Proper noun

China

1. A country in East Asia, officially named People's Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo).
2. A region in East Asia comprising the areas governed by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
3. The civilization of the Chinese people.

Derived terms

• Chinaman
• China syndrome

• Chinese

• sinophobia

China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.

China is one of the world's oldest civilizations and is regarded as the oldest continuous civilization. Prior to the nineteenth century, it possessed one of the most advanced society and economy in the world through successive dynasties though it subsequently missed the industrial revolution and began to decline. In the 19th and 20th century, imperialism, internal weakness and civil wars damaged the country and its economy and led to the overthrow of imperial rule.

In 1949, when major combat ended in the Chinese Civil War, two political entities emerged having the term "China" in their names:

• The People's Republic of China (PRC), established in 1949, commonly known as China, has control over mainland China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
• The Republic of China (ROC) established in 1912 in mainland China, now commonly known as Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

In the 1950s, change to economic policies in Taiwan transformed the island into a technology-oriented industrialized developed economy after a period of high growth rates and rapid industrialization. In mainland China, in the 1970s, reforms known as the Four Modernizations modernized the agriculture, industry, technology and defense, vastly raising living standards, and making the PRC one of the great powers.

Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Through its history, China was the source of many major inventions. It has also one of the world's oldest written language systems. The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave. It is one of the earliest known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived from 300,000 to 780,000 years ago.

China is a cultural region and ancient civilization in East Asia. China refers to a one of the world's oldest civilization comprising successive states and cultures dating back more than 6,000 years. Due to the stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War following World War II, China currently looks like two separate countries: the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Republic of China (ROC). The PRC administers and governs mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, while the ROC administers and governs Taiwan and its surrounding islands. Each government used to claim that it was the only official government of China. However, PRC is nowadays widely accepted in the world as the only offical government.