Proper noun

Singular China

Plural -

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 (simplified Chinese: 中国; traditional Chinese: 中國; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó; Wade-Giles: Chung¹kuo²) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia.

In 1949, when major combat ended in the Chinese Civil War, two political entities emerged:

• The People's Republic of China (PRC), 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), commonly known as Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization. It has archaeological evidence dating back over 5,000 years. It also has one of the world's oldest written language systems, and is viewed as the source of many major inventions. China was the largest and most advanced economy for much of recorded history. 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. The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived from 300,000 to 550,000 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.