China: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Country in East Asia}}

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# The ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' lists China as world's third-largest country (after Russia and Canada) with a total area of 9,572,900 km²,<ref name="britannica"/> and the United States as fourth-largest at 9,525,067 km².<ref name="United States">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States|title=United States|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=4 December 2017|archive-date=2015-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528012641/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/616563/United-States|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{Overly detailed inline|date=March 2024}}}} The country is divided into 33 [[Province-level divisions of China|province-level divisions]]: 22 [[provinces of China|provinces]],{{efn|Excluding the disputed [[Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China|Taiwan Province]]. See {{section link||Administrative divisions}}.}} five [[autonomous regions of China|autonomous regions]], four [[direct-administered municipalities of China|municipalities]], and two semi-autonomous [[Special administrative regions of China|special administrative regions]]. [[Beijing]] is the national capital, while [[Shanghai]] is [[List of cities in China by population|its most populous city by urban area]] and largest [[financial center]] along with [[Chongqing]] as the [[list of largest cities|largest city proper]] in the world.

 

 

After decades of struggle, the monarchy [[1911 Revolution|was overthrown]] in 1912 and the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] (ROC) was formed, although the country in the [[Beiyang government|Beiyang era]] became unstable which resulted in the [[Warlord Era]], that later [[Northern Expedition|concluded]] after the [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) reunified the country while the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP), purged after [[Shanghai Massacre|1927]], were [[Chinese Civil War|fighting sporadically]] against the [[Nationalist government]], with a brief truce as [[Second United Front|a united front]] when [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] began invading the country. 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. After the war ended, it recovered the territories that Japan annexed but the second phase of the Chinese Civil War resumed shortly after, and by 1949, the CCP [[Proclamation of the People's Republic of China|had established control]] on most of the territories of the country. As [[Retreat of the government of Republic of China to Taiwan|the KMT retreated]] to the [[Geography of Taiwan|island of Taiwan]], the country was split with [[Two Chinas|both sides]] claiming to be the [[One China|sole legitimate government]] of China. After [[Land Reform Movement|the land reform]]s, later attempts to realize [[communism]] failed—the [[Great Leap Forward]] led to [[Great Chinese Famine|a massive famine]] of millions of citizens, while the [[Cultural Revolution]] caused a chaotic period of persecution and zealous [[Maoist]] populism. In 1971, the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|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 [[China–United States relations|normalized relations with the United States]]. [[Chinese economic reform|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 [[Socialist market economy|market economy]], spurring significant economic growth, although liberal and democratic political reforms stalled after the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|Tiananmen Square massacre]] in 1989.