China(The People’s Republic of

China)

• The color red represents revolution• The stars symbolize the four social classes

1. the working class, 2. the peasantry, 3. the urban lower middle class4. the national upper middle class (capitalists)

• All united under the Communist Party of China.

The Chinese flag is red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars in the upper left-side corner.

•Capital City is Beijing

• Rice has been grown in southern China for 7,000 years.

• Early Chinese became famous for weaving silk from silkworm cocoons.

• Early cultures developed along rivers.

• Around 2000B.C. Huang (Yellow) river valley was site of one of the earliest cultures in China.

Early History

Qin (Ch’in) Dynasty

• The Qin Dynasty began the Great Wall of China around 500 B.C.

• Dynasty is ruling family that passes power from generation to generation

• The Qin (also known as Ch’in) began to use a writing system.

• The name “China” comes from this dynasty.

Han Dynasty

• The Han Dynasty continued the Great Wall and protected the Silk Road

• They also invented the compass, paper, and porcelain.

• Silk Road was a route used by trading caravans to take Chinese goods to lands west of China

Later Dynasties• In the 1200’s, Genghis Khan and the Mongols

took over China• In about 100 years, the Ming Dynasty took over.

They ran the Mongols out and built up the Great Wall to keep outsiders out of China.

• In the 1600’s, the Manchu took over China. Their dynasty was called the Qing (Ching) Dynasty.

• During the Qing dynasty, Europeans began to increase trade with China and began to influence China. The Manchu ruled until the 1900’s.

The Republics of China

• In 1912, Sun Yat-sen led a revolution and forced the last Manchu emperor to abdicate.

• This created the first Republic of China.• After Sun Yat-sen died, two groups fought

for power—the Nationalists and the Communists.

• Chiang Kai-shek led the Nationalists and Mao Zedong led the Communists.

• Finally, the Communists won and Maoism (Mao Zedong’s version of Communism) took hold in China.

• This was when the country changed its name to the People’s Republic of China.

• Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists moved to Taiwan (island off east coast of China) and set up The Republic of China on this island.

• There is still disagreement between China and Taiwan over control of the island.

Government

• Executive branch– Premier Wen Jiabao (head of government)– President is Hu Jintao (chief of state)– Leaders of Executive Branch are elected by

the United People’s Congress

•China is a communist state.

•Basically only one political party—the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)

• Judicial branch– Judges appointed by People’s Congress– Decisions are based on People’s Congress

beliefs

•Legislative branch

•National People’s Congress

•Unicameral

•Members elected by smaller “congresses” from cities, towns, regions, and military.

Religion and Ethic Groups

• China is officially an atheistic country. • Atheistic means the government’s official

position is that there is no supreme being, or god.

• There are followers of: Buddhism, Christianity (3-4%), Islam (1-2%), Daoism (Taoism).

• Daoists (or Taoists) follow a philosophy that concentrates on understanding nature, increasing life expectancy, and living in harmony with nature.

• Ethnic groups in China include– Han Chinese

91.5%– Others 8.5%

(include Manchu, Korean, Tibetan, Mongol, Zhuang, etc.)

Language

•Standard Chinese, or Mandarin, is official language

•Other languages include Cantonese (Yue), Shanghainese (Wu), and Hokkien-Taiwanese (Minnan).

Economy• China is moving from a centrally planned

system to a more market oriented system. • In China, all decisions on what was grown,

made, sold were made by the Chinese government. No real market economy existed.

• In the 1970’s the country began to move towards a system with more market ideas. However, the government still keeps a close control over the economy.

• Major Industry– Mining and ore

processing– Machine building– Armaments– Textiles and

apparel– Consumer products

(toys, electronics, etc)

– Petroleum

• Natural Resources– coal, iron ore,

petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydroelectric potential (world's largest)

Geography & Climate• Geography

– mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; – plains, deltas, and hills in east– Gobi Desert—coldest desert in world– Himalayan Mts.—Mt, Everest, tallest mountain in

world (29,035 ft)

• Climate– extremely diverse; – tropical in south to subarctic in north

Environmental Issues

• Air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal produces acid rain

• Water pollution from untreated wastes • Estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural

land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development

• Desertification• Trade in endangered species

• Literacy Rate– Total 91.6%– Male 95.7%– Female 87.6%

• Life Expectancy– Total 74.5– Male 72.5– Female 76.5

• GDP– $6,700 per capita

• Population– 1,330,141,295

– Highest population in the world

• Below Poverty Level– 2.8%