conventional long form: People's Republic of China
conventional short form: China
local long form: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
local short form: Zhongguo
abbreviation: PRC
9,596,960 km²
Beijing
yuan (CNY); note - also referred to as the Renminbi (RMB)
86
.cn
Standard Chinese (or Mandarin, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages
Daoist, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim
1,321,851,888
Communist state
red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.
extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north
