China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. The East Asian state covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, and is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (SARs), Hong Kong and Macau. Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan, which is controlled by the Republic of China (a separate political entity), as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the Republic of China.
Population:
1,339,724,852 (
1st)
Area:
9,671,018
km² (
3rd) /
3,733,980
sq mi
* Intro text, area and population information from Wikipedia.com.