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( People's Republic of China)
b. ^&_160; The role of the government, China, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved on 21-02-2007. The People's Republic of China (simplified Chinese ???????; traditional Chinese ???????; pinyin Zhonghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó listen&_160;(help·info)), commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population. It is a socialist republic ruled by the Communist Party of China under a single-party system and has jurisdiction over twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions. The capital of the PRC is Beijing. At 9.6&_160;million square kilometres, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the world's third or fourth largest country by area.[3] It has a diverse landscape; in the north, near the PRC's borders with Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, the Gobi Desert and forest steppes dominate the dry expanse while lush subtropical forests grow along its southern borders with Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. The terrain in the west is rugged and high altitude, with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming the PRC's natural borders with India and Central Asia. In contrast, the PRC's eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-kilometre long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea beyond which lies Korea and Japan. Ancient Chinese civilization&_160;– one of the world's earliest&_160;– flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River which flows through the North China Plain. For 4,000 years, China was ruled by hereditary monarchs or dynasties beginning with the Xia until the Qing, which finally ended in 1911 with the founding of the Republic of China (ROC). The first half of the 20th century saw China plunged into a period of disunity and civil wars that divided the country into two main political camps&_160;– the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China. Major hostilities ended in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was established in mainland China by the victorious Communists. The Nationalist led Republic of China government retreated to Taipei, its jurisdiction limited to Taiwan. Even today, the PRC is still involved in potentially bloody disputes with the ROC over issues of sovereignty and the political status of Taiwan.
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