China

Please create the "Talk page". Just click this Talk page link and save the page.

China, formally The People’s Republic of China, is the most important nation of East Asia, with the largest population in the world and the highest rate of economic growth. Chinese civilization is one of the oldest in the world, but since 1911 China has modernized along western lines.

History

Full article: China, history

Although archaeologists have found settlements in China dating to 5000 BCE, the earliest nation that can be dated in the area of modern China is the Shang Dynasty, approximately 2000 BCE.

Dynasty followed dynasty, as old regimes would lose the "mandate of heaven;" it was believed that each emperor ruled only with the approval of heaven, and a ruler who was unfit to rule would curse the nation until replaced. In addition, the Chinese capital would occasionally be overrun by "barbarians," who invariably would start a new dynasty in the Chinese capital, integrating their nations into the former dynasty.

Chinese had an advanced artistic culture and well-developed science and technology. However, its science and technology stood still after 1700 and in the 21st century very little survives outside museums, except in for the popular forms of traditional medicine. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by large-scale civil wars, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. In 1949, the Communists under Mao Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development, and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls and Internet censorship remain tight.

China's economy during the last quarter century has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade, to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

Religion

Full article: Religion of China

In addition to the native folk religions, China is home of two of the world's oldest surviving religions: Confucianism and Taoism. Buddhism, carried over from India and Tibet, has strongly influenced China and today there are several schools of Buddhism in the country.

In addition, China has several religious minorities. Islam in China is rather moderate, and Chinese Muslims (majority are of Hui ethnicity) often define their faith in Taoist or Confucian terms, although they do not believe in the supernatural elements of those faiths. Christianity was suppressed ot taken over by the state after 1949. In recent years, the restrictions have lowered. Catholicism in China is an especially interesting topic, as the Chinese government has tried to replace the Vatican in Catholic lives.

Although the government of China is officially non-religious, freedom of religion is protected by the Chinese constitution -- as well as the "freedom not to believe in any religion." This has led to dissent, as evangelism and proselytization are considered to interfere with a person's right not to believe. As evangelism is required by some religions, this creates a contradiction within Chinese law; the people have the right to believe and worship as they wish, but they have no right to impose their beliefs on others -- even if the act of evangelism is considered the purest (or even the only) form of worship. So far, there has been no resolution to this paradox.

The PRC also has a record of persecution of several religious groups, including Falun Gong. The persecution of Falun Gong has been condemned by a resolution passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Economy

Full article: Economy in China

China's economy, based on rice and wheat farming, was generally prosperous until the 18th century. Population pressures, and failure to adopt new technology led to an impoverished nation by 1900.

After Mao's death the policy of modernization along Western lines hs led to a remarkable rate of economic growth in the industrial cities, which have pulled in millions of peasants from the still poor rural areas. Slack environmental standards have led to serious pollution problems.

The modern Chinese economy has benefited from investments from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They jumped far ahead of China by 1970 in terms of technology, and in recent years have invested in mainland industries.

These two factors have changed Chinese economy, from a command economy to a more socialist state, with the Chinese economy increasingly in the hands of privately-owned businesses, not state- or military-run enterprises. The 2001 declaration by Jiang Zemin (former leader of the Chinese Communist Party) of the "theory of three represents" -- that the CCP represents not only workers, but also intellectuals and entrepreneurs -- was an explicit affirmation of what had been a trend for the previous years.

Issues in China

During the years of Communist rules, many human rights issues cropped up. These have lessened in number and intensity as China's liberalization continues, although as freedom of the press increases, it becomes easier to report on violations from both past and present. The issues have been hard to research, however, because Western propaganda created during the height of the Cold War is often regarded as fact.

References

• Ching J (1993) Chinese Religions. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
• Chow, Gregory C. China's Economic Transformation (2nd ed. 2007) excerpt and text search
• Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. China: A New History. Harvard U. Press, 1998. 546 pp.
• Goldman, Merle and Lee, Leo Ou-fan, ed. An Intellectual History of Modern China. Cambridge U. Press, 2002. 607 pp.
• Naughton, Barry. The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth (2007)
• Ogden S (ed) (2006) China. Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.
• Perkins, Dorothy. Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. Facts on File, 1999. 662 pp.
• Rawski, Thomas G. and Lillian M. Li, eds. Chinese History in Economic Perspective, University of California Press, 1992 online free
• Roberts, J. A. G. A Concise History of China. Harvard U. Press, 1999. 341 pp.
• Schoppa, R. Keith. The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. Columbia U. Press, 2000. 356 pp. online edition
• Wang, Ke-wen, ed. Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Garland, 1998. 442 pp.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History, A Manual, Revised and Enlarged. Harvard U. Asia Center, 2000. 1181 pp.

See also

• China, history
• Catalog of Chinese cuisine
• Hong Kong
• People's Republic of China
• Song Dynasty
• Subdivisions of the People's Republic of China
• Taiwan