weapons, the world's largest army (by personnel), and the second-largest military budget. Governed by the Chinese Communist Party since 1949, China has adopted a "socialist market economy" where capitalism and totalitarian political control coexist in a specific formula. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China defines it as "a socialist state of people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants." The preamble to the Constitution specifies the leading role of the Chinese Communist Party and continues to officially cite Marxism-Leninism as the state's guiding ideology.
China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and is sometimes cited as the oldest continuous civilization. It originated in the Yellow River valley and then expanded southward (conquering territories south of the Yangtze River during the Han dynasty), westward (with early incursions into Central Asia under the Han, a temporary expansion to the Caspian Sea under the Tang, and the conquest of Xinjiang and Tibet under the Qing), and northward (the Qing dynasty, of Manchu origin, brought Manchuria and Mongolia to China). Throughout its history, China has been repeatedly divided and reunified; it was twice entirely conquered by foreign powers (by the Mongols in the 13th century and by the Manchus in the 17th century), although these conquerors eventually adopted Chinese customs and the administrative system to govern the empire. The last imperial dynasty, the Qing (the Manchu dynasty that had ruled the country since 1644), experienced a period of decline during the colonial expansion of Western countries, leading the country from defeat to defeat, beginning with the Opium Wars. The Chinese imperial regime was overthrown by the Chinese Revolution of 1911, and the Republic of China was proclaimed by Sun Yat-sen in early 1912. In 1927, a civil war broke out with the Chinese Communist Party, interrupted by the war with Japan until the Japanese surrender in 1945. Following the military victory of the Chinese Communist Party over the Kuomintang, which went into exile in Taiwan with the government of the Republic of China, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949, in mainland China. It presents itself as a "socialist republic", and since 1997 has exercised control over twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities (including Beijing) and two special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macao).
China experienced a relatively late Neolithic and Metal Ages compared to Anatolia and Mesopotamia, but it was and remains a cradle of numerous innovations in the sciences and arts. It is the origin of many major inventions such as the compass, paper, paper money, and gunpowder. Chinese civilization profoundly influenced all of East Asia, particularly in religious matters (Confucianism, Taoism, and the development of Chan Buddhism), linguistics (Chinese characters were used throughout the region, and many Chinese words are present in the languages spoken there), and the arts (calligraphy, painting, printing, musical instruments, and martial arts).

Source: Wikipedia