General information
Official name – People’s Republic of China.
Territory - 9,59 million km2 (3rd place after Russian Federation and Canada). Borders with 14 countries. The length of the land border is 22.8 thousand km. The continental part is washed by the waters of the Yellow, East China and South China Seas, the coastline is more than 18 thousand km. The largest islands are Taiwan, Hainan.
Administrative divisions - 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Tibetan, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi Zhuang, Ningxia Hui autonomous regions), 4 cities of central subordination (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing) and 2 special administrative regions (Xianggang and Aomen).
The capital - Beijing (since September 27, 1949, the population is 21.89 million people).
Population - 1.41 billion people (excluding Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan). The population of Hong Kong SAR is 7.33 million people, Macau SAR - 683.2 thousand people and Taiwan - 23.3 million people.
There are 56 nationalities living in the PRC. Han Chinese make up 91.11% of the population. The main 18 national minorities, numbering more than 1 million people are Zhuans, Dungans, Manchus, Uyghurs, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetans, Mongols, Duns, Bui, Yao, Bai, Koreans, Hani, Li, Kazakhs and Dais.
Religion - China is a secular state where 4 main religions are recognized and supported: Buddhism (Chinese, Tibetan and Pali Buddhism), Taoism, Islam (Sunnism) and Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism).
National holidays - Chinese New Year (1st day of the lunar calendar), National day of the People’s Republic of China.
State language – Mandarin Chinese ("putonghua" dialect is a normative national language) is one of the six official languages of the UN.
Currency - the Chinese yuan (RMB).
State structure
China is "a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class (through the CCP) and based on an alliance of workers and peasants." The form of government is a one-party parliamentary republic.
The state bodies of the PRC include the National People's Congress (NPC) and local people's congresses of various levels, the Chairman of the PRC, the State Council and local people's governments of various levels, the Central Military Commission (CMC), state judicial organs and state organs for legal supervision.
Head of State - Xi Jinping is a Chairman of the People's Republic of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (since March 2013), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the CPC (since November 2012). Re-elected to the post of Chairman of the PRC and CMC of the PRC in March 2018 and 2023, as well as to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the CPC in October 2017 and 2022.
Legislative power - the National People's Congress (NPC). Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee - Zhao Leji (since March 2023).
Executive power belongs to the State Council. Premier of the State Council - Li Qiang (since March 2023).
The State Council of the People's Republic of China has 4 Vice Primers (since March 2023): Ding Xuexiang, He Lifeng, Zhang Guoqing, Liu Guozhong.
Political parties
There are 8 political parties in China. The leading and ruling party is the Communist Party of China (CPC), formed on July 1, 1921 and is the largest party in the world (as of June 2022, there are 96.71 million party members).
The highest governing bodies of the party are the National Congress of the CPC (held once every 5 years) and the Central Committee of the CPC (plenum of the Central Committee of the CPC is convened at least 1 times a year).