User:Andymilson/ChinaSandbox

Sandbox for China Group - Fall 2018 - GEOG 2302
Chinese geography is the study of topography and demographic trends within mainland China. China has a land area of 3.705 million square miles (9.597 million square kilometers). China currently leads the world in population (1.379 billion), with the vast majority of the population living on the coast. 92% of China's population is Han Chinese, and the other 8% make up 55 different ethnic minorities. China is ranked 86th on the human development index

Transportation
Due to the rapid growth of Chinese population, and thus the growing demand for transportation, the government seeks to reduce the amount of air pollution by shifting transportation away from personal automobiles and towards rapid transportation methods such as metro systems. Metro systems are meant to combat traffic and promote a reduction in vehicle emissions by using electric light rail and maglev trains. China has seen tremendous growth in metro systems since the 1990's and now has well over 5,000 kilometers worth of metro lines and will likely exceed 10,000 kilometers by 2020 according to some estimates.

China's transportation was sea-based originally because of foreign trading, but with the decline of sea-trading, China has been forced to find effective land-transportation methods. China's economic development allowed the nation to be financially capable of improving their infrastructure with roads and railways.

Urban Geography
59.2% of the population of China is urban with an 2.42% annual rate of change. The city of Shanghai is the most populated city in China with a population of 25.582 million people. The capital, Beijing, has a population of 19.618 million people, and other highly populated cities like Chongqing, Guangdong, Tianjin, and Shenzhen have populations of 14.838 million, 12.683 million, 13.215 million, and 11.908 million respectively About 46 Chinese cities, of 102 total cities, have a population of over one million people. China is expected to gain another 350 million people into urban areas of China in the next seven years. This massive urban population has caused advancements in architecture and city planning to accommodate for the already gargantuan population in the cities. The construction industry alone in China employs about 37 million people (Nst4025)

Genders
China is currently in a deficit of women to men. There are currently 33.6 million more men than women in China, due to traditional preference to male children. It is expected that a significant proportion of Chinese men will die alone, with no offspring. China currently has a .955 Child Development Index rating (CDI).

There are several factors that have led to the gender imbalance in China. The primary cause, however, is the fact that gender based abortions still continue to occus in China. According to Sonalde Desai, an Indian sociologist, there are only 100 females to every 116 males in China. The Chinese Communist Party has admitted recently that its gender imbalance is one of the worst in the world. Ironically, many scholars blame China's decades long "One Child Policy" for the imbalance. These scholars claim that since the Chinese Communist Party mandated the One Child policy, many parents aborted female fetuses in favor of males, plausibly in an effort to continue the family name, bring more money in for the family, etc. However, China's gender imbalance may also be due to the fact that China has historically valued men above women. This is because many parts of China still continue to follow Confucian ideas, despite the Communist party maintaining an explicitly atheist platform for decades.

Geopolitics
China has long struggled to maintain sovereignty over Tibet, Manchuria, and the Uighur region of central Asia. The Chinese government sees it as an imperative to control these key locations, because the Chinese core is geographically vulnerable to invasion if the Tibetan, Manchurian, and Uighur regions are controlled by another power.

Historically, Chinese geopolitics have almost always focused on the defense of the Chinese heartland, which primarily refers to the part of China that was either under the ancient Han dynasty, or any part of China that is a native state of the Han Chinese ethnic group. According to Stratford Worldview, many geopolitical experts refer to the Chinese heartland as an "island" separated by vast mountain ranges in the southwest and northeast, deserts to the west and north, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. This isolated topography has long influenced Chinese politics, business, and military affairs. For example, the mountains in the western region of China managed to fend off the forces of the enormous Mongol empire for decades before finally being annexed by Kublai Khan. Under Mongol occupation, the Han Chinese experiences foreign control for the first time, and it wouldn't be until the rise of the Qing dynasty in the 1600s that the Han Chinese would experience it again. Towards the end of the Qing dynasty, China was subject to the manipulation of many western powers. Western colonial empires often saw China as an economic opportunity, and as the west gained control of various Chinese markets, the Qing government suffered. However, the final blow to the Qing dynasty was the opium market and its effects on Chinese economic power and society. These opium wars of the late 19th and early 20th century crippled China until the end of the Chinese civil war in the 1950's. This half century long period of political chaos, caused by foreign powers, is a significant factor in the Chinese mindset. As a result, the Chinese Communist Party has ruled extremely defensively at times, in an effort to further protect the Chinese heartland from foreign control. This defensiveness has often been the cause for aggressive behavior on behalf of the Chinese government, which includes recent Chinese naval armadas threatening foreign navies away from the Yellow Sea and South China Sea. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45718000/ref>

Culture
In China the primary religion is Chinese folk Religion. With a primary focus on Confucianism as the main system of belief. The other minor religion of the country is Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism and Islam. In China the primary language of the nation is Mandarin, with over a billion people speaking the language. There are also 7 other language that are spoken commonly. In the Jiangxi Region, there are a large number of people who speak the Gan dialect. This language can also be heard in the regions nearby like Fujian and Hunan. The Min dialect is spoken mainly in Fujian Province and along the southern Chinese coast. The Xiang Dialect mainly concentrates in the Province of Hunan in the southern part of China. The Hakka dialect is a dialect that is spoken in the regions of Jiangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And the last major language spoken in China is Cantonese, mainly spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau.

Because China is such a diverse nation, the different parts of China tends to have their own theme and culture. When someone thinks of China, what the generally think of is the mainland China in between the Yellow and the Yangtze River. This is where most the the great monuments and ancient cities resided and shaped our perception of China. However some region are very different because of the different groups that are present. In Hong Kong for example, the style and culture seems very western. This is because of British colonialism during the 19th and 20th century.

When visiting China, there will be many little temples and monuments to ancient people that are still revered to this day. One such character is Yue Fei, a general during the Southern Song Dynasty. Located in the Province of Zhejiang, many tourist and locals visit and pray to the general from years ago. Though not exactly holy, there are many places that are important to the Chinese people. Things like the Great Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and the Great Wall of China are not exactly holy but are very loved and treasured as a national treasure.

One of the biggest popular culture trend that has migrated from China to the outside world is movies and martial arts. Some of the first things that foreigners saw that came out of China is the movies starring people like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. With the movie Enter the Dragon grossing over $21 million in North America alone. With how popular action films from China became, martial arts also grew as a result.

Chinese folk culture is very prominent in many of the media and entertainment that is commonly seen. For a country with such a long history, a lot of Chinese traditions and practices date back very far. One example can be seen in movies and television shows that are commonly made. Many of the movies and shows are based on either Chinese history or Chinese folk culture. Long standing stories like Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are also very popular and are loved by many people. These work are popular especially in nations that are close to China. In Japan, Journey to the West inspired Akira Toriyama to write the extremely popular manga Dragon Ball.

China, like Egypt has a culture that is backed by a very long history. As a whole China follows a set of beliefs that takes roots during the Spring and Autumn Period during the 500 BC E. Confucianism starts with a man that lived in the state of Lu, a state in the northeast of China, his name was Kong Qiu and would later be known as Confucius to western people.

In China there are almost no real protection for LGBT people in China. However, Gay marriage have been legal nationwide in the country since 1997. The traditional religion of China (Confucianism and Daoism) Have generally does not explicitly state that it is bad to be gay, but it is still looked down upon. In China, the sons of the family are there to carry on the family name. By being gay, this complicates things greatly. Also in China there is a universal censorship on gay media.

Religion
Since 1949, the Peoples Republic of China has had a tough stance on religious beliefs and practices due in part to it being ruled by the Communist Party. With the introduction of the 1978 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, under Article 36, citizens have been guaranteed religious freedom if their beliefs do not cause public disturbance or interference with education or the public health. Today there are 5 major religions that have been recognized by the state; Buddhism, Taoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam. Buddhism and folk religions account for roughly 21% of the population while protestants make up 5% and Islam 1.6% of the population. A substantial number of Buddhists live in the southwestern Tibetan region of the country which borders Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan and most notably India, the birthplace of Buddhism. The Islamic population, consisting mostly of Hui and Uighur Muslims, is concentrated in the northwestern Xinjiang region of the country which shares borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Russia.

On August 10, 2018 the U.N. panel showed concern over the detainment of approximately 1 million Uighur's in the Xinjiang region. Credible reports had revealed that Chinese authorities began forcing the ethnic minorities in the region into reeducation camps, claiming that it was a move to combat religious extremism and promote harmony in the region.

Despite the Chinese Communist Party's hardline atheistic approach to religion, China has seen a significant rise of Christian conversions in recent years. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, China is projected to have the largest Christian population in the world by 2030, with the Christian population growing at an almost consistent 10 percent every year since 1979.

= Population = China's current population (as of July 2017) is 1,379,302,771. Of this population, about half are between age 25 and 54 while only about 20% are between ages 0 and 24. The population growth rate as of 2017 is 0.41%. The population of the country is squeezed almost entirely into the easternmost region of the country which causes the overall population density to be very low, yet the eastern region of China is incredibly densely populated. The city of Shanghai, alone, has a population of 25.582 million people. In 1979, China enacted the "One Child Policy". 400,000,000 births were prevented, but this number is contested since it is reported by the Chinese Communist party, and American contemporaries have made the argument that the policy had little to no effect on actual population growth, as China was already following an "S" curve of population growth. Although it is currently the world's most populous nation, the Chinese government is currently struggling to maintain its workforce and economy, due to a severe lack of fertility in Chinese women. China's largest city is Shanghai (23.4 million), and acts as an economic hearth to China.

Chinese Population Pyramid
A population pyramid is a horizontal histogram, with the male population on the left side of the median and the female population on the right side. In most developing countries, the graph is almost always in a "pyramid" formation. This is because in most developing countries, females give birth to several children, often as many as 7 or 8 children per mother. As time goes on in these countries, many young children die from disease, famine, or violence. This leads the population to consistently taper off with each consecutive age group, which means that the adult and elderly populations are significantly smaller than the child and infant populations. Thus, the histogram is wide at the base and almost pointed at the top, therefore earning the title "population pyramid". In China, the population is less of a "pyramid" and more of a "jagged rectangle". This is due to a plethora of reasons. China's birthrate has dropped significantly, which is usually a sign of a developed country. However, calling China a "developed country" is extremely contested. Many human geographers propose that China's drop in birthrates had less to do with the development of the country, and more to do with China's tumultuous history; namely, the strategies implemented by the Chinese Communist Party to control the country's population. China has a significantly smaller young population than its adult population, which is projected to cause a severe "manpower crisis" in China. This means that, in the near future, China may not have enough people to maintain its powerful economic status.

Agriculture
China has followed the same path as many other countries in respect to agriculture. As the country continues to industrialize, the share of agriculture as a part of China's GDP has lowered to 11% in recent years. This is an unsurprising occurrence for most countries going through industrialization. As agriculture generally decreases, manufacturing and service increase. Of the enormous labor force in China, 27.7% work in agriculture. China's primary agricultural import is wheat from Argentina, Australia, Canada, and France. They import about four to five million metric tons of wheat per year and they are able to buy the wheat for about $70 per ton, making wheat China's most important agricultural import. On the other hand, China's most important agricultural export is rice. China exports about 750,000 metric tons of rice per year for about $120 per ton. Other significant agricultural exports from China are potatoes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, apples, cotton, pork, mutton, eggs, fish, and shrimp.

According to the World Bank, as of 2015, China’s total arable land was estimated at 119,000,000 hectares. Of this arable land, 63.8% is equipped for irrigation. Since 2005, arable land in China has been on the decline and the total arable land per citizen has reached .2 acres. As a percentage, agricultural land makes up about 54.7% of land. The climate of the country is difficult to describe because it varies so much depending on the region of China. The southernmost parts of the country are almost tropical, while the northernmost part is subarctic.

Environmental Threats
China controls 9.4 million square kilometers of land area which accounts for roughly 6.3% of the worlds total land mass. Within this area only 7% of the world’s freshwater is in the country while 80% of that freshwater is situated in the southern half of the country.

China is currently the world leader in carbon emissions, making it the top polluter on the planet. Global carbon emissions experts in 2015 reported the top carbon producers. The "first place" title was given to China, with 10,641,789 kt of emissions. The second largest carbon emitter, the United States, produced 5,172,336 kt of carbon in 2015. Lastly, the third largest emitter was the European Union, producing 3,469,671 kt of carbon in 2015. This means that China created more carbon emissions than the the United States and all European Union countries combined. https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html#.W_q57C3MxQI/ref>

Political Geography

The territory of China has been defined as a homeland for many different ethnic and racial groups in the country. However, the way that the territory has been defined varies between ethnic groups. In relation to the Han Chinese, the homeland has been defined by national borders which are more or less accepted internationally. This is because the Han Chinese are the largest population and have most influence politically than any other ethnic population in China. To the Han Chinese population, the territory of the country is defined by the regions of Tibet, inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Xinjiang Province which is the most western land of China. The Chinese territory is the second largest in land area and also has the longest combined land border in the world. However, there are many other ethnic groups in China that have their own definitions of what concerns the territory of China.

One group of people in China are the Tibetans. Tibetans and the land of Tibet are considered by the Han Chinese government to be part of China and that the territory of Tibet is also part of the country. However, many Tibetans disagree and are protesting as well as rallying for freedom in present day. To this ethnic population, the territory of Tibet is not considered part of China and so is not defined as a Chinese territory. However, the Chinese government still consider Tibet as a territory of China which reflects the dispute in definition of Chinese territory between two ethnic groups.

Another group of people which have a dispute in definition of territory are the Taiwanese. The Taiwanese people inhabit the island of Taiwan and are markedly politically different as the people of Taiwan have a free market capitalist based economy while the mainland Chinese government employ a communistic state run economy. There are disputes in the definition of territory between Taiwan and China as the Chinese government claims ownership over Taiwan while the Taiwanese people maintain that they are a sovereign state completely independent from the mainland Chinese government. These disputes have led to international controversy as many countries such as the United States of America have not officially recognized the sovereignty of Taiwan.

Territory
The territory of China has been defined as a homeland for many different ethnic and racial groups in the country. However, the way that the territory has been defined varies between ethnic groups. In relation to the Han Chinese, the homeland has been defined by national borders which are more or less accepted internationally. This is because the Han Chinese are the largest population and have most influence politically than any other ethnic population in China. To the Han Chinese population, the territory of the country is defined by the regions of Tibet, inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Xinjiang Province which is the most western land of China. The Chinese territory is the second largest in land area and also has the longest combined land border in the world. However, there are many other ethnic groups in China that have their own definitions of what concerns the territory of China.

One group of people in China are the Tibetans. Tibetans and the land of Tibet are considered by the Han Chinese government to be part of China and that the territory of Tibet is also part of the country. However, many Tibetans disagree and are protesting as well as rallying for freedom in present day. To this ethnic population, the territory of Tibet is not considered part of China and so is not defined as a Chinese territory. However, the Chinese government still consider Tibet as a territory of China which reflects the dispute in definition of Chinese territory between two ethnic groups.

Another group of people which have a dispute in definition of territory are the Taiwanese. The Taiwanese people inhabit the island of Taiwan and are markedly politically different as the people of Taiwan have a free market capitalist based economy while the mainland Chinese government employ a communistic state run economy. There are disputes in the definition of territory between Taiwan and China as the Chinese government claims ownership over Taiwan while the Taiwanese people maintain that they are a sovereign state completely independent from the mainland Chinese government. These disputes have led to international controversy as many countries such as the United States of America have not officially recognized the sovereignty of Taiwan.