Portal:China

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China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the world's second-most populous country after India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land. With an area of nearly 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third-largest country by total land area. The country is divided into 33 province-level divisions: 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the national capital, while Shanghai is its most populous city by urban area and largest financial center along with Chongqing as the largest city proper in the world.

One of the cradles of civilization, China has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era, with the earliest dynasties emerging in the Yellow River basin before the late second millennium BCE. The eighth to third centuries BCE saw a breakdown in the authority of the Zhou dynasty, accompanied by the emergence of administrative and military techniques, literature, philosophy, and historiography. In 221 BCE, China was unified under an emperor for the first time. Appointed non-hereditary officials began ruling counties instead of the aristocracy, ushering in more than two millennia of imperial dynasties including the Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. With the invention of gunpowder and paper, the establishment of the Silk Road, and the building of the Great Wall, Chinese culture—including languages, traditions, architecture, philosophy and technology—flourished and has heavily influenced East Asia and beyond. However, China began to cede parts of the country in the late 19th century to various European powers by a series of unequal treaties.

China is a unitary one-party socialist republic led by the CCP. It is a founding member of the UN and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a founding member of several multilateral and regional organizations such as the AIIB, the Silk Road Fund, the New Development Bank, and the RCEP. It is a member of the BRICS, the G20, APEC, the SCO, and the East Asia Summit. Making up around one-fifth of the world economy, the Chinese economy is the world's largest economy by GDP at purchasing power parity, the second-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the second-wealthiest country, albeit ranking poorly in measures of democracy, human rights and religious freedoms. The country has been one of the fastest-growing major economies and is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. China is a nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defense budget. It is a great power and a regional power. China is known for its cuisine, culture and has 57 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Full article...)

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Beiyue Temple

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Henan or Yu cuisine is an umbrella term used to define the native cooking styles of the Henan province in China. Henan (河南, or Honan) is a province located in Central China and is often also referred to by the names Zhongzhou or Zhongyuan, which means ‘midland’. Being landlocked on all sides, the influence of localized culinary styles are plentiful to be observed in Henan cuisine. It incorporates a blend of culinary styles from Jiangsu and Beijing, which gives it a unique mix of taste. Henan cuisine is well known for its taste variety including a blend of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty. There are a wide variety of Henan dishes, including carp with fried noodles in sweet and sour sauce, grilled head and tail of black carp, Bianjing roasted duck, stewed noodles with mutton, and spicy soup. Despite its mix of flavours within its culinary forms, Henan cuisine is not known to take them to the extreme. Rather, Henan cuisine is known for inducing a very moderate and balanced mix of flavours in its dishes. Henan has a long cultural history, which not only left precious cultural relics and historical sites but also Henan cuisine. Henan cuisine, has the honor of being one of China's oldest and most traditional cooking styles. There are more than 50 kinds of cooking methods in preparing Henan cuisine. The history of the province shows its relation to the affinity towards food culture among the people of Henan, where the motive to bring together the different tastes from the north and the south to blend it into one dish. (Full article...)

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Traditional architecture in Shanghai
Traditional architecture in Shanghai
Credit: Fanghong

An area on the outskirts of Shanghai that has retained its traditional architecture.

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  • 1989Owen Lattimore, American author, educator, and influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia (b. 1900)

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In the news

30 May 2024 –
OpenAI removes online influence operations based in Russia, China, Iran, and Israel, due to the usage of AI by these operations to generate propaganda and fake content. (NPR)
29 May 2024 –
Amnesty International says that the number of executions recorded globally in 2023 was the highest since 2015 and up more than 30% from 2022, with Iran carrying out 74% of the global total. The figures exclude China, which is thought to execute thousands of people each year. (BBC News)
24 May 2024 – 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Black Dog, a Chinese film directed by Guan Hu, wins the Un Certain Regard prize for international films at the Cannes Film Festival. (Reuters)
23 May 2024 – Cross-Strait relations
China's People's Liberation Army begins two days of military drills around Taiwan. In response, Taiwan mobilizes its military. (BBC News) (Reuters)
22 May 2024 –
The United Nations Security Council votes against a resolution introduced by Russia and China banning member states from placing weapons in outer space. (Space.com)
16 May 2024 – China–Russia relations
President of Russia Vladimir Putin meets with President of China Xi Jinping in Beijing, China. (CNN)

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China's Politics

Emblem of the Communist Party of China
Emblem of the Communist Party of China
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is head of the Chinese Communist Party and the highest-ranking official within China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat. The officeholder is usually considered the paramount leader of China.

According to the Constitution, the General Secretary serves as an ex officio member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. Since the early 1990s, the holder of the post has been, except for transitional periods, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making the holder the Commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army.

The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping (pictured), who took the office at the 18th National Congress on 15 November 2012.

National Emblem of the Republic of China
National Emblem of the Republic of China
Tsai Ing-wen
Tsai Ing-wen

The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC).

The Constitution names the president as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces (formerly known as the National Revolutionary Army). The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, and making peace. The president must promulgate all laws and has no right to veto. Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, and conferring honors and decorations.

The current President is Tsai Ing-wen (pictured), since May 20, 2016. The first woman to be elected to the office, Tsai is the seventh president of the Republic of China under the 1947 Constitution and the second president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

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Wikipedias in languages found in China

粵語 / 广东话 (Cantonese)           古文 / 文言文 (Classical Chinese)           赣语 (Gan)           Hak-kâ-fa (Hakka)           قازاق تىلى (Kazakh)           中文 / 普通话 (Mandarin) (Now unable to access in
China Mainland because of the GFW)          
闽东语 (Min Dong)           闽南语 (Min-nan)           བོད་ཡིག (Tibetan)           ئۇيغۇرچە (Uyghur)           吴语 (Wu)           Sawcuengh (Zhuang)

Incubator
wiki incubator Xiang (湘语) wiki incubator Pu-Xian Min (莆仙话) wiki incubator Min Bei (闽北语)
wiki incubator lahu (拉祜族,拉祜语) wiki incubator Nuosu (彝族,彝语) wiki incubator hmong (苗族,苗语)
wiki incubator Bouyei (布依族,布依语) wiki incubator manchu (满族,满语) wiki incubator Xong (苗族,湘西苗语)
wiki incubator Daw (苗族,白苗苗语) wiki incubator xibo (锡伯族,锡伯语) wiki incubator salar (撒拉族,撒拉语)
wiki incubator цзинпо (景颇族,景颇语) wiki incubator Tai Nüa (傣族,德宏傣语) wiki incubator Amis (阿美族,阿美語)
wiki incubator Western Yugur (裕固族,西部裕固语) wiki incubator northern tujia (土家族,北部土家语)


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