China

Prehistory

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.^[20] 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.^[21][22] These societies became increasingly complex, urbanized, and stratified,^[23] but many experienced a population collapse in the late 2000s BCE for unclear reasons.^[24]

Ancient China

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.^[25][26][27] 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.^[28] 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.^[29][30]

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.^[31] 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.^[32][33] 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.^[32][34]

Imperial China

Classical period

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.^[35][36] 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.^[37][38]

Following widespread revolts, the Han dynasty emerged to rule China between 206 BCE and 220 CE.^[j][39] The Han gradually reinstated centralized control, legitimizing their rule through Confucian scholarship.^[40][41] 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.^[40][42]

The Han faced widespread uprisings and the emergence of local warlords in the 100s CE.^[43] 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.^[44][45] These coalesced into the Northern and Southern dynasties in the 400s.^[46] During these conflicts, Buddhism was introduced to China via the Silk Road.^[47][48]

Medieval period

After centuries of warfare, China was reunited under the Sui in 589,^[49] who constructed the Grand Canal to link Northern and Southern China.^[50] 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.^[51] It reformed the civil service examinations and oversaw a flourishing of art, poetry, architecture, and scholarship.^[52][53][54] The 755–763 An Lushan rebellion weakened the Tang, which gradually fragmented before collapsing completely in 907.^[55][56]

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.^[57][58] The proliferation of printing technology allowed books to become widely available,^[59] while the elite class of scholar-officials grew increasingly powerful.^[60] Production, population, and trade expanded massively, alongside innovations such as industrial metallurgy and hydraulic machinery.^[61] 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.^[62]

Late imperial period

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.^[63][64] The Yuan maintained a Mongol elite culture, but Chinese culture remained largely unchanged.^[65]

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.^[66][67] 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.^[68] The population doubled, and a growing publishing industry began producing works in vernacular Chinese. including the Four Classic Novels.^[69]

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,^[70] killing their last claimant emperor in 1662 and conquering a Ming rump state on Taiwan in 1683.^[71] 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.^[72][73][74]

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,^[75][76] 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.^[77] China faced an economic crisis and internal unrest, and uprisings such as the 1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion resulted in the deaths of millions.^[78][79] 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.^[80]

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.^[81][82]

Republic of China

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.^[83][84]

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.^[85] The CCP was driven into the countryside and repressed, before regrouping in the northwest.^[86][87]

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.^[88][89][90] 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.^[91]

People's Republic of China

After a string of military victories, CCP chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan and continued to claim legitimacy.^[92] The following year, the PRC began to occupy and annex Tibet.^[93] 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.^[94][95][96]

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.^[97][98] 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.^[99][100]

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 dissidence in events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.^[101] 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.^[102] Since the 1990s, market forces has become China's main economic driver.^[103] 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.^[104]

Environment

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.^[113] According to government surveys, China's forest coverage grew from 10% of the overall territory in 1949 to 25% in 2024.^[114] 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.^[115]

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.^[116]

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.^[117] Total greenhouse gas emissions by China are the world's largest.^[117] The PRC has prioritized clamping down on pollution,^[118] announcing its aims to reach its peak emissions levels before 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.^[119]

China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy and its commercialization, investing CN¥3.6 trillion in 2022 alone.^[120] Traditionally reliant on non-renewable energy sources such as coal, China's adaptation of renewable energy has increased significantly in recent years.^[121] In 2025, 54.4% of China's electricity came from coal, while 42% came from clean energy sources.^[122] Despite its emphasis on renewables, China remains deeply connected to global oil markets.^[123][124]

Political geography

China is the second-largest country by land area after Russia, and the third- or fourth-largest by total area.^[k] Total area figures range from 9,572,900 km² (3,696,100 sq mi)^[13] to 9,596,961 km² (3,705,407 sq mi).^[4][7] 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).^[7]

The PRC has engaged in 23 border disputes since 1949, of which six are unsettled.^[125] 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.^[126]

Chinese Communist Party

Xi Jinping
CCP General Secretary and President

Li Qiang
Premier

Zhao Leji
Congress Chairman

Wang Huning
CPPCC Chairman

The CCP is the founding and sole ruling party of the PRC,^[147] organized to Leninist principles as a vanguard party.^[148] The party's highest body is its National Congress, which mainly consists of members elected by party membership^[m] 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.^[150][151]

The Politburo usually gathers once a month, while the smaller Politburo Standing Committee is thought to meet weekly.^[152] The general secretary holds ultimate power and authority over party and state and serves as the paramount leader of China.^[153] The current general secretary is Xi Jinping, who took office on 15 November 2012.^[154] The National Congress also elects the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's main disciplinary and anti-corruption organ.^[155]

As the CCP and the government itself are closely intertwined, disputes within the party represent the main form of political contention in China.^[156][157] The CCP controls appointments in government bodies, with most senior government officials being CCP members.^[156] The appointment of CCP cadres and the leadership of major state-owned enterprises and institutions is managed by the party's Organization Department.^[158] The CCP maintains committees on a national and local scale, with about 5.1 million committees at the grassroots level.^[150]

Administrative divisions

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.^[159]

Foreign relations

China is of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.^[160] It has diplomatic relations with 179 United Nations member-states and maintains embassies in 174, the largest diplomatic network of any country in the world.^[161] It is a member of intergovernmental organizations including the G20,^[162] BRICS,^[163] the East Asia Summit,^[164] and APEC.^[165] China is widely described as either a potential or established superpower,^{[166][167][168]} due to its influence in the fields of geopolitics, technology, manufacturing, economics and culture.^{[169][170][171]}

Chinese foreign policy is officially based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which emphasizes non-interventionism and encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences.^{[172][173]: 86} Per its policy of non-alignment, China maintains no military alliances with the exception of its defense treaty with North Korea.^[174] Most countries have switched recognition from the ROC to the PRC since the latter replaced the former in the UN in 1971.^[175] The PRC officially maintains the one China principle: the view that there is only one sovereign state with the name "China"—represented by the PRC—and that Taiwan is an integral part of China.^[176]

China's relations with Japan are marked by both deep economic ties as well as tensions over Taiwan and security.^[177][178] China has a close political, economic and military relationship with Russia,^{[179][180][181]} China's relationship with the United States is complex, and includes deep trade ties but significant political differences.^[182] China has close political and economic relations with African nations.^{[183][184][185]} It maintains extensive and highly diversified trade links with the European Union.^[186] China is increasing its influence in Central Asia^[187] and South Pacific.^[188] The country has strong trade ties with ASEAN countries^[189] and major South American economies,^[190][191] In 2013, China initiated the Belt and Road Initiative, a large global infrastructure initiative.^[192]

Military

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the main armed forces of China, under the direct control of the CCP.^[193] It consists of four services: the Ground Force, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Rocket Force. It also has four arms: the Aerospace Force, the Cyberspace Force, the Information Support Force, and the Joint Logistics Support Force.^[194] Its 2 million active duty personnel is the largest in the world. The PLA holds the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons,^[195] and the world's second-largest navy by tonnage.^[196]

The PLA is considered one of the world's most powerful militaries and has rapidly modernized in the recent decades.^[197] China's official military budget for 2025 totaled US$246 billion (1.78 trillion yuan), the second-largest in the world. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that its real 2025 expenditure was US$336 billion, 12% of global military spending and 1.7% of the country's GDP.^[198] The PLA, the People's Armed Police and the Militia are commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC). The chairman of the CMC is the commander-in-chief of the PLA, who maintains absolute control over the military per the chairman responsibility system.^[199]

Human rights

The situation of human rights in China has attracted significant criticism from Chinese dissidents and external observers, alleging widespread civil rights violations such as detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, restrictions of fundamental rights, and excessive use of the death penalty.^[200][201] Since its inception, Freedom House has ranked China as "not free" in its Freedom in the World survey,^[200] while Amnesty International has documented significant human rights abuses.^[201] Though the PRC constitution outlines the "fundamental rights" of citizens, these provisions do not afford significant protection against criminal prosecution by the state in practice.^{[202][203][204]} Censorship of political speech and information is amongst the harshest in the world and is routinely used to prevent collective action.^[205] The government suppresses popular protests and demonstrations that it considers a potential threat to "social stability".^[206] China uses a mass surveillance network as a means of social control.^[207]

China is regularly accused of large-scale repression and human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang,^{[208][209][210]} where significant numbers of ethnic minorities reside, including violent police crackdowns, religious persecution,^[211][212] and the use of internment camps to hold over one million members of ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs.^[213] These camps have been described some external observers described as a genocide or crimes against humanity,^{[214][215][216]} with allegations of political indoctrination, torture, physical and psychological abuse, forced sterilization, sexual abuse, and forced labor.^[217] Chinese authorities have also cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong, especially after the passage of a national security law in 2020.^[218]

In 2017 and 2020, the Pew Research Center ranked the severity of Chinese government restrictions on religion as being among the world's highest, despite ranking religious-related social hostilities in China as low in severity.^[219][220] China has limited protections regarding LGBTQ rights.^[221] The Global Slavery Index estimated that in 2016 more than 3.8 million people (0.25% of the population) were living in conditions of forced labor.^[222]

Science and technology

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has made significant investments in scientific research^[265] and is quickly catching up with the U.S. in R&D spending.^[266][267] China spent around 2.8% of its GDP on R&D in 2025, totaling to around CN¥3.92 trillion ($569 billion).^[268] China was ranked 10th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025,^[269][270] a considerable improvement from its rank of 35th in 2013.^[271][272] Chinese supercomputers are ranked among the fastest in the world.^[273][n] China is the world's largest industrial robotics producer and user in the world, accounting for 54% of the world's 2024 total demand,^[274] and 43% of global production.^[275] Its efforts to develop the most advanced semiconductors and jet engines have seen delays and setbacks.^[276][277] China is also considered a world leader in artificial intelligence.^[278][279]

The Chinese space program started in 1958 with some technology transfers from the Soviet Union. However, it did not launch the nation's first satellite until 1970 with the Dong Fang Hong 1, which made China the fifth country to do so independently,^[280] and in 2003 became the third country to independently send humans into space. As of 2023, eighteen Chinese nationals—taikonauts—have journeyed into space.^[281] The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has launched multiple unmaned lunar missions in the Chang'e program,^[282][283] and in 2021 landed a spacecraft (Tianwen-1) on Mars.^[284] The China Manned Space Agency completed its own modular space station, Tiangong, in 2022.^[285][286] China plans to land humans on the Moon by 2030.^[287]

Infrastructure

After a decades-long infrastructural boom,^[288] China has produced numerous world-leading infrastructural projects: it has the largest high-speed rail network,^[289] the most supertall skyscrapers,^[290] the largest power plant (the Three Gorges Dam),^[291] the most extensive ultra-high-voltage transmission network and innovation infrastructure,^[292][293] and a global satellite navigation system with the largest number of satellites.^[294]

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^[update]. It has the largest number of internet and broadband users, with over 1.125 billion Internet users as of December 2025^[update] — equivalent to around 80.1% of its population.^[295] Its Great Firewall serves as the world's most comprehensive Internet censorship system.^[296] This has helped develop domestic internet services and companies, protected from international competition.^[297]: 8 The Cyberspace Administration of China acts as the national internet regulator and censor.^[298]

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.^[299] In urban areas, bicycles remain a common mode of transport, despite increasing automobile prevalence – as of 2023^[update], there are approximately 200 million bicycles in China.^[300] As of 2023, 55 Chinese cities have urban mass transit systems in operation.^[301]

China's railways, operated by the state-owned China Railway, are among the busiest in the world.^[302] As of 2025^[update], the country had 165,000 km (102,526 mi) of railways, the second-longest network in the world.^[303] Air travel has expanded rapidly in the last decades,^[304] across approximately 259 airports.^[305] It has over 2,000 river and sea ports, about 130 of which are open to foreign shipping.^[306] Of the fifty busiest container ports, 18 are located in China. The busiest port in the world is the Port of Shanghai.^[307] China's inland waterways are the world's sixth-longest, totaling 27,700 km (17,212 mi).^[308]

Population policies

China maintains a system of household registration named hukou, which officially identifies a person as a permanent resident of an area and includes identifying information. A person's access to social programs is tied to their hukou status, though restrictions on accessing such programs have been increasingly loosened in the last decades.^[314][315]

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.^[316] 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.^[311] In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy.^[311] A three-child policy was announced in May 2021, due to population aging,^[317] and in July 2021, all family size limits as well as penalties for exceeding them were removed.^[318]

The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may have contributed to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.^[319][320] The 2020 census found that males accounted for 51.2% of the total population.^[321] However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.8% of the population.^[322] China maintains a restrictive immigration policy, with permanent residence granted to only around 12,000 foreigners as of 2023.^[323]

Cities and urbanization

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.^{[324][325][326]} According to the United Nations, the country's urbanization rate is 83.7%, having peaked in absolute numbers in 2021.^[327] China has over 160 cities with a population of over one million,^[328] including 18 megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million).^{[329][330][331]} Shanghai is China's most populous urban area^[332] while Chongqing is its largest city proper, the only city in China with a permanent population of over 30 million.^[333] The cities of the Pearl River Delta form the world's largest urban area, at 86 million residents.^[334] 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;^[335] the figures below include only long-term residents.

Languages and ethnic groups

China legally recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups. The largest of these are the Han Chinese, who constitute more than 91% of the total population.^[309] The Han – the world's largest ethnic group^[339] – outnumber other ethnicities in most of the country.^{[340][341][342]} Compared with the 2010, the Han population increased by 4.93%, while the combined population of national minorities increased 10.26%.^[309] The 2020 census recorded a total of 845,697 foreign nationals living in mainland China.^[343]

There are as many as 284 living languages in China.^[344] 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,^[345][346] and other varieties of Chinese language.^[347] 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.^[348] Korean is spoken along the border with North Korea.^[349] Taiwanese indigenous peoples traditionally speak Austronesian languages.^{[350][failed verification]}

Standard Chinese, a variety based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, is the national language of China and holds official status.^[351] It is used as a lingua franca between people of different linguistic backgrounds.^[352] In the autonomous regions, other languages may also serve this role, such as Uyghur in Xinjiang.^[353]

Religion

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution.^[358] The government of the country is officially atheist, and the CCP requires its members to be atheist.^[359] Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the National Religious Affairs Administration, under the CCP's United Front Work Department.^[360]

Over the millennia, the Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious movements. The "three doctrines" of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism have historically shaped Chinese culture,^[361][362] enriching a theological and spiritual framework of traditional religion which harks back to the early Shang and Zhou dynasty. Chinese folk religion, which is framed by the three doctrines and by other traditions,^[363] consists in allegiance to the shen, who can be deities of the surrounding nature or ancestral principles of human groups, concepts of civility, culture heroes, many of whom feature in Chinese mythology and history.^[364] In the early decades of the 21st century, the Chinese government rehabilitated folk cults, formally recognizing them as "folk beliefs" as opposed to religions,^[365] and often reconstructing them into forms of "highly curated" civil religion.^[366]

Statistics on religious affiliation in China are difficult to gather due to complex and varying definitions of religion and the diffusive nature of Chinese religious traditions.^[361] In 2023, according to surveys done by Pew Research Center, 93% of respondents were formally unaffiliated with any religion. However, many participate in various religious practices and ceremonies, often from multiple different faiths.^[367] A variety of organized salvationist movements have emerged since the Song period.^[368] There are also ethnic minorities in China who maintain their own indigenous religions, while major religions characteristic of specific ethnic groups include Tibetan Buddhism^[369] and Islam.^[370]

Education

Compulsory education in China comprises primary and junior secondary school, together lasting from ages 6 to 15.^[373] The gaokao, China's national university entrance exam, is a prerequisite for entrance into most higher education institutions. Vocational education is available to students at the secondary and tertiary level.^[374] In 2024, about 92% of students continued their education at a three-year senior secondary school, while 60.8% of senior secondary school graduates enrolled in higher education.^[375]

China has the largest education system in the world,^[376] with about 287 million students and 18.85 million full-time teachers in over 470,300 schools in 2024.^[375] Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003^[377] to more than US$960 billion in 2020.^[378] China's literacy rate has grown dramatically, from only 20% in 1949 and 65.5% in 1979,^[379] to 97% of the population over the age of 15 in 2020.^[380]

As of 2024^[update], China has over 3,167 universities, with over 47.6 million students enrolled in mainland China, giving China the largest higher education system in the world.^[381][382] As of 2025^[update], China had the world's highest number of universities.^[383] Its academic publication apparatus became the world's largest publisher of scientific papers in 2016.^[384]

Health

The National Health Commission, together with its counterparts in the local commissions, oversees the health needs of the population.^[385] 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.^[386] China is a major producer and exporter of pharmaceuticals.^[387]

As of the mid-2020s, the life expectancy at birth exceeds 79 years,^[388] and the infant mortality rate is 4 per 1,000.^[389] Both have improved significantly since the 1950s.^[o] Rates of stunted growth declined from 33.1% in 1990 to 4.5% in 2024.^[392][393] Chinese mental health services are inadequate.^[394] China's large population and dense cities have led to serious disease outbreaks, such as SARS in 2003.^[395] The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified in Wuhan.^[396][397]

Literature

Chinese literature has its roots in the Zhou dynasty.^[403] The classical texts of China encompass a wide range of thoughts and subjects.^[404] 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.^[405] The Ming era saw a boom of Chinese classical fiction, as represented by the Four Great Classical Novels.^[406] Along with wuxia (martial arts) fictions,^[407] it remains an enduring source of popular culture in the Chinese sphere of influence.^[408]

Architecture

Chinese architecture has developed over millennia in China, influencing architecture across East Asia,^{[409][410][411]} and to a lesser extant, South and Southeast Asia.^[412][413] Chinese architecture is characterized by bilateral symmetry, use of enclosed open spaces, feng shui (e.g. directional hierarchies).^[414]

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.^[415]

In the wake of the New Culture Movement after the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese literature embarked on a new era with written vernacular Chinese for ordinary citizens.^[416] Various literary genres, such as misty poetry, scar literature, young adult fiction and xungen literature emerged after the Cultural Revolution.^[417]

Art

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.^[418] 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.^[419]

Music

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.^[420] Chinese pop includes mandopop and cantopop. Chinese hip-hop has become popular.^[421]

Fashion

Hanfu is the historical clothing of the Han people in China. The qipao or cheongsam is a popular Chinese female dress.^[422] The contemporary hanfu movement seeks to revitalize Hanfu clothing.^[423] China Fashion Week is the country's only national-level fashion festival.^[424]

Cuisine

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.^[425] Chinese cuisine is known for its breadth of cooking methods and ingredients.^[426] 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.^[427] Pork-free Chinese Islamic cuisine is served at halal-certified restaurants in various regions^[428] while vegetarian Buddhist cuisine is commonly found at restaurants near shrines and temples.^[429][430]

Sports

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,^[431][432] and many traditional sports retain popularity today. Physical fitness is culturally emphasized, with morning exercises such as qigong and tai chi widely practiced.^[433]

Basketball is the most popular spectator sport in China, represented by the Chinese Basketball Association.^[434] China's professional football league, known as Chinese Super League, is the largest football market in East Asia.^[435] Other popular sports include martial arts, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker.^[436] China has the world's largest esports market.^[437] China has participated in the Olympic Games since 1932. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics,^[438] the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[439] and the Asian Games of 1990, 2010, and 2023.^[440]

Media

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.^[152] The largest media organizations are the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and the China Media Group.^[441] Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.^[442]

Cinema was first introduced to China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun Mountain, was released in 1905.^[443] China has had the largest number of movie screens in the world since 2016;^[444] China became the largest cinema market in 2020,^[445][446] and domestic movies dominate the market.^[447] In 2025, the video game market of China was the world's largest by revenue.^[448]