People's Republic of China and Republic of China (Taiwan). For other meanings, see China (disambiguation).}}

China (|tp=Jhongguó}}; Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Jonggwo) is a large cultural region and civilization in East Asia. With over one-fifth of the world's population, the majority of China is governed by a state known as the People's Republic of China, with the exception of the other state known as the Republic of China which currently governs the island of Taiwan. The region has been home to a long-standing civilization comprising successive states and cultures dating back more than 6,000 years.

China has one of the world's longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization and one of the world's longest continuously used written language systems. The history of China has been largely characterized by repeated divisions and reunifications amid alternating periods of peace and war, and violent imperial dynastic change. The country's territorial extent expanded outwards from a core area in the North China Plain, and varied according to its changing fortunes to include multiple regions of East, Northeast, and Central Asia. (The term "China proper" is used by some historians to describe the territory historically dominated by the majority Han Chinese, as opposed to lands associated later with China).

More on [ China ]

China

Mainland, Taiwan police bust phone fraud ring
The police authorities in Chinese mainland and Taiwan had jointly cracked a phone fraud ring and seized 24 suspects on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, police authorities in Taiwan said Friday. The group was raided by Taiwan police in February, but those still at large continued their activities and shifted their targets from the island to provinces of Liaoning, Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong in the mainland. Based on an agreement on crime combat and judicial cooperation inked in April, ...
HK most preferred by Chinese mainlanders traveling overseas, survey reveals
Hong Kong is the first choice of many Chinese mainland residents when they travel abroad, according to the Beijing office of Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Friday, quoting survey results. More than 90 percent of over 8,000 netizens on the Chinese mainland surveyed said Hong Kong is the very place they hope to visit most, said HKTB. The survey, conducted by cyol.net which is affiliated to China Youth Daily, showed that sightseeing and shopping in Hong Kong are the top choices of Chinese m ...
China to build library honoring "father of space technology"
China is planning to build a library honoring the country's "father of space technology" Qian Xuesen, who died on Oct. 31 at the age of 98. The library, which will be built at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where Qian once pursued his study, occupies an area of 7,000 square meters and is expected to have the most comprehensive collection of his works, according to the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Friday. The library, when completed, will se ...
Top Chinese political advisor urges private sector to contribute more to battle financial crisis
China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin on Friday said the non-public sector of economy should play a bigger role in countering the global financial crisis and maintaining a steady and relatively fast economic development. Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks during an awarding ceremony in Beijing for outstanding figures in the non-public sector. The non-public sector should seize development opportu ...
Drought leaves 909,000 people short of drinking water in E China
A prolonged drought since September has affected 909,000 people in east China's Jiangxi Province, said a spokesman with the provincial flood control and drought relief office on Friday. The drought has cut off normal water supply in some rural areas. "Villagers in Fengxin, Jing'an, Leping counties have to carry drinking water by trucks," said Sun Xiaoshan, deputy director of the office. "The water levels of four of the province's five main rivers hit record lows and are still dropping," ...
Chinese premier arrives in Cairo
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived here Friday to start an official visit to Egypt. During his stay in Egypt, Wen will also attend the opening ceremony of the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday. &$&$Source: Xinhua&$&$ ...

China Digital Times (CDT)

Photo: Wuhan Street Seller
Wuhan street seller, via an_diabhal_glas.
Killed by the Kindness of a Chinese Propaganda Department
For the Telegraph, Peter Foster writes about being wined and dined by local propaganda officials who interceded as he was interviewing farmers in Henan who were preparing to be relocated off their land to make way for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project: Armed with three bottles of ‘bai jiu’ in gleaming ...
More Official Thoughts on Re-branding Propaganda
David Bandurski of China Media Project translates "Employing Innovation to Raise the Level of Public Opinion Channeling in Television" by Ma Laishun, vice-chairman at Hebei Television and head of the station’s News Center. A portion of David Bandurski's introductory remarks to Ma's article: “Public opinion channeling” seems to encompass an ambitious ...
CFR: The United States in the New Asia
In preparation for President Obama's trip to the region, the Council on Foreign Relations has published a new report titled, "The United States in the New Asia": As Asia’s economic and strategic weight has grown, Asians have sought to build multilateral frameworks capable of effectively channeling the region’s energies. But for ...
Farmers Selling Blood to Make Ends Meet
In Hubei's Yunxian County, some come to sell their blood plasma -- 600 cc for 168 yuan -- to make ends meet. From China Youth Daily [CN], excerpted and translated by CDT: The white boat with 35 passengers measures about 5 meters long, and is headed for Shiyan metropolitan area's Yunxian ...
Western Fenqing?
ChinaGeeks has a post responding to a piece by Bob Page of Mercury Brief, which in turn is responding to the widely-cited talk by Kaiser Kuo at the University of Nebraska called "Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace." Kuo's talk can be watched here: At the ...

The Economist: China's economy

Hong Kong's property market: Flat out
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:01:13 -0000
A boom gathers momentumHAVING seen the damage caused by property bubbles, Hong Kong officials are determined not to have a repeat on their own patch. Last month the territory’s de facto central bank pushed banks into increasing the amount of cash they demand of homebuyers. John Tsang, Hong Kong’s usually tepid financial secretary, called in big developers to warn of government intervention if the housing market became “unfair” or “unhealthy”. On November 2nd the territory’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, vowed to cool prices.The mounting disquiet reflects a huge jump in the price of property, particularly luxury flats. Statistics compiled by CB Richard Ellis, an estate agent, show that prices of high-end flats have risen by 40% since January, and are now just 13% below their 2008 pre-crisis peak. Some are once again priced at record levels. One flat, at 39 Conduit Road, was reported by the developer to have sold in October for HK$71,000 ($9,200) per square foot. The spike in flat sales has propelled shares in property companies higher, too. That, in turn, has prompted a flood of primary and secondary offerings in property-related shares. ...
South-East Asian summitry: Distant dreams
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:53:57 -0000
Vague hopes of integration and messy bilateral squabblesAS USUAL at such shindigs, lofty dreams of pan-Asian economic integration got a good airing at a regional leaders’ summit held in Thailand on October 25th. Buoyed by signs of recovery in recession-bound countries, and unbroken expansion in China, India and Indonesia, leaders spoke glowingly of a free-trade zone that would link the world’s most dynamic economies. Yukio Hatoyama, prime minister of Japan, the region’s largest economy, if one of its worst-performing, said such a zone should have a common currency and aspire to “lead the world”. Not to be outdone, Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd, proposed a pan-Pacific economic community that would include America and collaborate on security. Lest anyone get too carried away, officials were on hand to caution that such grand plans would not happen overnight. Mr Hatoyama, who is trying to give Japan a more prominent role in Asia without jeopardising its security guarantee from America, described his proposal as a “medium-term objective”. Indeed, talk of an East Asian community, with perhaps even a single currency, is nothing new. But the chatter has grown louder since America blundered into a financial crisis that sapped its ability to act as the motor for global growth. As Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand’s prime minister, put it, the old model of satisfying Western consumers “will no longer serve” the region. ...
China's car market: Motoring ahead
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:49:01 -0000
More cars are now sold in China than in AmericaCHINA'S car market has overtaken America’s in sales volume for the first time, several years earlier than analysts had predicted before the financial crisis. Plummeting demand in the West is to blame. Earlier this year, as the American government was buying 61% of General Motors and 8% of Chrysler to prevent them from collapsing, the two manufacturers’ sales in China were rocketing. GM’s sales in China in August more than doubled on a year earlier. For 2009 as a whole the company predicted a 40% rise. Sales of all car brands in China in August were up by about 90%, helped by a cut in the purchase tax on smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. There is also huge pent-up demand as a new middle class takes to the road. ...
A dragon of many colours
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:43:09 -0000
America will have to get along with China. But which China will it be?“OUR policy has succeeded remarkably well: the dragon emerged and joined the world.” So said Robert Zoellick, then deputy secretary of state, in 2005, in a speech suffused with confidence in America’s ability to shape China’s progress. But, said Mr Zoellick, who is now president of the World Bank, China’s behaviour on the world stage left room for improvement: the country needed to become a “responsible stakeholder” in the global community. This anodyne catchphrase helped to redefine the two countries’ relationship. It was, in effect, an admission that America could cohabit with a powerful China. Many in his audience of American businessmen in New York, however, felt uneasy. As Mr Zoellick recalls, they saw his remarks as “too harsh and demanding”. Had he delivered the same speech to the political elite in Washington, DC, he reckons, he might have been criticised for being too soft. But China, despite being a bit unsure at first how to translate the word “stakeholder” (a term for which a standard rendering in Chinese had yet to be found), quickly warmed to the new formulation. ...
The rich scent of freedom
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:43:09 -0000
Will a wealthier China become less authoritarian?FOR Americans, the psychological tremors of a Chinese moon walk could coincide with another shock. Some time in the next 20 years, if China’s growth stays on course, its economy will overtake America’s to become the largest in the world. By the 2020s China’s middle class, today in its toddler phase, will be striding into maturity. And by 2050, some economists predict, China’s economy will be double the size of America’s at current exchange rates. As with China’s space efforts, there will be less to this than meets the eye. In 2020 income per person in America will still be four times China’s, and vast swathes of the Chinese countryside will look much the same as they do now. ...
Aiming high
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:43:09 -0000
China is moving heaven and earth to put a man on the moonFIELDS of peanuts and paddy, water buffaloes, deserted beaches, coconut trees and the odd building site are about all there is to see for now at what will eventually become one of the world’s most important centres for space exploration. Very few people outside China have heard of the town of Wenchang on China’s tropical island of Hainan, but in a mere four years, Chinese officials say, it will become “China’s Kennedy Space Centre”. It is from here, eventually, that China’s first man on the moon is likely to take off. Just as President Kennedy aimed for the moon to boost American morale in a struggle for supremacy with the Soviet Union, Chinese officials now see a Chinese moon landing as a way to bolster patriotism (although no formal target date has been declared yet). On the streets of Wenchang, whose sole (non-astronautical) claim to fame at the moment is a form of boiled chicken, the authorities are already trying to get the public in the mood. “Building a Space Centre, Take-Off for Wenchang’s Economy”, says one slogan against a background of waves crashing on the town’s sun-soaked shore. In China money talks just as loudly as appeals to nationalist pride, despite Wenchang’s languid air. ...

Subscribe to China RSS feed