User:Slashem/china

China is the third or fourth largest country in the world and has the most people. It is divided into twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions.

China has one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and the source of such major inventions as what the British scholar and biochemist Joseph Needham called the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

The stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War has resulted in two political entities using the name China: the People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, which controls mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau; and the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, which controls the island of Taiwan and some nearby islands.

The People's Republic of China, commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the third or fourth largest country in the world. With a population of over 1.3 billion it is the most populous country in the world. Beijing is the capital.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has led the PRC under a single-party system since the state's establishment in 1949. The PRC is involved in a long-running dispute over the political status of Taiwan. The CPC's rival during the Chinese Civil War, the Kuomintang (KMT), retreated to Taiwan and surrounding islands after its civil war defeat in 1949, claiming legitimacy over China, Mongolia, and Tuva while it was the ruling power of the Republic of China (ROC). The term "Mainland China" is often used to denote the areas under PRC rule, but sometimes excludes its two Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macau.

It has the world's fourth largest economy and second largest purchasing power parity. China is also a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Since 1978, China's market-based economic reforms have brought the poverty rate down from 53% in 1981 to 8% by 2001. However, China is now faced with a number of other economic problems, including an aging population, an increasing rural-urban income gap, and rapid environmental degradation.

China plays a major role in international trade. The country is the world's largest consumer of steel and concrete, using, respectively, a third and over a half of the world's supply of each. China is the biggest consumer of copper in the world. Counting all products, China is the third largest importer and the second largest exporter in the world.

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