China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the second-most populous country after India, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion (17% of the world's population), across an area of 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), making it the third-largest country by area. It is divided into 33 province-level divisions, including two special administrative regions. Beijing is the capital, while Shanghai is the most populous city by urban area. Its geography features the vast Central Plain, major rivers such as the Yangtze and Yellow River, deserts, subtropical and temperate forests, and mountain ranges such as the Himalayas.
The first humans in China arrived during the Paleolithic. By the 2nd millennium BCE, dynastic states had emerged. The 1st millennium BCE saw political turmoil and cultural growth. In 221 BCE, China was unified under the Qin and the succeeding Han dynasty, ushering in two millennia of imperial rule across periods of unity and division. Its achievements include the Silk Road and the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, and the compass. After increased Western political, economic, and philosophical influence, the 1911 Revolution overthrew the empire and established the Republic of China (ROC). The Warlord Era and Chinese Civil War followed, interrupted by Japan's invasion. This ended in a Chinese victory in 1945. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proclaimed the PRC and forced the ROC's retreat to Taiwan. Both sides claim political legitimacy. CCP attempts to advance communism faltered through famine and political turmoil. The reform and opening up that began in 1978 moved China towards a socialist market economy, spurring economic growth.
The PRC is a unitary state with the CCP as its sole ruling party. It is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and a member of many multilateral organizations. China is the world's largest manufacturer and makes up about one-fifth of the global economy. It is the second largest economy on Earth. International organizations rank China poorly in measures of democracy and human rights. It has been described as a superpower due to its large military, nuclear stockpile, and influence in geopolitics, science and technology, manufacturing, economics and culture.
Chinese art and culture has influenced much of Asia. Chinese characters are among the oldest writing systems on Earth, with a literary tradition dating back millennia to the Chinese classics. China is the birthplace of Confucianism and Daoism, which form the traditional three teachings of Chinese philosophy and folk religion alongside Buddhism. Chinese cuisine is diverse and highly regional, with rice as a staple in the south and wheat in the north. It has over 60 World Heritage Sites, including the Great Wall and Grand Canal. The Han, mostly speakers of Sinitic languages, are China's dominant ethnicity, although it is home to 55 recognized minorities, including the Hui, Mongols, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Zhuang.
The word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century; however, it was not used by the Chinese themselves during this period. Its origin has been traced through Portuguese, Malay, and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna (चिन), used in ancient India. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture from the 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE, including the Mahabharata and the Laws of Manu. In 1655, the missionary Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) or the prior state of Qin. This remains a common etymology, although Indian sources precedes the dynasty, though not the state. Another possible source is the ancient Guizhou polity of Yelang, known as ʐina in Loloish languages.
The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (中华人民共和国; Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form of this name is 中国; Zhōngguó, from zhōng ('central' or 'middle') and guó ('state'), a term first used for the demesne of the Western Zhou dynasty. The names of ruling imperial dynasties were typically used to refer to the region and state. In the 1800s, Zhongguo was officially adopted as the name of the country by the Qing dynasty. China is sometimes referred to as mainland China or "the Mainland" when distinguishing it from the Republic of China on Taiwan or the PRC's Special Administrative Regions.
Evidence of early humans such as Homo erectus in China dates to the Paleolithic, around 1.7 million years ago, with unconfirmed sites as old as 2 million years ago. Modern Homo sapiens are attested from around 50,000 years ago. Following the end of the Last Glacial Period, in about 8,000 BCE, pottery-making Neolithic cultures emerged. By the 6000s BCE, sedentary agricultural societies had spread across the lower Yellow River basin. These societies became increasingly complex, urbanized, and stratified, but many experienced a population collapse in the late 2000s BCE for unclear reasons.
After 2000 BCE, a Bronze Age culture emerged in the Central Plain, dubbed the Erlitou culture after its main site. Erlitou has been controversially identified with the Xia, the traditionally-accepted first dynasty, but no written records exist to confirm this. The Shang dynasty purportedly succeeded the Xia around 1600 BCE, with its early stages tentatively identified with an expansionist state known archaeologically as the Erligang culture. The historicity of the Late Shang is attested through divinational writings in the oracle bone script. These are the earliest known form of writing in China and the ancestor of modern Chinese characters.
The Shang were overthrown by the Zhou c. 1046 BCE. The Zhou ruled over a vast and loose confederation of vassal states across central China gradually weakened by regional lords. Centralized authority finally collapsed in 771 BCE, giving way to constant regional warfare. During the Eastern Zhou, a multitude of small aristocratic Spring and Autumn period polities evolved into seven territorial Warring States over the following centuries. Literary and philosophical developments of this period include the emergence of various schools of thought, such as Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism, alongside Chinese classics like the Analects and the Tao Te Ching.
In the 220s BCE, Qin rapidly conquered the other warring states. In 221, its ruler Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the first emperor (皇帝; Huángdì) and founded the Qin dynasty. He led an autocratic Legalist state organized in a system of commanderies and counties. The dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after his death.
Following widespread revolts, the Han dynasty emerged to rule China between 206 BCE and 220 CE. The Han gradually reinstated centralized control, legitimizing their rule through Confucian scholarship. Military expeditions against the Xiongnu, a confederation of nomadic steppe tribes frequently in conflict with the dynasty, expanded Han influence into parts of Central Asia and helped to establish the Silk Road, allowing for trade connections between China and western Eurasia. Contemporaneously, merchants established maritime trade routes linking China, Southeast Asia, and India.
The Han faced widespread uprisings and the emergence of local warlords in the 100s CE. By 220, the empire was split into the Three Kingdoms. These were briefly united by the Jin dynasty in 280, which fell into civil war. Sinicized formerly nomadic peoples who had settled in Northern China, such as the Xiongnu, rebelled and founded new dynasties. These coalesced into the Northern and Southern dynasties in the 400s. During these conflicts, Buddhism was introduced to China via the Silk Road.
After centuries of warfare, China was reunited under the Sui in 589, who constructed the Grand Canal to link Northern and Southern China. The Sui collapsed in the 610s, and were succeeded by the Tang. The Tang dynasty centralized the state and dispatched military expeditions to pacify the surrounding regions. It promoted Buddhism, but through expanding international trade built a heavily cosmopolitan society centered on its capital of Chang'an. It reformed the civil service examinations and oversaw a flourishing of art, poetry, architecture, and scholarship. The 755–763 An Lushan rebellion weakened the Tang, which gradually fragmented before collapsing completely in 907.
The Song dynasty rose to power in 960. It faced military crises, unable to subdue its Sinicized non-Han neighbors, the Khitan-led Liao dynasty and the Tangut-led Western Xia. The consistent focus on defense allowed for a heavily centralized state and military, which made the first military application of gunpowder. The proliferation of printing technology allowed books to become widely available, while the elite class of scholar-officials grew increasingly powerful. Production, population, and trade expanded massively, alongside innovations such as industrial metallurgy and hydraulic machinery. The Song capital Kaifeng was overrun by the Jurchen-led Jin in 1127, forcing the Song to retreat to Southern China. During this period, the revivalist philosophical movement of Neo-Confucianism emerged.
In 1206, Genghis Khan united the nomadic Mongols to the north under the Mongol Empire. Over the following fifty years, they conquered the Western Xia and the Jin, in addition to their other conquests as far west as Europe. The empire split into separate khanates. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty and subjugated the Song by 1279. The Yuan maintained a Mongol elite culture, but Chinese culture remained largely unchanged.
In the 1340s, central China was devastated by disease, famine, and mass floods along the Yellow River. Various rebellions erupted, leading to a peasant leader declaring himself the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in 1368. The Ming built a new capital at Beijing, with the Forbidden City as its imperial palace, although the lower Yangtze remained the wealthiest region. Trade grew, and the European colonization of the Americas brought new crops and a massive influx of silver to China. The population doubled, and a growing publishing industry began producing works in vernacular Chinese. including the Four Classic Novels.
Tax evasion became common among the rich during the 1500s, resulting in greater rent and tax burdens on the poor. The bankrupt and factionalized government was unable to contain peasant rebellions. The Manchu to the north declared the Qing dynasty in 1636 and conquered the Ming, killing their last claimant emperor in 1662 and conquering a Ming rump state on Taiwan in 1683. From the late 1600s to the end of the 1700s, the High Qing era saw economic growth and territorial expansion westward, including the occupation of Tibet and much of Central Asia.
European powers fought various wars against the Qing dynasty during the 19th century. These began with the United Kingdom's First Opium War in 1839–1842, which resulted in the first of the "unequal treaties" imposed on the dynasty, which opened treaty ports, allowed Christian missionary activity, and loosened trade restrictions. China faced an economic crisis and internal unrest, and uprisings such as the 1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion resulted in the deaths of millions. Reformist factions of the Qing state responded with the Self-Strengthening Movement, seeking to adopt western weapons and technologies, but this had little impact for much of the empire.
The Qing's defeat against the Empire of Japan in 1895 resulted in the loss of Taiwan and the growth of both reformist and revolutionary political movements. An imperial push for reform in 1898 was ended after an internal coup, while the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion was defeated by a coalition of foreign powers in 1901. The Qing state again advanced reforms, but growing revolutionary and anti-Manchu sentiment culminated in the 1911 Revolution. A coalition of revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing and declared the Republic of China in 1912.
President Yuan Shikai crushed his main opposition, the Kuomintang, and ruled China as a dictator until his death in 1916, following an abortive attempt to restore the monarchy. During the succeeding Warlord Era, feuding regional warlords and governors took power across China, while Tibet and Mongolia declared independence. The nominal republican government had little control outside Beijing. During this period, New Culture intellectuals and students rebelled against traditional society. A crackdown on a student protest in 1919 led to the May Fourth Movement and further agitation by intellectuals for a cultural and political upheaval, with many embracing Western political ideas such as communism.In the mid-1920s, the Kuomintang allied with the nascent Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and launched the Northern Expedition to reunify China. In 1927, the Kuomintang violent purged the CCP and gained the allegiance of the northern warlords, establishing a new government at Nanjing. The CCP was driven into the countryside and repressed, before regrouping in the northwest.
Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931, before launching an invasion of the rest of China in 1937. A renewed coalition between the CCP and Kuomintang fought Japan in what became a theater of World War II, as Japanese forces committed numerous war atrocities against the civilian population and occupied most of China's major cities. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, China became a founding member of the United Nations and regained control over Manchuria and Taiwan. The civil war between the CCP and the Kuomintang resumed the following year.
After a string of military victories, CCP chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan and continued to claim legitimacy. The following year, the PRC began to occupy and annex Tibet. The PRC, a people's democratic dictatorship under CCP control, enacted many reforms: it restructured the economy under state control, promoted literacy and women's equality, expanded heavy industry, and promoted land collectivization through the Land Reform Movement, which saw state-tolerated violence against landlords by the peasantry and the death of upwards of a million people.
In 1958, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, a mass industrialization project which resulted in the Great Chinese Famine and around 30 million deaths. As the Cold War deepened, the PRC grew politically isolated from its former ally, the Soviet Union, as well as the Western Bloc. China detonated its first atomic bomb in 1964. Attempting to reassert control of the CCP after the Great Leap, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, sparking a decade of political violence, crackdowns on perceived counterrevolutionaries, and social upheaval that lasted until Mao's death in 1976.
Deng Xiaoping served as paramount leader from 1978 to 1989. The PRC's reform and opening up during the 1980s and 1990s saw economic liberalization towards a socialist market economy, rapid economic growth, friendlier relations with the West, and crackdowns on political dissent in events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. China shifted away from an agricultural economy and rapidly urbanized, although this led to stark economic inequality between urban and rural areas, as well as environmental deterioration. Since the 1990s, market forces has become China's main economic driver. Paramount leader Xi Jinping, in power since 2012, has overseen the centralization of political power and the expansion of Chinese economic influence through the Belt and Road Initiative.
China's geography is highly varied, featuring a dry and mountainous west, alongside both mountains and wide river valleys in the east. Chinese civilization was traditionally centered in the lowlands around its two largest rivers: the Yangtze and the Yellow River, both originating on the Tibetan Plateau. This temperate region is bordered by forest and steppe to the north, alongside the mountainous and subtropical south.
Large mountain ranges in the west, including the Himalayas and Tian Shan, separate China from South and Central Asia. The west features both the Turpan Depression, among the deepest points on land, and the high Tibetan Plateau. The world's highest point, Mount Everest (8,848 metres (29,029 ft)), lies on the border with Nepal.
Its climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist. Its northwestern deserts receive as little as 50 mm (2.0 in) of rainfall annually, while much of southern China exceeds 1,000 mm (39 in). Much of eastern China is well-suited for agriculture, with two or three crops able to be harvested per year. The south is dominated by rice farming, while the north grows crops such as wheat and maize. In 2021, 12% of global permanent meadows and pastures belonged to China, as well as 8% of global cropland.
China is one of 17 megadiverse countries, containing a wide variety of forests, shrublands, wetlands, steppes, and deserts, which host (as of 2018) 92,300 known species of plants, animals, and fungi. According to government surveys, China's forest coverage grew from 10% of the overall territory in 1949 to 25% in 2024. The far north contains taiga, which to the south transitions into deciduous forest. South of the Yangtze, mixed conifer and deciduous forest is common, with tropical and subtropical forests farther south.
In the 21st century, China has suffered from environmental deterioration and pollution due to rapid development, alongside the broader effects of climate change. About 11% of its plant species and 21% of its vertebrate species are threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, pollution, and poaching. "Flagship" endangered species such as the giant panda and tiger have received additional funding and protection.
Although China ranks as the highest CO2 emitting country, it only emits 8 tons of CO2 per capita as of 2020, significantly lower than many developed countries. Total greenhouse gas emissions by China are the world's largest. The PRC has prioritized clamping down on pollution, announcing its aims to reach its peak emissions levels before 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy and its commercialization, investing CN¥3.6 trillion in 2022 alone. Traditionally reliant on non-renewable energy sources such as coal, China's adaptation of renewable energy has increased significantly in recent years. In 2025, 54.4% of China's electricity came from coal, while 42% came from clean energy sources. Despite its emphasis on renewables, China remains deeply connected to global oil markets.
China is the second-largest country by land area after Russia, and the third- or fourth-largest by total area. Total area figures range from 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq mi) to 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi). China borders 14 nations, with a combined land border length of 22,117 km (13,743 mi). Its coastline spans approximately 14,500 km (9,000 mi).
The PRC has engaged in 23 border disputes since 1949, of which six are unsettled. It actively disputes several portions of its Himalayan border with India, including the Aksai Chin in Kashmir and most of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It maintains maritime disputes with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and with various countries over the South China Sea Islands, including the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands.
The PRC is a unitary state under the absolute leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP is officially guided by socialism with Chinese characteristics, which it considers a form of Marxism that emphasizes a market economy as the primary stage of socialism. The PRC describes itself as a socialist state, and a people's democratic dictatorship. Many academic sources describe it as an authoritarian state, although others dispute this label.
The National People's Congress (NPC) holds the unified powers of the state and oversight over all state organs, with its NPC Standing Committee elected to meet between the annual NPC meetings. Its elections are indirect and the CCP controls nominations. The NPC ostensibly elects positions such as the president, vice president, military chairman, and chief justice, and approves the president's nomination for premier (the head of government). In practice, the CCP leadership chooses candidates for these posts. The premier heads the State Council, which includes 26 ministers, including the heads of ministries and commissions. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is an advisory body that formally leads the CCP's united front system, which aims to gain support from non-CCP intellectuals, eight minor parties, and people's organizations.
The governance of China is characterized by a high degree of political centralization but significant economic decentralization. Policy instruments or processes are often tested locally before being adapted and applied more widely. Surveys have generally shown that the Chinese public has a high level of satisfaction with the government. These views are generally attributed to the material comforts and security available to large segments of the Chinese as well as the government's responsiveness.
The CCP is the founding and sole ruling party of the PRC, organized to Leninist principles as a vanguard party. The party's highest body is its National Congress, which mainly consists of members elected by party membership and meets every five years. The National Congress elects the Central Committee, which convenes yearly as the highest party organ between congresses. The Central Committee ostensibly elects the party's top leadership, the Politburo, Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) and the general secretary. In practice, the committee typically approves a slate of candidates created by existing party leadership.
The Politburo usually gathers once a month, while the smaller Politburo Standing Committee is thought to meet weekly. The general secretary holds ultimate power and authority over party and state and serves as the paramount leader of China. The current general secretary is Xi Jinping, who took office on 15 November 2012. The National Congress also elects the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's main disciplinary and anti-corruption organ.
As the CCP and the government itself are closely intertwined, disputes within the party represent the main form of political contention in China. The CCP controls appointments in government bodies, with most senior government officials being CCP members. The appointment of CCP cadres and the leadership of major state-owned enterprises and institutions is managed by the party's Organization Department. The CCP maintains committees on a national and local scale, with about 5.1 million committees at the grassroots level.
The PRC is divided into 23 provinces, five autonomous regions (each with a designated minority group), four direct-administered municipalities, as well as the special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau, which hold large amounts of political and economic autonomy. Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into prefectures and prefecture-level cities, which themselves are divided into counties and county-level cities. The PRC claims the ROC's territory, most of which is under the claimed Taiwan Province.
China is one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the second largest contributor to the United Nations. China has the largest diplomatic network of any country: It has diplomatic relations with 179 United Nations member states and embassies in 174. China is a member of the G20, BRICS, East Asia Summit, APEC, and other intergovernmental organizations.
China is widely described as superpower due to its influence in geopolitics, technology, manufacturing, economics and culture. Although China moderated its relations with the West during the reform era, its rise in power has brought political tensions with many of its neighbors in Asia and with the United States, the current dominant superpower. Although China is among the United States' largest trade partners, their relationship is tempered by a trade war and strong disagreements over the political status of Taiwan. The PRC maintains the one China principle, recognizing itself as the only legitimate Chinese government and Taiwan as a part of China, which it officially regards as a de jure province.
China's foreign policy is based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which include a principle of non-intervention in other countries' domestic affairs. Per its policy of non-alignment, China has no defense pacts except for its 1961 treaty with North Korea, although it maintains close relationships with neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Russia. The PRC has invested heavily in developing countries across Asia, Latin America, and Africa, creating a system of development banks and loans through the Belt and Road Initiative.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the main armed forces of China, under the direct control of the CCP. It consists of four services: the Ground Force, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Rocket Force, and four arms: the Aerospace Force, the Cyberspace Force, the Information Support Force, and the Joint Logistics Support Force. It has around 2 million active soldiers, alongside the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the world's largest navy by ship count.
The PLA is considered one of the world's most powerful militaries and has rapidly modernized in the recent decades. A 2026 study estimates that its 2025 expenditure was 2.27 trillion yuan (US$336 billion), 12% of global military spending and 1.7% of China's GDP. The PLA, the People's Armed Police and the Militia are commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC). The chairman of the CMC, currently Xi Jinping, is the commander-in-chief of the PLA chairman responsibility system.
Various human rights organizations, United Nations assessments, and foreign governments have accused China of severe and sustained human rights violations. It has been accused of political repression, torture, indefinite detention, restrictions on free speech and religious practice, excessive use of capital punishment, and the persecution of ethnic minorities.Although the PRC's 1982 constitution protects a wide variety of civil and political rights, these largely lack enforcement mechanisms. The petitioning system allows citizens to raise complaints of wrongdoing, although the concerns are often left unaddressed, and some petitioners have faced punitive arrest or incarceration. In the 21st century, the PRC has participated extensively with the United Nations Human Rights Council, but has remained strongly critical of international scrutiny of its human rights, seeing it as an interference in its internal affairs.
In Xinjiang, China has restricted the civil rights of the Uyghurs, who face widespread discrimination. The Xi administration has launched police crackdowns, heavy surveillance programs, and restrictions on Islamic religious practice and the use of the Uyghur language. It has interred one to two million Uyghurs in a network of internment camps in the late 2018s, which have evolved into a system of prisons and forced labor. The United States has accused the PRC of committing genocide in Xinjiang, while the United Nation's OHCHR has described its compulsory labor system as enslavement and a crime against humanity.
The PRC has heavily restricted the civil and political rights of Hong Kong residents. Since the 2019–2020 protests, the PRC has cracked down on the anti-establishment movement in the SAR and removed much of its political autonomy. The PRC has cracked down on political expression in Tibet and strengthened state surveillance, restricting residents from obtaining passports and most foreigners from entering the region.
The modern PRC is often described by analysts as an example of state capitalism or party-state capitalism, with both market forces and the state playing a major role in the economy. Various state organs manage the economy according to the State Council's five-year plans. The PRC describes its economic system as a "socialist market economy," in which the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation under the macro-control of a socialist state. The Chinese economy has expanded more than 20 times since 2000, achieving the second-largest economy by GDP (CN¥140 trillion in 2025) and the largest when adjusted for purchasing power parity. The PRC has brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country, roughly 800 million.
The private sector is the largest portion of the Chinese economy, while about 30–40% is under state ownership. Less than 10% of exports were by state-owned companies, while industries such as transportation, utilities, and financial services are generally under state ownership. Since the 1990s, the PRC has decentralized its economic planning, with about 85% of government spending delegated to the provincial or local level, with local governments adapting national economic plans to suit local interests. China is the world's leading manufacturing power, accounting for 30% of global manufacturing; it is the largest producer of steel, rare earths, ships, and automobiles, as well as the largest exporter of electronics. It has struggled to establish its currency, the renminbi (in units of yuan), as an international reserve currency; as of 2025, it is the seventh largest currency in foreign exchange reserves.
About a third of China's workforce are domestic migrant workers, the floating population. The hukou ('household individual') system restricts citizens' access to services and utilities outside of their registered home, leading to pronounced inequalities between workers from urban and rural areas. Especially in larger cities, only those with local hukou may be able to buy property, though hukou restrictions have loosened significantly in the recent decades. The PRC has a high debt-to-GDP ratio (almost 300% in 2020), with household debt at about 65% of the GDP.
As the world's largest economy for much of its history, China has produced many inventions and scientific discoveries. It is credited with the invention of paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder. The PRC has pursued rapid technological development since the reform era. It has greatly advanced in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, while the Xi administration has prioritized green technology and reducing Chinese dependence on foreign technology. It has emphasized technocratic leadership in the 2020s, promoting experts in scientific fields to national leadership positions, while bringing major private technology firms such as Tencent and Alibaba under state regulation. Geopolitical tensions have led to Europe and the United States to restrict Chinese access to their technology.
Since launching its first satellite in 1970, China has maintained an active space program. Behind the United States and the Soviet Union, it was the third country to independently launch an orbital satellite and in 2003 became the third to bring astronauts into orbit. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has sent multiple robotic landers to the moon, the Planetary Exploration of China program has sent a lander and rover to Mars, while its Tiangong space station has hosted crewed operations in Low Earth orbit since 2021.
After a decades-long infrastructural boom, China has produced numerous world-leading infrastructural projects: it has the largest high-speed rail network, the most supertall skyscrapers, the largest power plant (the Three Gorges Dam), the most extensive ultra-high-voltage transmission network and innovation infrastructure, and a global satellite navigation system with the largest number of satellites.
China is the largest telecom market in the world and currently has the largest number of active cellphones of any country, with over 1.83 billion subscribers, as of 2025. It has the largest number of internet and broadband users, with over 1.125 billion Internet users as of December 2025 — equivalent to around 80.1% of its population. Its Great Firewall serves as the world's most comprehensive Internet censorship system. This has helped develop domestic internet services and companies, protected from international competition. The Cyberspace Administration of China acts as the national internet regulator and censor.Since the late 1990s, China's national road network has been significantly expanded through the creation of a network of national highways and expressways. In 2022, China's highways had reached a total length of 177,000 km (110,000 mi), making it the longest highway system in the world. In urban areas, bicycles remain a common mode of transport, despite increasing automobile prevalence – as of 2023, there are approximately 200 million bicycles in China. As of 2023, 55 Chinese cities have urban mass transit systems in operation.
China's railways, operated by the state-owned China Railway, are among the busiest in the world. As of 2025, the country had 165,000 km (102,526 mi) of railways, the second-longest network in the world. Air travel has expanded rapidly in the last decades, across approximately 259 airports. It has over 2,000 river and sea ports, about 130 of which are open to foreign shipping. Of the fifty busiest container ports, 18 are located in China. The busiest port in the world is the Port of Shanghai. China's inland waterways are the world's sixth-longest, totaling 27,700 km (17,212 mi).
The 2020 Chinese census recorded the population as approximately 1,411,778,724. About 17.95% were 14 years old or younger, 63.35% were between 15 and 59, and 18.7% were over 60. Between 2010 and 2020, the average population growth rate was 0.53%. Since 2022, deaths have outpaced births. In 2025, the total fertility rate was reported to be 1, among the lowest in the world. The National Bureau of Statistics estimated that the population fell 850,000 from 2021 to 2022, the first decline since 1961. In 2025, China recorded 7.92 million births, the lowest recorded birthrate since at least 1949. 94% of the population lives in the territory east of the Heihe–Tengchong Line, while 57% of the Chinese territory is west of the line and has only 6% of the country's population.
Concerned about population growth, China implemented a two-child limit during the 1970s, and, in 1979, began to advocate for an even stricter limit of one child per family. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, given the unpopularity of the strict limits, China began to allow some major exemptions, particularly in rural areas, resulting in what was actually a "1.5"-child policy from the mid-1980s to 2015; ethnic minorities were also exempt from one-child limits. The next major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child. In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy. A three-child policy was announced in May 2021, due to population aging, and in July 2021, all family size limits as well as penalties for exceeding them were removed.
The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may have contributed to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth. The 2020 census found that males accounted for 51.2% of the total population. However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.8% of the population. China maintains a restrictive immigration policy, with permanent residence granted to only around 12,000 foreigners as of 2023.
China has urbanized significantly in recent decades. The percent of the country's population living in urban areas increased from 20% in 1980 to over 68% in 2025, according to Chinese government figures. According to the United Nations, the country's urbanization rate is 83.7%, having peaked in absolute numbers in 2021. China has over 160 cities with a population of over one million, including 18 megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million). Shanghai is China's most populous urban area while Chongqing is its largest city proper, the only city in China with a permanent population of over 30 million. The cities of the Pearl River Delta form the world's largest urban area, at 86 million residents. The figures in the table below are from the 2020 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists for total municipal populations. The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult; the figures below include only long-term residents.
China legally recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups. The largest of these are the Han Chinese, who constitute more than 91% of the total population. The Han – the world's largest ethnic group – outnumber other ethnicities in most of the country. Compared with the 2010, the Han population increased by 4.93%, while the combined population of national minorities increased 10.26%. The 2020 census recorded a total of 845,697 foreign nationals living in mainland China.
There are as many as 284 living languages in China. The languages most commonly spoken belong to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which contains Mandarin, spoken by 80% of the population, and other varieties of Chinese language. Languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch, including Tibetan, are spoken across the southwestern plateaus. Other ethnic minority languages in southwestern China are from the Tai-Kadai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic families. Across northeastern and northwestern China, ethnic groups speak Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages. Korean is spoken along the border with North Korea. Taiwanese indigenous peoples traditionally speak Austronesian languages.
Standard Chinese, a variety based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, is the national language of China and holds official status. It is used as a lingua franca between people of different linguistic backgrounds. In the autonomous regions, other languages may also serve this role, such as Uyghur in Xinjiang.
The Chinese religious tradition is heavily syncretic, incorporating various folk religious practices alongside Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. These 'three teachings' were the three main institutionalized schools of Chinese religion. These exist alongside introduced minority religions such as Christianity and Islam, as well as various new religious movements.
Confucianism is a philosophical and spiritual tradition that originated in the Eastern Zhou, emphasizing the study of the classics and the relations of the individual, society, and heaven. Following Western influences, it has sometimes been identified as a religion. Daoism emphasizes the Dao ('way') as the world's origin and fundamental force, and seeks to harness it through spiritual cultivation. Initially a philosophical movement during the Eastern Zhou, the religious tradition of Daoism emerged during the 2nd century CE. Mahayana Buddhism was introduced to China during the Han dynasty and spread rapidly over the following centuries. Although it was often dismissed by the Confucian literati, Buddhism greatly influenced other Chinese religious and philosophical traditions.
Although the PRC and CCP are legally atheist, freedom of religion is formally guaranteed by the Chinese constitution. The PRC officially recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Formal religious practice is managed by "patriotic associations" for each of the recognized faiths overseen by the CCP's United Front Work Department. However, the majority of religious activities take place outside of these registered organizations. Statistics on affiliation are difficult to gather due to complex and varying definitions of religion and the diffusive nature of local traditions. Many people follow religious teachings and practices without considering themselves adherents.
Following an optional two to three years of preschool, China has nine years of free compulsory education, generally with six years of elementary school and three years of junior high school. If they pass entrance examinations, students may then attend a senior high school, choosing between an academic or vocational track. The gaokao exams allow access to undergraduate higher education, with additional examinations required to attend postgraduate programs and achieve a master's or doctoral degree. As of 2022, 95% of junior high students continue to high school, while higher education has a 59.6% enrollment rate.
As of 2022, China had 158 million students enrolled in compulsory school, and 46.5 million enrolled in higher education. There are over 200,000 elementary and junior high schools, over 22,000 secondary schools, and over 3,000 colleges and universities. Both private and public schools exist at all levels, with 10.6% of elementary and junior high students attending private schools. Its academic publication apparatus became the world's largest publisher of scientific papers in 2016.
The National Health Commission, together with its counterparts in the local commissions, oversees the health needs of the population. After the beginning of the reform and opening up in 1978, the health of the Chinese public improved rapidly because of better nutrition, although many of the free public health services provided in the countryside disappeared. Healthcare in China became mostly privatized, and experienced a significant rise in quality. China is a major producer and exporter of pharmaceuticals.
As of the mid-2020s, the life expectancy at birth exceeds 79 years, and the infant mortality rate is 4 per 1,000. Both have improved significantly since the 1950s. Rates of stunted growth declined from 33.1% in 1990 to 4.5% in 2024. Chinese mental health services are inadequate. China's large population and dense cities have led to serious disease outbreaks, such as SARS in 2003. The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified in Wuhan.
Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism. Chinese culture, in turn, has heavily influenced East Asia and Southeast Asia. For much of the country's dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, promoting calligraphy, poetry and painting. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a revival.
Chinese literature has its roots in the Zhou dynasty. The classical texts of China encompass a wide range of thoughts and subjects. Among the most significant early works are the Four Books and Five Classics. These texts were the cornerstone of the Confucian curriculum sponsored by the state throughout the dynastic periods. Inherited from the Classic of Poetry, classical Chinese poetry developed over millennia. Chinese historiography began with the Shiji, part of the Twenty-Four Histories, which set a vast stage for Chinese fictions along with Chinese mythology and folklore. The Ming era saw a boom of Chinese classical fiction, as represented by the Four Great Classical Novels. Along with wuxia (martial arts) fictions, it remains an enduring source of popular culture in the Chinese sphere of influence.
Chinese literature was traditionally regarded as didactic in purpose, with fiction seen as less valuable than history. Modern Chinese literature has been heavily influenced by the political upheavals of the 19th and 20th centuries, seeking to explain the contemporary political climate or imagine its future. New Culture writers promoted the importance of fiction and vernacular Chinese experimented with new modernist forms, while writers of the Reform era sought to explain the trauma of the Cultural Revolution and the Mao era.
Chinese architecture has developed over millennia in China, influencing architecture across East Asia, and to a lesser extant, South and Southeast Asia. Chinese architecture is characterized by bilateral symmetry, use of enclosed open spaces, feng shui (e.g. directional hierarchies).
Chinese architecture varies widely based on status or affiliation, such as whether the structures were constructed for emperors, commoners, or for religious purposes. Other variations in Chinese architecture are shown in vernacular styles associated with different geographic regions and different ethnic heritages.
Chinese art is generally characterized by a high degree of continuity, underpinned by Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist philosophies, which emphasize a metaphysical connection to nature. This aesthetic is exemplified by Shan shui (mountain-water) ink wash painting and fine calligraphy, both regarded as elite art forms that utilize expressive brushwork. Simultaneously, China maintains an unparalleled legacy in material crafts, most notably pottery and ceramics. Progressing from painted Neolithic earthenware to the tri-color (sancai) lead-glazed tomb figurines of the Tang dynasty and the technically flawless porcelain, celadon, and blue-and-white wares of the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Chinese ceramic production set global standards for technological innovation and refined design.
Chinese music covers a highly diverse range of music from traditional music to modern music. Chinese music dates back before the pre-imperial times. Traditional Chinese musical instruments were traditionally grouped into eight categories known as bayin (八音). Traditional Chinese opera is a form of musical theatre in China originating thousands of years and has regional style forms such as Beijing and Cantonese opera. Chinese pop includes mandopop and cantopop. Chinese hip-hop has become popular.
Hanfu is the historical clothing of the Han people in China. The qipao or cheongsam is a popular Chinese female dress. The contemporary hanfu movement seeks to revitalize Hanfu clothing. China Fashion Week is the country's only national-level fashion festival.
Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety, in which the most influential are known as the "Eight Major Cuisines", including Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian, Hunan, Anhui, and Zhejiang cuisines. Chinese cuisine is known for its breadth of cooking methods and ingredients. Rice is a staple food in the south and northeast, while wheat products such as noodles are staples in the north. Soybean products such as tofu and soy milk are a popular source of protein. Pork is now the most popular meat in China, accounting for about 60% of the country's total meat consumption. Pork-free Chinese Islamic cuisine is served at halal-certified restaurants in various regions while vegetarian Buddhist cuisine is commonly found at restaurants near shrines and temples.
China has one of the oldest sporting cultures. There is evidence that archery was practiced during the Western Zhou dynasty. Swordplay and the ball game cuju originate in China's early dynasties, and many traditional sports retain popularity today. Physical fitness is culturally emphasized, with morning exercises such as qigong and tai chi widely practiced.
Basketball is the most popular spectator sport in China, represented by the Chinese Basketball Association. China's professional football league, known as Chinese Super League, is the largest football market in East Asia. Other popular sports include martial arts, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. China has the world's largest esports market. China has participated in the Olympic Games since 1932. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2022 Winter Olympics. and the Asian Games of 1990, 2010, and 2023.
The mass media of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. State media outlets operate under the control of the CCP. The CCP's Publicity Department acts as the main enforcer of media censorship and control in China. The largest media organizations are the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and the China Media Group. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.
Cinema was first introduced to China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun Mountain, was released in 1905. China has had the largest number of movie screens in the world since 2016; China became the largest cinema market in 2020, and domestic movies dominate the market. In 2025, the video game market of China was the world's largest by revenue.