Country of “China”

Country of “China”

Background

China is a complex civilization with a history spanning several millennia. Since the success of a Communist-led revolution in 1949, China has been known as the People's Republic of China (PRC). For the most part, its borders have been unchanged since then. However, there is some disputed territory on the high Himalayan borders between Tibet, which is under PRC control, and India. In a remarkably peaceful transition, Hong Kong (a port on China's southern coast) returned to PRC sovereignty from British colonial control in 1997 and nearby Macao from Portuguese colonial control in 1999. The thriving island economy of Taiwan, off the coast of the China mainland, is populated by Chinese people; whether or not it is a part of China is in dispute.

At the start of the twenty-first century, China, with 21 percent of the total global population, is the world's most populous nation. Its vast territory covers an extreme range of altitudes, climates, landforms, and natural resources (Antic, 2007). The PRC is a poor country that is developing rapidly. Its economy is one of the fastest growing on earth. Its government is one of the world's few remaining Communist regimes. The political system is struggling to remain viable by transforming China from a command economy to a successful socialist market economy. The social transformation of China's people is also breathtaking. To understand what is going on in Asia during the early twenty-first century, it is essential to comprehend the rapid changes taking place in China (McCray, 2009).

Discussion

China is similar in size and latitude to the lower forty-eight states of the United States. It is mostly in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, with its southernmost areas in the subtropical zone. Most of China experiences strong annual extremes in temperature and rainfall because of its location on the huge Eurasian continental landmass. On the east and south, China is bordered by seas that facilitate ocean commerce. Moving from east to west, China rises from sea level to high plateaus and mountains, including the Himalayas, the world's highest mountains, in Tibet. Therefore, most of China's major rivers flow from west to east.

Where people live in China is determined largely by climate and topography. The half of China's territory that is located in the west, northwest, and north is mostly deserts, arid grasslands, high plateaus, and mountains. About 6 percent of the population lives there. In contrast, 94 percent of the population lives in the half of China's land area that includes the warm, moist, southern, southeastern, and central provinces, the densely populated eastern and coastal provinces, and the northeast.

During the PRC's first twenty-seven years, during which the nation was led by Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976),China's totalitarian government established and maintained tight control of the population, right down into families. A U.S.-led embargo isolated China starting in the early 1950s; at the same time, China closed off its borders and defended itself from any perceived colonial or imperialist threats. Especially from the late 1950s through the subsequent ...