China (Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dynasties. Written script, classic literature, and the Hundred Schools of Thought emerged during this period and influenced the region and beyond for centuries to come. In the third century BCE, Qin Shi Huang founded the first Chinese empire, the Qin dynasty. Short-lived, the Qin was followed by the more stable Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Together they laid the foundation for a political tradition of nearly two millennia in which the Chinese empire was one of the world's foremost economic powers. The empire expanded, fractured, and reunified; was conquered and reestablished; absorbed foreign religions and ideas; and made world-leading scientific advances, such as the Four Great Inventions: gunpowder, paper, the compass, and printing. After centuries of disunity following the fall of the Han, the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties reunified the empire. The multi-ethnic Tang welcomed foreign trade and culture that came over the Silk Road and adapted Buddhism to Chinese needs. The early modern Song dynasty (960–1279) became increasingly urban and commercial. The civilian scholar-officials or literati adopted the examination system and the doctrines of Neo-Confucianism to replace the military aristocrats of earlier dynasties. The Mongol established the Yuan dynasty in 1279 before the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) re-established Han Chinese control. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty nearly doubled the empire's territory and established a multi-ethnic state that was the basis of the modern Chinese nation, although subsequently suffered heavy losses to foreign imperialism in the 19th century.

The Chinese monarchy collapsed in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, when the Republic of China (ROC) replaced the imperial ruling of Qing. In its early years as a republic, the country underwent a period of instability known as the Warlord Era before mostly reunifying in 1928 under a Nationalist government. A civil war between the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began in 1927. Japan invaded China in 1937, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War, halting the civil war. The surrender and expulsion of Japanese forces in 1945 left a power vacuum in the country, which led to renewed fighting between the CCP and the KMT. The civil war is considered to have ended in with a division in 1949 when the CCP established the People's Republic of China on the mainland while the Kuomintang-led ROC government retreated to the islands of Taiwan. With them both claiming to be the sole legitimate government of China, the United Nations has recognized the PRC as the sole representation since 1971. From 1959 to 1961, the PRC implemented an economic and social campaign called the "Great Leap Forward" that resulted in a sharp economic decline and an estimated 15 to 55 million deaths, mostly through human-made famine. From 1966 to 1976, the turbulent period of political and social chaos within China known as the Cultural Revolution led to greater economic and educational decline, with millions being purged or subjected to either persecution or "politicide" based on political categories. Since then, the Chinese government has rebuked some of the earlier Maoist policies, conducting a series of political and economic reforms since 1978 that have greatly raised Chinese standards of living, and increased life expectancies.

China is currently governed as a unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state by the CCP. China ranks poorly in measures of democracy, transparency, press freedom, religious freedom, and ethnic equality. The Chinese authorities have been criticized by human rights activists and non-governmental organizations for human rights abuses, including mass censorship, mass surveillance, and suppression of dissent. China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a founding member of several multilateral and regional cooperation organizations such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, the New Development Bank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and the RCEP. It is also a member of the BRICS, the G8+5, the G20, the APEC, and the East Asia Summit. Making up around one-fifth of the world economy, China is the world's largest economy by GDP at purchasing power parity, the second-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the second-wealthiest country. The country is one of the fastest-growing major economies and is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. China is a recognized nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defense budget.