I INTRODUCTION  
China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s third largest country by area (after Russia and Canada) and the largest by population. Officially the People’s Republic of China, it is bounded on the north by the Republic of Mongolia and Russia; on the northeast by Russia and North Korea; on the east by the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea; on the south by the South China Sea, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), India, Bhutan, and Nepal; on the west by Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; and on the northwest by Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. China includes more than 3400 offshore islands. The total area of China is 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi), not including Hong Kong, Macau, and land under the control of the Republic of China on Taiwan, which mainland China considers a renegade province. In 1971 the United Nations (UN) admitted the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) and expelled the Republic of China (hereafter Taiwan) from its membership. Although most world governments do not recognize Taiwan, the island maintains a distinct government and economy. Information in this article, unless otherwise indicated, refers only to mainland China. Hong Kong, formerly a British territory, reverted to China in 1997. Unless otherwise specified, the statistics in this article do not include Hong Kong, which maintains a separate economy and has considerable political autonomy. The statistics also do not include Macau, located near Hong Kong on China’s southern coast, which is a Chinese territory administered by Portugal. Macau is scheduled to return to Chinese administration in 1999. The capital of China is Beijing; the country’s most populous urban center is Shanghai.

More than one-fifth of the world’s total population lives within China’s borders. China gave birth to one of the world’s earliest civilizations and has a recorded history that dates from some 3500 years ago. Zhongguo, the Chinese name for the country, means "central land," a reference to the Chinese belief that their country was the geographical center of the earth and the only true civilization. By the 19th century China had become a politically and economically weak nation, dominated by foreign powers.

China underwent many changes in the first half of the 20th century. The imperial government was overthrown and in the chaotic years that followed, two groups—the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communists—struggled for control of the country. In 1949 the Communists won control of China. The government of the Republic of China, led by the KMT, fled to Taiwan.

The accession of the Communist government in 1949 stands as one of the most important events in Chinese history; in a remarkably short period of time radical changes were effected in both the Chinese economy and society. Since the 1970s China has cast off its self-imposed isolation from the international community and has sought to modernize its economic structure.

II LAND AND RESOURCES  
China encompasses a great diversity of landscapes and a corresponding variety of natural resources. Generally speaking, China’s higher elevations are found in the west, where some of the world’s highest mountain ranges are located. Three of these, the Tien Shan, Kunlun Mountains, and Qin Ling, date from an episode of Paleozoic mountain building (orogeny) that began late in the Carboniferous period and ended in the Permian period, when all of the world’s landmasses had drawn together to form a single supercontinent, Pangaea (see Geology: The Geologic Time Scale). A fourth, the Himalayas, is of more recent origin. It formed when sediments that had been deposited in a Mesozoic sea, the Tethys, were squeezed together and lifted up by the collision of India with Eurasia, an event that began during the Oligocene epoch of the Tertiary period, some 40 million years ago. In the present or Recent epoch of the Quaternary period, tectonic activity has taken the form of devastating earthquakes that tend to occur in a broad arc extending from the western edge of the Sichuan Basin northeast toward Bo Hai, the gulf on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea.

The country’s numerous mountain ranges enclose a series of plateaus and basins and furnish a notable wealth of water and mineral resources. A broad range of climatic types, from the subarctic to tropical, and including large areas of alpine and desert habitats, supports a magnificent array of plant and animal life.

A Physiographic Regions  China may be divided into six major geographic regions, each of which contains considerable geomorphological and topographic diversity.

A1 The Northwest  This region consists of two basins—the Junggar Pendi (Dzungarian Basin) on the north and the Tarim Pendi (Tarim Basin) on the south—and the lofty Tien Shan. The Tarim Pendi contains the vast sandy Takla Makan (Taklimakan Shamo), the driest desert in Asia. Dune ridges in its interior rise to elevations of about 100 m (about 330 ft). The Turpan Pendi (Turfan Depression), the largest area in China with elevations below sea level, commands the southern entrance of a major pass through the Tien Shan. The Junggar Pendi, although containing areas of sandy and stony desert, is primarily a region of fertile steppe soils and supports irrigated agriculture.

A2 The Mongolian Steppe  Located in north central China, this is a plateau region consisting mainly of sandy, stony, or gravelly deserts that grade eastward into steppe lands with fertile soils. This is a region of flat-to-rolling plains, partitioned by several barren flat-topped mountain ranges. Along its eastern border is the higher, forested Da Hinggan Ling (Greater Khingan Range).

A3 The Northeast  
Comprising all of Manchuria east of the Da Hinggan Ling, the Northeast region incorporates the Manchurian Plain (Dongbei Pingyuan) and its bordering uplands. The plain has extensive tracts of productive soils. The uplands are hilly to mountainous, with numerous broad valleys and gentle slopes. The Liaodong Peninsula, extending to the south, is noteworthy for its good natural harbors.

A4 North China  This region lies between the Mongolian Steppe on the north and the Yangtze River Basin on the south and consists of several distinct topographic units. The Huangtu Plateau on the northwest is formed by the accumulation of fine windblown silt (loess). The loosely packed loess is readily subject to erosion, and the plateau’s surface is transected by sunken roads, vertical-walled valleys, and numerous gullies. The region is extensively terraced and cultivated. The Huabei Pingyuan (North China Plain), the largest flat lowland area in China, consists of fertile soils derived from loess. Most of the plain is under intense cultivation. Located to the east, the Shandong Plateau on the Shandong Peninsula consists of two distinct areas of mountains flanked by rolling hills. The rocky coast of the peninsula provides some good natural harbors. To the southwest are several mountain ranges which constitute a formidable barrier to northern-southern movement.

A5 South China  
This region embraces the Yangtze Valley and the topographically diverse regions to the south. The Yangtze Valley consists of a series of basins with fertile alluvial soils. These lowlands are crisscrossed with waterways, both natural and artificial, and dotted with lakes. The Sichuan Basin, located to the west, is enclosed by rugged spurs of several mountain ranges and consititutes a relatively isolated area of hilly terrain. The area is known for its intensive terraced farming. The highlands of South China extend from the Tibetan Plateau (Qing Zang Gaoyuan) east to the sea. In the west the deeply eroded Yunnan (Yungui) Plateau is bordered by a series of mountain ranges separated by deep, steep-walled gorges. One of the world’s most scenic landscapes is found in eastern Guizhou, where the terrain is dominated by tall limestone pinnacles and pillarlike peaks. To the east are the largely deforested and severely eroded Nan Ling hills, and along the coast are the rugged Southeastern Highlands, where bays with numerous offshore islands provide good natural harbors. Lying south of the Nan Ling hills is the Xi Jiang Basin, predominantly a hilly area with infertile soils; the numerous streams of this region, however, are bordered by fertile, flat-floored alluvial valleys. The broad delta plain of the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) is sometimes called the Canton delta.

A6 The Tibetan Plateau  Occupying the remote southwestern extremity of China is the high, mountain-rimmed Tibetan Plateau (Qing Zang Gaoyuan); the world’s highest plateau region, it has an average elevation of about 4510 m (about 14,800 ft) above sea level. Bordering ranges include the Himalayas on the south, the Pamirs and Karakorum Range on the west, and the Qilian and Kunlun mountains on the north. Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world at 8848 m (29,028 ft) rises in the Himalayas on the border of Nepal and Tibet. The surface of the plateau is dotted with salt lakes and marshes, is crossed by several mountain ranges, and also contains the headwaters of many major southern and eastern Asian rivers, including those of the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze (Chang Jiang), and Huang He (Yellow River). The landscape is bleak, barren, and rock strewn.

B Rivers and Lakes  
All the major river systems of China, including the three longest—the Yangtze, Huang He, and Xi Jiang—flow in a generally western to eastern direction to the Pacific Ocean. In all, about 50 percent of the total land area drains to the Pacific. Only about 10 percent of the country’s area drains to the Indian and Arctic oceans. The remaining 40 percent has no outlet to the sea and drains to the arid basins of the west and north, where the streams evaporate or percolate to form deep underground water reserves; principal among these streams is the Tarim.

C Climate  The climates of China are similar, in their range and distribution, to those of the continental United States; temperate climates prevail, with desert and semiarid regions in the western interior and a small area of tropical climate in the extreme southeast. China’s climates, however, tend to be more continental and thus more extreme, and regional contrasts are generally greater.

D Plant Life  As a result of the wide range of climates and topography, China is rich in plant species. Most of the original vegetation has been removed, however, during centuries of settlement and intensive cultivation. Natural forests are generally preserved only in the more remote mountain areas.

E Animal Life  The diverse habitats in China support a wide range of fauna, from arctic species in Manchuria to many tropical species in southern China. Some species, extinct elsewhere, survive in China. Among these are the great paddlefish of the Yangtze River, species of alligator and salamander, the giant panda (found only in southwestern China), and the Chinese water deer (found only in China and Korea).

F Mineral Resources  Because of its geologic diversity, China possesses an extremely wide array of mineral resources. The only minerals in which the country appears to be deficient are vanadium, chrome, and cobalt. Mineral deposits are distributed widely throughout the country; the principal mining regions are southern Manchuria, especially the Liaodong Peninsula, and the uplands of South China. Only in the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high mountains have significant mineral deposits not yet been discovered.

G Environmental Protection  The Chinese constitution of 1978 was the first to provide for some measure of environmental protection in a country that hitherto had held an uncompromising dedication to increased national productivity. An Environmental Protection Office established under the State Council, although endowed with no regulatory powers, coordinates solutions for environmental problems. A National Institute of Environmental Protection monitors the use of chemicals, herbicides, and insecticides. The main thrust of environmental protection, however, has been in afforestation, (the heavy use of coal as a fuel produces acid rain that is damaging forests), erosion control (an estimated one-third of agricultural land has been lost since 1957 to erosion and economic development), and water conservancy (less than 10 percent of sewage receives treatment). Large-scale multipurpose water conservation projects are planned for all the country’s major river systems. An important component of environmental protection in China is terracing. Combined with tree planting and the construction of small reservoir ponds, terracing, a method of cultivation which has been practiced successfully for centuries, provides significant erosion control and is a major local water-conservation measure.

III POPULATION  
The Chinese population is approximately 92 percent ethnic Han Chinese. The 8 percent minority population is settled over nearly 60 percent of China’s area. This gives the non-Han peoples of China a significance that looms larger than their percentage of the population might suggest.

A Ethnic Groups  More than 70 million people belong to 55 national minorities. Most of these groups are distinguished from the Chinese by language or religion rather than by racial characteristics. The principal minorities are the Tai-speaking Zhuang, numbering about 15.5 million, largely in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; the Hui, or Chinese Muslims, about 8.6 million, in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Gansu, and Qinghai; the aboriginal Miao, about 7.4 million, in Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan; the Turkic-speaking Uygur, about 7.2 million, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; the aboriginal (but largely assimilated) Yi, about 6.6 million, in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi; the Mongols, about 4.8 million, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; and the Tibetans, about 4.6 million, in the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan. Other groups include Tujia (5.7 million), Bouyei (2.5 million), Koreans (1.9 million), and Manchus. The Manchus are descendants of the people who conquered China in the 17th century and established the Qing, or Manchu, dynasty. Numbering 9.8 million, they are almost indistinguishable from the Han Chinese.

B Population Characteristics  
The first national census since the Communist takeover was compiled in 1953, in an effort to assess the human resources available for the first five-year plan. At that time, the population of China was found to be 582,600,000. A second census, taken in 1964, showed an increase to 694,580,000; the third, in 1982, revealed a population (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) of 1,008,180,000, making China the first nation ever to pass the billion mark. Between 1953 and 1997, the death rate dropped from 22.5 to an estimated 7.0 per 1000 population; the birthrate declined from about 45 per 1000 in 1953 to an estimated 16.4 in 1997. As a result, the net natural increase declined from about 22.5 per 1000 in 1953 to 0.9 per 1000 in 1997. Nevertheless, at that rate China would still show an annual population growth of 11 million.

C Principal Cities  
China’s earliest cities evolved in the 15th century BC under the Shang dynasty. Cities were long important to the ceremonial (administrative and quasi-religious) functions and material support of the Chinese court and also were important marketplaces. In the 20th century, and especially since the 1950s, Chinese cities have gained great importance as industrially productive centers. The cities have, however, retained a ceremonial significance under the Communist government.

According to 1991 estimates, China has 40 cities with populations exceeding 1 million. China’s largest cities include Shanghai (population, 1993 estimate, 9,480,000), the country’s largest city and a major port; Beijing (7,000,000), the capital and cultural center of China; Tianjin (5,770,000), a port city at the juncture of the Hai River and the Grand Canal; Shenyang (4,540,000); Wuhan (3,750,000), a port city at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers, and Guangzhou (3,580,000), a port city on the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River). All of these cities have developed large industrial bases.

D Language  The Chinese have had a written language for more than 3000 years. Although the Chinese language comprises more than a dozen major spoken dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible, all writing is done with the same script, or characters. This literary unity has been significant to the historical unity of the Chinese people since the Shang dynasty (1766?-1027? BC).

One of the most ambitious efforts of the Chinese Communist government since 1949 has been the modification of the Chinese language. China’s official spoken language is Putonghua ("standard speech"); it is sometimes known to Westerners as Mandarin and is the dialect of North China. This dialect was declared the common language at the National Conference on Reform of the Chinese Written Language in 1955. Major efforts have also been directed toward modifying the written language. The use of simplified characters—traditional characters written with fewer strokes, or in a type of shorthand—has steadily increased. This has been done to facilitate the government’s goal of broader literacy.

E Religion  
One of the early acts of the Chinese Communist Party after it gained control in 1949 was to officially eliminate organized religion. Previously the dominant religions in China had been Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism), and Buddhism. Because of the quasi-secular nature of Confucianism, and because most Chinese were affected by all three major faiths and thus lacked strong allegiance to a single religion, the population offered little resistance to the party’s move.

IV EDUCATION AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY  
China has a long and rich cultural tradition in which education has played a major role. Throughout the imperial period (221 BC- AD 1912), only the educated held positions of social and political leadership. In 124 BC the first university was established for training prospective bureaucrats in Confucian learning and the Chinese classics. Historically, however, few Chinese have been able to take the time to learn the complex language and its associated literature. It is estimated that as late as 1949 only 20 percent of China’s population was literate. To the Chinese Communists, this illiteracy was a stumbling block for the country’s development as a Communist state. Therefore, they combined educational development with Communist ideology. The literacy rate in 1995 was an estimated 81.5 percent.

A Education  One of the most ambitious programs of the Communist Party has been the establishment of universal public education for such a large population. In the first two years of the new government (1949-1951) more than 60 million peasants enrolled in "winter schools," or sessions, established to take advantage of the slack season for agricultural workers. Mao declared that a dominant goal of education was to reduce the sense of class distinction. This was to be accomplished by reducing the social gaps between manual and mental labor; between the city and countryside resident; and between the worker in the factory and the peasant on the land.

The most radical developments in education in China, however, took place between 1966 and 1978. During the Cultural Revolution, virtually all classrooms in China were closed from 1966 to 1969. The 131 million youths who had been enrolled in primary and secondary school remained out of school; many became involved in Mao’s efforts to shake up the new elite of China by the presence of youthful critics reviewing governmental programs and policies. Primary and secondary schools began to reopen in 1968 and 1969, but all institutions of higher education remained closed until the 1970 to 1972 period.

B Cultural Life  
The educational goals of the Chinese Communist government have been promoted by means other than formal education. During the 1960s and 1970s, plays, opera, popular literature, and music were seen to have the capacity to educate. For example, in 1964 the Festival of Peking Opera in Contemporary Themes was organized by Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife. New works combining drama and ideology, such as Taking of Tiger Mountain by Strategy, were written for the opera. Similar cultural modifications were introduced into Chinese ballet; elements of traditional folk dance, martial arts, gymnastics, and classical ballet were integrated into a popular production. These shows were performed not only in the major cities but also in the smaller cities and the countryside.

C Cultural Institutions  
Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou play leading cultural roles in China; most of the renowned museums, theaters, and cultural displays are in these cities.

V ECONOMY  
For more than 2000 years the Chinese economy operated under a type of feudal system; land was concentrated in the hands of a relatively small group of landowners whose livelihood depended on rents from their peasant tenants. Further adding to the peasant farmers’ burden were agricultural taxes levied by the imperial government and crop yields subject to drought and floods. Under these conditions, agriculture remained essentially underdeveloped—organized in small units and using primitive methods for basic subsistence. The conclusion of the Opium Wars in 1860 formally initiated a period of Western penetration of China from the coastal treaty ports. Railroads and highways were constructed, and some industrial development was begun. Such activity had little impact, however, on the overall Chinese economy. In effect, China was carved up into a number of competing colonial spheres of influence. Japan, which tried to attach China to its East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, was able to create only isolated nodes of a modern economy.

A National Output  The gross domestic product (GDP) of China in 1996 was $815.4 billion, or about $670 per capita. Agricultural output (which also includes some small-scale industries in rural areas, forestry, and fishing) accounted for 21 percent of domestic income, and industrial output (which includes manufacturing, mining, electricity generation, and building and construction) accounted for 48 percent. Between 1965 and 1979 the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 6.4 percent a year, and between 1980 and 1988 the increase was 10.3 percent annually. The growth rate dipped below 4 percent in 1989, but in the period 1990-1996 the economy grew by an annual rate of 12 percent, one of the largest growth rates in the world.

B Labor  The Chinese labor force (1996 estimate) is 718.2 million people. Unemployment and underemployment have caused labor productivity and income to be depressed, problems directly linked to the large size and rapid growth rate of the population. In the mid-1990s about one-quarter of the population was 15 years of age or younger; this guarantees that a large number of young people will enter the labor force each year. Although 72 percent of the labor force consists of agricultural workers, the government’s job allocation program does not include rural areas, and here new labor has to be absorbed by the collective and the individual household economy. The rural family is estimated to receive three-quarters of its income from the collective economy and the remainder from sideline activities.

C Agriculture  
Traditionally the economic mainstay of China, agriculture remains the most important sector of the national economy, supporting the vast majority of the population. Only 10 percent of China’s total area is cultivated (mostly located in eastern China). More than one-half the cultivated land is irrigated; indeed, China has more irrigated land than any other country except India. Despite great gains in annual output since 1949, rapid population increases have made per capita increases much less significant. For example, between 1952 and 1979, the annual grain output expanded by 103 percent, but per-capita grain production increased by only 20 percent. Although new areas were brought under cultivation (especially in Northeast China and northwestern China), the loss of cultivated land to nonagricultural uses was even more rapid, and with the great increase in population, the per capita average was reduced from 0.18 hectare (0.45 acre) in 1949 to only 0.08 hectare (0.20 acre) in 1995.

C1 Organization of Agricultural Activity  
The consistent rise in output and yield in China can be attributed in part to increased efficiency. By 1979, China’s approximately 838 million rural people had been organized into about 52,000 people’s communes. As a socioeconomic unit the commune received production targets from the state and ensured that these targets were met. The commune was divided into several production brigades, each of which is subdivided into production teams. Each of these levels could hold land, tools, and other production materials under communal ownership, and each carried out a range of activities. Some 6 million production teams represented the basic accounting units of the system.

C2 Agricultural Improvement and Planning  Given the tremendous pressure on agricultural land in China, rational planning of land use is of prime importance. An overemphasis on grain growing during the 1960s and 1970s led to elimination of some crops, orchards, and trees; neglect of animal husbandry; and environmental damage. The government has since promoted a mixed-farming economy that is in accord with local environmental conditions and that also provides cash income.

C3 Food Crops  About 85 percent of the sown area of China is devoted to food crops. The most important is rice, which occupies about one-fifth of the total cultivated area. It is grown for the most part south of the Huai River, notably in the middle and lower valley of the Yangtze River, in the Pearl River delta in the Guangzhou region, and in the Sichuan Basin of Sichuan. In 1997 the production of rice was 193.5 million metric tons, the largest in the world.

C4 Fiber Crops  The Communist government of China has given increasing attention to the expansion of industrial crops for the textile industry. The most important of these crops is cotton; 12.3 million metric tons of cotton lint are produced annually, making China the world’s leading cotton producer. Cotton, which can be grown in almost all parts of China, is raised principally in the Huabei Pingyuan, the loess region, the Yangtze River delta, and the middle Yangtze plain. The Huabei Pingyuan yields about half the country’s total cotton output.

Other fibers are ramie and flax, which are used for linen and other fine cloths; and jute and hemp, which are made into sacks and rope. Ramie, a native Chinese herb similar to hemp, is grown chiefly in the Yangtze River valley; flax is a northern crop. The main jute-growing areas are Zhejiang and Guangdong. Another traditional Chinese product is raw silk. Sericulture (silk-worm raising) is common in the central and southern areas, notably in the Yangtze delta.

C5 Livestock  China maintains a large livestock population. Hogs are numerous; they numbered 468 million in 1997, accounting for 50 percent of the world total. The country is the leading exporter of hog bristles. In the western areas, livestock raising by nomadic herders often constitutes the principal rural occupation. Most of the herds are made up of sheep, goats, and camels. In the highlands of Tibet the yak is a source of food and fuel (the dung is burned), and its hair and skin provide materials for shelter and clothing. The estimated livestock population includes 117 million cattle, 24 water buffalo, 140 million sheep, 164 million goats, and 10 million horses.

D Forestry  China’s forest resources are limited due to centuries of overfelling for fuel and building materials. Afforestation programs have increased the extent of forestland from about 8 percent of the total area in 1949 to 14 percent in 1995. Timber remains in very short supply, however; the output of roundwood was 298 million cu m (10.5 billion cu ft) in 1995. Two-thirds of this amount was used for fuel.

E Fishing  The total catch of fish, shellfish, and mollusks in China in 1995 was estimated at 25.7 million metric tons, more than any other nation. The culture of freshwater fish is important, and the government has encouraged fish culture in ponds or reservoirs alongside other agricultural pursuits. The principal producing regions are those close to urban markets in the middle and lower Yangtze Valley and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) delta. Carp ponds, a traditional Chinese food source for thousands of years, yield a significant share of the total. In addition to the fish catch, China harvests about 2.5 million metric tons of aquatic plants each year.

F Industry  
The industrial sector in China is, for purposes of government planning, composed of manufacturing, mining, electrical-power generation, and building and construction. Between 1980 and 1991 industrial production increased by an average annual rate of 11 percent; in 1992 it grew by an estimated 21 percent, in 1993 by an estimated 24 percent. The industrial sector now contributes 48 percent of China’s GDP. By the early 1990s more than 8 million industrial enterprises existed. About 419,000 were independent, of which about 15,000 were classified as large- or medium-sized industries. Even many small cities and towns had built up substantial industrial bases by the early 1990s. However, many state-owned firms are inefficient and unprofitable, surviving on government subsidies. In the late 1990s the economic reform government of Chinese president Jiang Zemin announced its intention to privatize many state-owned enterprises.

F1 Industrial Planning  In the late 1970s the government reassessed its industrial goals in an attempt to remedy a number of problems caused by poor planning. In many cities, self-sufficiency had been allowed to grow at the expense of specialization, and industrial enterprises were often found to be duplicating functions. The rapid growth of heavy industry had damaged some urban environments and drawn away funds that could have been better devoted to agriculture, light industry, and improvement of urban facilities. Technology had been allowed to stagnate.

F2 Manufacturing Activity  The iron and steel industry has received priority in China since 1949. The country now produces a great variety of steel products, including tungsten steels, stainless steels, heavy steel plate, and seamless pipe. Northeast China, North China, and the Yangtze Valley are the main producing areas.

G Mining  China has rich mineral resources, including large deposits of some industrially important minerals.

China’s coal-mining industry is the world’s largest, with an output of 1.4 billion metric tons in 1996. Many small local coal mines are found throughout the country, but the major centers are located north of the Yangtze River, especially in Shanxi. Coal is the leading industrial and domestic fuel and accounts for a large portion of the railway freight.

H Energy  China is one of the world’s leading producers of electricity, with an output of 1.0 trillion kilowatt-hours in 1996. Yet, electricity production is not sufficient to meet needs.

I Transportation  
The railroad is the most important mode of transportation in China, moving nearly one-half of the passenger traffic and more than 40 percent of the freight traffic. Since 1949 the total length of railroads has doubled, and it now measures 54,616 km (33,937 mi). Newly constructed lines have extended the two major north-south routes (Guangzhou-Beijing and Shanghai-Beijing) into the northeast, Mongolia and Russia, and the southeast. The major east-west line, from Lianyungang to Lanzhou, has been linked to Ürümqi in the far northwest. The new lines have provided a dense network in the heavily populated and economically important regions of northeastern, central, and southwestern China. When the Lanzhou-Lhasa (Tibet) line is completed, it will make all provinces and autonomous regions of China accessible by rail.

China has nearly 109,200 km (nearly 67,900 mi) of navigable inland waterways. Inland navigation accounts for nearly one-half of the goods shipped within China, and its potential for increased development is great. The major inland waterway is the Yangtze River, the fourth largest river in the world. Some 18,000 km (about 11,000 mi) of the Yangtze River and its tributaries can be traveled by steamers; Chongqing, Yichang, and Wuhan are its major ports. The busiest inland waterway, however, is the Grand Canal, which extends from Beijing to Hangzhou. The southern portion of the canal is integrated into the local systems of canals and lakes, making such cities as Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou important inland ports. In parts of rural China irrigation and drainage canals are used by peasants as inland waterways.

China’s long coastline and the location of some of the most important industrial cities on the coast have long made coastal shipping an important mode of transportation. The increased scale of international shipping is a more recent phenomenon, peaking before World War II (1939-1945) and again becoming important in the 1970s. China has a merchant fleet of 3121 larger ships that visit ports in more than 100 countries. Most of these ships were built in China.

J Communications  China’s Communist government placed great emphasis on radio when it began gathering support for its new policies in the early 1950s. Loudspeakers were placed in commune fields and workplaces from the 1950s through the 1970s, and the people gradually became accustomed to continual media presence in their lives; by 1995 there were 185 radios in use for every 1000 inhabitants. Between 1977 and 1981 the number of privately owned television sets in China grew from 630,000 to 7 million; overall, China had an estimated 205 television sets for every 1000 people in 1995. In Beijing, two sets for every three households is the urban average. A symbol of the freer economic climate of the mid-1980s was the inauguration of commercial radio broadcasting in 1986, in southern China.

K Currency and Banking  The Chinese unit of currency is the yuan (8.31 yuan equal U.S.$1; 1996). The banking system is completely under government control. The People’s Bank of China is the central financial institution and the sole source of currency issue. China’s international accounts and foreign currency arrangements, however, are primarily the concern of the Bank of China, which has 49 foreign branches, including offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and London. In addition, China has four other major banks: the Agricultural Bank of China, which is responsible for making loans to the rural sector of the economy; the Bank of Communications of China, a commercial bank; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which handles industrial and commercial credits and international business; and the People’s Construction Bank of China, which deals with funds for basic construction. The China International Trust and Investment Corporation raises funds for investment in China and arranges joint ventures inside the country and overseas. Economic reforms in 1994 included the strengthening of the role of the People’s Bank of China and the establishment of new commercial banks. In 1995 the government announced that foreign banks would be allowed to open in ten cities, beginning with Beijing.

L Commerce  The circulation of commodities in China, formerly determined by central planning, is now to a large extent determined by market forces. Between 1978 and 1984 the share of retail sales controlled by the state sector declined from 90.5 percent to 45.8 percent; during the same period, collectives increased their share from 7.4 percent to 39.6 percent, and private enterprises from 2.1 percent to 14.6 percent.

M Foreign Trade  Foreign trade in China is completely monopolized by the state. In 1979 China relaxed certain trade restrictions, paving the way for increases in the relatively small foreign investment and trade activity. By 1995 exports totaled $149 billion and imports $129 billion. The principal Chinese exports include clothing and accessories, textiles, petroleum and petroleum products, footwear, and telecommunications and sound equipment. Among the major imports are machinery, steel products and other metals, automobiles, synthetics, agricultural chemicals, rubber, wheat, and ships. Prior to Hong Kong’s reversion to Chinese control in 1997, the British territory was China’s chief international trading partner, annually purchasing in the early 1990s about $37.5 billion in goods and selling $20.5 billion. Trade through Hong Kong, which under the "one China, two systems" arrangement is part of China but maintains a separate economy, is expected to remain strong. Other principal partners are Japan, the United States, Taiwan, Germany, Russia, South Korea, and France. Trade relations with the United States were periodically strained in the 1990s as a result of American criticism of China’s human rights practices. Several times the United States threatened to suspend renewal of most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status for China. With MFN status, American tariffs on imported Chinese goods are similar to the tariffs that the United States imposes on goods from most other countries. Without MFN status, the tariffs would be much higher, and the price of Chinese goods would be higher for American consumers, which would most likely cause a decrease in the volume of trade between the two countries.

N Tourism  
Since the early 1970s the tight restrictions on travel to China have been gradually lifted. In 1979 the Chinese government established a five-year plan for the purpose of developing tourism; the plan called for constructing new hotels and restaurants across the country and training personnel to receive a rapidly increasing number of visitors. In 1996 some 22.8 million tourists visited China, spending $4 billion.

VI GOVERNMENT  
China has had an organized government since the establishment of the Shang dynasty about 1766 BC, making it one of the oldest nations on earth. Historically, the political control of the large Chinese population was administered by a series of strong local governments and by a central capital and court of varying political significance. Since the Chinese Communists came to power on October 1, 1949, a steady shift toward a centralized national government, based in Beijing, has been evident. This unity was achieved in large part through the personal authority and leadership of Mao and the governmental structure established by the Chinese Communist Party. This modern structure was initially given shape in China’s first constitution, promulgated in 1954, and revised in the constitution of 1975. A third constitution was issued in 1978 (becoming effective January 1, 1980); this constitution reflected the changes in government policies following Mao’s death. A new constitution was adopted in 1982 and amended in 1993 to embody principles of a socialist market economy.

A Executive  By the 1982 constitution, the president is elected to a five-year term by the National People’s Congress. The office of the president is largely ceremonial, however. Executive powers rest with the State Council, which is headed by the premier and is charged with administering various areas of state business (see Legislature below). The command of the national military belongs to the Central Military Commission. Generally, the positions of greatest authority in the Chinese government are those of premier and general secretary of the Communist Party; authority relates very much to the individual personalities in such positions.

B Legislature  Members of the National People’s Congress are chosen for five-year terms by a series of indirect elections; each province elects one representative (or deputy) to the congress for each 400,000 people, with at least ten deputies representing each province.

C Judiciary  The Chinese have had a tradition of judicial process that differs considerably from that of Western nations. Civil order has historically been the responsibility of the family, the neighborhood, or the local government. Generally speaking, the Chinese judicial process has been more concerned with understanding the context of an individual crime in an effort to redress its causes than with creating a highly formal judicial system. Since the promulgation of the 1978 constitution, however, China has made a considerable effort to align its judicial and legal systems with Western models; the 1982 constitution guarantees the right of legal defense. The Chinese legal system has three components: a court system; a public security administration, or police component; and an office of the procurator, or the public prosecutor. The highest organ is the Supreme People’s Court, which ensures observance of the constitution and of regulations of the State Council. Offices of all three judicial branches are found at the provincial, county, and municipal levels, and the public security offices function at the local neighborhood level.

D Local Government  
Local government in China is organized into three major administrative tiers: provinces, counties, and administrative towns and villages. At the first level, directly below the central government, are the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region, 5 autonomous regions, 22 provinces, and 4 directly governed municipalities—Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing. China considers the island of Taiwan a 23rd province. At the second level are prefectures, counties, and municipalities; at the third are municipal subdivisions, administrative towns, and villages. At each of these levels are found special autonomous entities in areas inhabited primarily by minorities.

E Political Parties  According to the constitution of 1982, China is a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat led by the Communist Party and based on a united front that includes other democratic parties. In practice, the Communist Party fully orchestrates national political activity. The vast majority of significant governmental offices are filled by party members.

F Health and Welfare  
The government of China, as a socialist state, provides for the physical well-being of its citizens. The Communist Party’s social services goals were a major element in the party’s rise to power. Major public welfare programs have involved housing, vocational opportunities, health care, retirement benefits, and the assurance of a paid funeral.

G Defense  
The 1982 Chinese constitution vests supreme command of the armed forces in the Central Military Commission. The country’s military force is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), so named in 1946; the army, navy, and air force are all components of the PLA. In 1997 the PLA was 2.8 million strong and as such was the world’s largest military force. It is, however, more a peasant army than a highly sophisticated armed force. Of this number, the navy had 280,000 members, including about 25,000 in the naval air force and another 5,000 in the marines; the air force had 470,000 members, including 220,000 in air defense. There is also a strategic rocket force of 125,000. The army was supported by a national militia of some 12 million, including a security force of about 1.2 million.

VII HISTORY  According to Chinese tradition, the Chinese people originated in the Huang He (Yellow River) valley. The legends tell of a creator, Pan Gu (P’an Ku), who was succeeded by a series of heavenly, terrestrial, and human sovereigns. Archaeological evidence is scant, although remains of Homo erectus, found near Beijing, have been dated back 460,000 years. Rice was grown in eastern China around 5500 BC, and about five centuries later an agricultural society developed in the Huang He valley. There is strong evidence of two so-called pottery cultures, the Yang-shao culture (3950?-1700? BC), and the Lung-shan culture (2000?-1850? BC).

A The Earliest Dynasties  
Tradition names the Xia (2205?-1766? BC) as the first hereditary Chinese dynasty, which ended only when a Xia ruler fell into debauchery, mistreated his people, and was subsequently overthrown. However, there is no archaeological record to confirm this story; the Shang is the earliest dynasty for which reliable historical evidence exists.

A1 The Shang Dynasty (1766?-1027? BC)  
The Shang dynasty ruled the territory of the present-day north-central Chinese provinces of Henan, Hubei, and Shandong and the northern part of Anhui. The capital, from about 1384 BC on, was situated at Anyang near the northern border of Henan. The economy was based on agriculture. Millet, wheat, barley, and, possibly, some rice were grown. Silkworms were cultivated, and pigs, dogs, sheep, and oxen were raised. Bronze vessels, weapons, and other tools have been found, indicative of a high level of metallurgy and craftsmanship. The Shang was an aristocratic society. At the head was a king who presided over a military nobility. Territorial rulers were appointed by him and compelled to support him in military endeavors. Between this aristocratic class and the commoners was a literate priestly class that kept the records of government and was responsible for divination. Shang people worshiped their ancestors and a multitude of gods, the principal of whom was known as Shang Ti, the Lord on High.

The account of the fall of the Shang dynasty that appears in traditional Chinese histories follows closely the story of the fall of the Xia. The last Shang monarch, a cruel and debauched tyrant, was overthrown by a vigorous king of Zhou (Chou), a state in the Wei River valley. Situated on the northwestern fringes of the Shang domain, the culture of Zhou was a blend of the basic elements of Shang civilization and certain of the martial traditions characteristic of the non-Chinese peoples to the north and west.

A2 The Zhou Dynasty (1027?-256 BC)  
Chinese civilization was gradually extended over most of China proper north of and including the Yangtze Valley under the Zhou (Chou) dynasty. The broad expanse of this area and the primitive state of overland communications made it impossible for the Zhou to exercise direct control over the entire region. They therefore delegated authority to vassals, each of whom ordinarily ruled a walled town and the territory surrounding it. The hierarchy of these feudal-like states was headed by the lord, whose position was hereditary. Below him were hereditary fighting men, and, lowest in the social scale, the peasants and domestic slaves. In time these vassal states became more and more autonomous.

Zhou society was organized around agricultural production. The land was ideally divided into square tracts, each of which was subdivided into nine square plots forming an equilateral grid. The eight outer plots were assigned to eight peasant families, who pooled their efforts and resources to cultivate the center plot for the support of the ruling class. The extent to which this system of land distribution was employed is uncertain, but later dynasties thought it the most equitable manner of apportioning land.

A2a The Eastern Zhou  The Zhou kings were able to maintain effective control over their domain until finally, in 770 BC, several of the states rebelled and together with non-Chinese forces routed the Zhou from their capital near the site of present-day Xi’an. Subsequently, the Zhou established a new capital to the east, at Luoyang. Although they were now safer from barbarian attack, the Eastern Zhou could no longer exercise much political or military authority over the vassal states, many of which had grown larger and stronger than the Zhou. As custodians of the mandate of heaven, however, the Zhou continued the practice of confirming the right of new lords to rule their lands and thus remained titular overlords until the 3rd century BC. From the 8th to the 3rd century BC rapid economic growth and social change took place against a background of extreme political instability and nearly incessant warfare. During these years China entered the Iron Age. The iron-tipped, ox-drawn plow, together with improved irrigation techniques, brought higher agricultural yields, which, in turn, supported a steady rise in population. The growth in population was accompanied by the production of much new wealth, and a new class of merchants and traders arose. Communication was improved by an increase in horseback riding.

A2b The Golden Age of Chinese Philosophy  The intellectual response to the extreme instability and insecurity produced the political formulas and philosophies that shaped the growth of the Chinese state and civilization during the next two millennia. The earliest and by far the most influential of the philosophers of the period was K’ung Fu-tzu, or Confucius, as he is known in the West. The educated son of a minor aristocratic family of the state of Lu (in present-day Shandong), Confucius represented the emergent class of administrators and advisers that now were needed to help the ruling aristocracy deal with the complicated problems of domestic administration and interstate relations. In essence, Confucius’s proposals called for a restoration of the political and social institutions of the early Zhou. He believed that the sage rulers of that period had worked to create an ideal society by the example of great personal virtue. Therefore he attempted to create a class of virtuous and cultivated gentlemen who could take over the high positions of government and lead the people through their personal example.

B Creation of the Empire  During the 4th century BC, the state of Qin (Ch’in), one of the newly emergent peripheral states of the northwest, embarked on a program of administrative, economic, and military reform suggested by a leading legalist theoretician. At the same time the vestigial power of the Zhou grew ever weaker until the regime collapsed in 256 BC. A generation later, the Qin had subjugated the other warring states.

B1 The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)  
In 221 BC, the king of Qin proclaimed himself Shihuangdi, or First Emperor of the Qin dynasty. The name China is derived from this dynasty.

With the assistance of a shrewd legalist minister, the First Emperor welded the loose configuration of quasi-feudal states into an administratively centralized and culturally unified empire. The hereditary aristocracies were abolished and their territories divided into provinces governed by bureaucrats appointed by the emperor. The Qin capital, near the present-day city of Xi’an, became the first seat of imperial China. A standardized system of written characters was adopted, and its use was made compulsory throughout the empire. To promote internal trade and economic integration the Qin standardized weights and measures, coinage, and axle widths. Private landholding was adopted, and laws and taxation were enforced equally and impersonally. The quest for cultural uniformity led the Qin to outlaw the many contending schools of philosophy that had flourished during the late Zhou. Only legalism was given official sanction, and in 213 BC the books of all other schools were burned, except for copies held by the Qin imperial library.

The First Emperor also attempted to push the perimeter of Chinese civilization far beyond the outer boundaries of the Zhou dynasty. In the south his armies marched to the delta of the Red River, in what is now Vietnam. In the southwest the realm was extended to include most of the present-day provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. In the northwest his conquests reached as far as Lanzhou in present-day Gansu Province; and in the northeast, a portion of what today is Korea acknowledged the superiority of the Qin. The center of Chinese civilization, however, remained in the Huang He valley. Aside from the unification and expansion of China, the best-known achievement of the Qin was the completion of earthen fortifications that centuries later came to be labeled the Great Wall.

The foreign conquests of the Qin and the wall building and other public works were accomplished at an enormous cost of wealth and human life. The ever increasing burden of taxation, military service, and forced labor bred a deep-seated resentment against the Qin rule among the common people of the new empire. In addition, the literate classes were alienated by government policies of thought control, particularly the burning of books. The successor of Shihuangdi came under the domination of a wily palace eunuch. A power struggle ensued, crippling the central administration, and the indignant population rose in rebellion.

B2 The Earlier Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 8)  
From the turbulence and warfare that marked the last years of the Qin dynasty, there arose a rebel leader of humble origin, Liu Bang (see Gaozu). Crushing other contenders for the throne, Liu Pang proclaimed himself emperor in 206 BC. The Han dynasty, which he established, was the most durable of the imperial age. The Han built on the unified foundation laid by the Qin, modifying the policies that had resulted in the downfall of the Qin. Burdensome laws were abrogated, taxes were sharply reduced, and a policy of laissez-faire was adopted in an effort to promote economic recovery. At first Liu Pang granted hereditary kingdoms to some of his allies and relatives, but by the middle of the 2nd century BC most of these kingdoms had been eliminated, and almost all Han territory was under direct imperial rule.

One of the most important contributions of the Han was the establishment of Confucianism as the official ideology. In an attempt to provide an all-inclusive ideology of empire, however, the Han incorporated ideas from many other philosophical schools into Confucianism, and employed popular superstitions to augment and elaborate the spare teachings of Confucius. In staffing the administrative hierarchy inherited from the Qin, the Han emperors followed the Confucian principle of appointing men on the basis of merit rather than birth. Written examinations were adopted as a means of determining the best qualified people. In the late 2nd century BC an imperial university was established, in which prospective bureaucrats were trained in the five classics of the Confucian school.

B3 The Hsin Dynasty (AD 9-23)  
During this period of disorder an ambitious courtier, Wang Mang, deposed an infant emperor, for whom he had been acting as regent, and established the short-lived Hsin dynasty. Wang Mang attempted to revitalize the imperial government and relieve the plight of the peasant. He moved against the big tax-free estates by nationalizing all land and redistributing it among the actual cultivators. Slavery was abolished. Imperial monopolies on salt, iron, and coinage were strengthened, and new monopolies were established. The state fixed prices to protect the peasants from unscrupulous merchants and provided low-interest state loans to those needing capital to begin productive enterprises. So great was the resistance of the powerful propertied classes, however, that Wang Mang was forced to repeal his land legislation. The agrarian crisis intensified, and matters were made worse by the breakdown of major North China water-control systems that had been neglected by the fiscally weakened government. A large-scale rebellion broke out in northern China under the leadership of a group known as the Red Eyebrows. They were soon joined by the large landholding families, who finally succeeded in killing Wang Mang and reestablishing the rule of the Han dynasty.

B4 The Later Han (25-220)   Administrative weakness and inefficiency plagued the Later or Eastern Han dynasty from the very beginning. As under the Earlier or Western Han, the central government became demoralized by the appointment of incompetent maternal relatives of infant emperors. With the help of court eunuchs, subsequent emperors were able to get rid of these incompetents, but only at the cost of granting equally great influence to the eunuchs. As a result, the government was again torn by factionalism. Between 168 and 170 warfare erupted between the eunuchs and the bureaucrats, who felt that the eunuchs had usurped their rightful position of influence in government. By 184 two great rebellions, led by Daoist religious groups, had also broken out. For two decades the Yellow Turbans, as one of the sects was called, ravaged Shandong and adjacent areas, and not until 215 was the great Han general Ts’ao Ts’ao able to pacify the other group, the Five Pecks of Rice Society in Sichuan.

B5 Period of Disunion  
The Han Empire began to fall apart as the large landholding families, taking advantage of the weakness of the imperial government, established their own private armies. Finally, in 220 the son of Ts’ao Ts’ao seized the throne and established the Wei dynasty (220-264). Soon, however, leaders with dynastic aspirations sprang up in other parts of the country. The Shu dynasty (221-263) was established in southwestern China, and the Wu dynasty (222-280) in the southeast. The three kingdoms waged incessant warfare against one another. In 265 Ssu-ma Yen, a powerful general of the Wei dynasty, usurped that throne and established the Western Jin (Chin) dynasty (265-316) in North China. By 280 he had reunited the north and south under his rule. Soon after his death in 290, however, the empire began to crumble. One important reason for this internal weakness was the influence of the principal landholding families. They made their power felt through the nine-grade controller system, by which prominent individuals in each administrative area were given the authority to rank local families and individuals in nine grades according to their potential for government service. Because the ranking was arbitrarily decided by a few important persons, it frequently reflected the wishes of the leading families in the area rather than the merit of those being ranked.

C The Reestablished Empire  China was reunited under the rule of the Sui dynasty (589-618). The first Sui emperor was Yang Jian (Yang Chien), a military servant who usurped the throne of the non-Chinese Northern Zhou in 581. During the next eight years he completed the conquest of South China and established his capital at Daxingcheng (Ta-hsing-ch’eng, modern Xi’an). The Sui revived the centralized administrative system of the Han and reinstated competitive examinations for the selection of officials. Although Confucianism was officially endorsed, Daoism and Buddhism were also acknowledged in formulating a new ideology for the empire. Buddhism, which had been brought to China from India during the Later Han dynasty and the ensuing period of disunion, flourished.

C1 The Tang Dynasty (618-907)  
Founded by Li Yuan, the Tang dynasty was an era of strength and brilliance unprecedented in the history of Chinese civilization. The system of civil service examinations for recruitment of the bureaucracy was so well refined at that time that its basic form survived into the 20th century. The organs of the imperial and local governments were restructured and amplified to provide a centralized administration, and an elaborate code of administrative and penal law was enacted. The Tang capital at Chang’an was a center of culture and religious toleration. Many religions were practiced, including Nestorian Christianity. Foreign trade was conducted with Central Asia and the West over the caravan routes, and merchants from the Middle East plied their seaborne trade through the port of Guangzhou. Under the Tang, Chinese influence was extended over Korea, southern Manchuria, and northern Vietnam. In the west, by means of alliances with Central Asian tribes, the Tang controlled the Tarim Pendi and eventually made their influence felt as far as present-day Afghanistan.

C1a Administrative System  The economic and military strength of the Tang Empire was founded on a system of equal land allotments made to the adult male population. The per capita agricultural tax paid by the allotment holders was the greatest source of government income, and the periodic militia service required of them was the basis of Tang military power. Difficulties arose, however, for the government continued to honor tax-free estates and made large grants of land to those whom it favored. As a result of population growth, by the 8th century individual allotment holders inherited greatly reduced plots of land, but the annual per capita tax remained the same. Peasants fled their allotments, thereby reducing government income and depleting the armed forces. Frontier areas could no longer be protected by militia forces. A system of commanderies was established along the borders, and defense was entrusted to non-Chinese troops and commanders.

C1b An Lushan’s Rebellion  The early Tang rulers, including the Empress Wu (reigned 685-705), a former imperial concubine, were generally able monarchs. The brilliant emperor Xuanzong (Hsüan Tsung), however, became enamored of the courtesan Yang Guifei (Yang Kuei-fei), a woman much younger than he, and neglected his duties. Yang was allowed to place her friends and relatives in important positions in the government. One of Yang’s favorites was the able general An Lushan (An Lu-shan), who quarreled with Yang’s brother over control of the government, precipitating a revolt in 755. Peace was not restored until 763 and then only by means of alliances that the Tang formed with Central Asian tribes. After the rebellion of An Lushan, the central government was never again able to control the military commanderies on the frontiers. Some commanderies became hereditary kingdoms and regularly withheld tax returns from the central government. The commandery system spread to other areas of China proper, and by the 9th century the area effectively under central government control was limited to Shaanxi Province.

A great cultural flowering occurred during the later years of the Tang. The poets Li Bo (Li Po), Du Fu (Tu Fu), and Po Chü-i and the prose master Han Yü appeared at a time when the process of political decline had already begun. The printing of books promoted cultural unity.

C1c Religious Persecution and Disunion  The decline of Buddhism and a revival of Confucianism in the late Tang resulted in a vigorous new ideology, which provided a basis for the growth of an enduring civilization in subsequent centuries. Although Buddhism had reached the highest point of its popularity during the peaceful and prosperous years of the early Tang, a literate official class, primarily of Confucian persuasion, had developed by the middle of the dynasty, and these officials regarded Buddhism as a disruptive force in Chinese society. In 845 the Tang emperor began a full-scale persecution of the Buddhists. More than 4600 monasteries and 40,000 temples and shrines were destroyed, and more than 260,000 Buddhist monks and nuns were forced to return to secular life. Other religious groups were also brought under state control.

C2 Cultural Maturity and Alien Rule  The Five Dynasties period was brought to a close in 959, when a military leader, Chao K’uang-yin, seized the throne and proclaimed the establishment of the Song dynasty (960-1279). By 978 the Song controlled most of China, excluding only those areas in northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces held by the Liao dynasty of the Khitan Mongols. The period is usually subdivided into the Northern Song (960-1126), when the capital was situated at Kaifeng, and the Southern Song (1127-1279), when the capital was at Hangzhou and the dynasty controlled only South China.

C2a The Northern Song  
Fearing the dispersal of military power to the frontiers, a development that had weakened the Tang, the early Song severely limited the provincial military and subordinated the army to the civil government. Indeed, civil bureaucrats dominated every aspect of government and society. The Tang civil service examination system was expanded to provide the dynasty with a constant flow of talent. The Song reorganized the imperial government, centralizing effective control at the capital to a greater degree than ever before. The local administrative structure was left much the same as it had been under the Tang. Literature, the arts, and philosophy continued to develop along the lines established in the late Tang period. Education flourished, and the economy continued to expand and diversify. Military weakness, however, proved to be a chronic defect.

C2b The Southern Song  Prompted by their own military and fiscal weakness, the Song entered into an alliance, in the early 1120s, with the Jin dynasty (1122-1234) of northern Manchuria against the Liao. After the defeat of the Liao, the Jin turned on the Song and marched into North China, taking the capital of Kaifeng in 1126. The Song retreated and in 1135 reestablished their capital at Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.

C2c Mongol Rule  
Kublai moved the Mongol capital from Karakorum to a site close to Beijing. From there he ruled an empire that stretched from eastern Europe to Korea and from northern Siberia south to the northern rim of India. Kublai and his successors adopted much of the administrative machinery that had existed under the Song. They ruled as Chinese monarchs under the dynastic title Yuan (1279-1368) and are so regarded by the Chinese. The reign of Kublai Khan was the high point of Mongol power. Communications were vastly improved. The Central Asian trade routes, entirely under Mongol control, were more secure than ever before. The traffic from West to East increased correspondingly. Missionaries and traders came to China, bringing new ideas, techniques, foods, and medicines. Best known of the foreigners to reach China was the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, whose writings vividly portray the splendor of the Mongol Empire to the West.

Meanwhile, discontent was growing within China. The Confucian official class resented Mongol proscriptions against the Chinese holding important offices. Inflation and oppressive taxes alienated Chinese peasants. The 1330s and 1340s were marked by crop failure and famine in North China and by severe flooding of the Huang He. Uprisings occurred in almost every province during the 1340s. By the following decade several major rebel leaders had emerged, and in the 1360s Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yüan-chang), a former Buddhist monk, was successful in extending his power throughout the Yangtze Valley. In 1371, while Mongol commanders were paralyzed by internal rivalries, he marched north and seized Beijing. The Mongols eventually withdrew to their base in Mongolia, from which they continued to harass the Chinese.

D Imperial Power  Two major dynasties dominated Chinese history after Zhu’s seizure of power in the 14th century.

D1 The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)  
Founded by Zhu, the Ming first established its capital at Nanjing and revived the characteristically Chinese civilization of the Tang and the Song. Chinese power was reasserted in China and throughout East Asia. Civil government was reestablished. Literature was patronized, schools were founded, and the administration of justice was reformed. The Great Wall was extended and the Grand Canal improved. The empire was divided into 15 provinces, most of which still bear their original names. Each province was supervised by three commissioners—one for finances, one for military affairs, and one for judicial matters. The financial commissioner, who headed the administration, was superseded in the last years of the dynasty by a governor.

The early Ming also reestablished the system of tributary relations by which the non-Chinese states of East Asia acknowledged the cultural and moral supremacy of China and sent periodic tribute to the Chinese court. During the first quarter of the 15th century the tribes of Mongolia were decisively defeated, and the capital was again moved north to Beijing. Chinese naval expeditions revealed the power of the Ming Empire throughout Southeast Asia, the states of India, and as far away as Madagascar. From the middle of the 15th century, however, Ming power began to decline. The quality of imperial leadership deteriorated, and court eunuchs came to exercise great control over the emperor, fostering discontent and factionalism in the government. The imperial treasuries were depleted by the costs of defense against repeated Mongol incursions and raids by Japanese pirates who ravaged the southeast coast throughout the 16th century. A seven-year campaign against Japanese troops in Korea during the 1590s left the Ming exhausted.

In the declining years of the Ming, maritime relations were initiated between the Western world and China. The Portuguese arrived first, in 1514. By 1557 they had acquired a trading station at Macau. After 1570 trade began between China and Spanish settlements in the Philippines. In 1619 the Dutch settled in Taiwan and took possession of the nearby P’enghu Islands (Pescadores). Meanwhile, in the latter half of the 16th century, Jesuit missionaries arrived in China from Europe and began the dissemination of Western secular knowledge and Christianity. The wisdom and learning of the Jesuits soon won them positions of respect at the Ming court, but the Neo-Confucian scholars of Ming China remained preoccupied with problems of individual merit and social order. The Jesuits proved unable to implant either Christianity or Western scientific thought.

D2 The Qing (Manchu) Dynasty (1644-1911)  
Under the Manchus the power of the Chinese Empire reached the highest point in its 2000-year history and then collapsed, partly from internal decay and partly from external pressures exerted by the West. As rulers of China, the Manchus continued to absorb Chinese culture. Their political organization was largely based on that of the Ming, although more highly centralized. The central administration was led by a new institution, the Grand Council, which transacted the military and political affairs of state under the direct supervision of the emperor. The chief bureaus in the capital had both a Chinese and a Manchu head. The traditional bureaucracy and the civil service examinations, based largely on a knowledge of Confucianism, were retained.

By the end of the 17th century the Qing had eliminated all Ming opposition and put down a rebellion led by Chinese generals who had originally assisted the Manchus and had been given semiautonomous domains in the south. In the middle of the 18th century, during the reign of the emperor Qianlong (Ch’ien-lung), the Qing dynasty reached the apogee of its power. Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet were all securely under Qing control. Even Nepal was made to feel Chinese influence. Burma (now known as Myanmar) sent periodic tribute to the Qing court, as did the Ryûkyû Islands. Korea and northern Vietnam both recognized Chinese suzerainty, and Taiwan was incorporated into China proper.

D2a Foreign Pressure  
The 19th century was marked by rapid deterioration of the imperial system and a steady increase of foreign pressure from the West and, eventually, from Japan. The issue of trade relations between China and Britain produced the first serious conflict. The British were anxious to expand their trade contacts beyond the restrictive limits imposed at Guangzhou. To accomplish this expansion, they sought to develop diplomatic relations with the Chinese Empire similar to those that existed between sovereign states in the West. China, with its long history of economic self-sufficiency, was not interested in increased trade. International relations, if they were to exist at all, in the Chinese view, had to take the form of a tributary system, with British envoys approaching the Chinese court as tribute bearers. The Chinese, moreover, were anxious to halt the opium trade, which was undermining the fiscal and moral basis of the empire. In 1839 Chinese officials confiscated and destroyed huge amounts of opium from British ships in the harbor at Guangzhou and applied severe pressures to the British trading community in that city. The British refused to restrict further importation of opium, and hostilities broke out in late 1839.

D2b Trade Wars and the Unequal Treaties  The First Opium War was concluded in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing). China had been badly beaten, and the terms of the treaty granted to Britain the trade preferences it sought, as well as numerous other advantages. During the next two years both France and the United States extracted similar treaties. China looked upon these treaties as unpleasant but necessary concessions dictated by unruly barbarians. Its compliance with the commercial clauses regarding the expansion of trade fell far short of the expectations of the Western powers. Both Britain and France soon found occasion to renew hostilities and, during the Second Opium War (1856-1860), applied military pressure to the capital region in North China. New treaties were signed at Tianjin in 1858 that further expanded Western advantages. When the Beijing government declined to ratify these, hostilities were reopened. A joint British-French expeditionary force penetrated to Beijing. After the famed Summer Palace had been burned in retaliation for Chinese atrocities to Western prisoners, the Beijing Conventions were signed, ratifying the terms of the earlier treaties.

D2c The Taiping Rebellion  During the 1850s the very foundations of the empire were shaken by the Taiping Rebellion, a popular revolution of religious, social, and economic origin. Its leader, Hong Xiuquan (Hung Hsiu-Ch’üan), an unsuccessful candidate for the civil service, had studied briefly and unsuccessfully with an American Protestant missionary. He came to fancy himself the younger brother of Jesus, divinely ordained to rid China of Manchu rule and to establish a Christian dynasty. Rebellion broke out in Guangxi Province in 1851. By 1853 the Taipings had moved north and established their capital at Nanjing. Although they were stopped short of taking Beijing, by 1860 they were firmly entrenched in the Yangtze Valley and were threatening Shanghai.

D2d Foreign Spheres of Influence  At first the Western powers tended to consolidate their gains under the unequal treaties rather than to seek additional privileges. In 1875, however, the Western powers and Japan began to dismantle the Chinese system of tributary states in Southeast Asia. After 1875 the Ryûkyû Islands were brought under Japanese control. The Sino-French War of 1884 and 1885 brought Vietnam into the French colonial empire, and the following year Britain detached Burma (Myanmar). In 1860 Russia gained the maritime provinces of northern Manchuria and the areas north of the Amur River. In 1894 Japanese efforts to remove Korea from Chinese suzerainty resulted in the First Sino-Japanese War. China suffered a decisive defeat in 1895 at the hands of Japan and was forced to recognize the independence of Korea, pay an enormous war indemnity, and cede to Japan the island of Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria.

Russia, France, and Germany reacted immediately to the cession of the Liaodong Peninsula, which they regarded as giving Japan a stranglehold on the richest area of China. These three powers intervened, demanding that Japan retrocede Liaodong Peninsula in return for an increased indemnity. Once this had been accomplished, China was presented with fresh demands by the three European powers. By 1898, powerless to resist foreign demands, China had been carved into spheres of economic influence. Russia was granted the right to construct a Trans-Siberian railroad, the Chinese Eastern Railway, across Manchuria to Vladivostok and the South Manchurian Railway south to the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, as well as additional exclusive economic rights throughout Manchuria. Other exclusive rights to railway and mineral development were granted to Germany in Shandong Province, to France in the southern border provinces, to Britain in the Yangtze riparian provinces, and to Japan in the southeastern coastal provinces. As a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905, most of the South Manchurian Railway and the Russian rights in southern Manchuria were transferred to Japan. The United States, attempting to preserve its rights in China without competing for territory, initiated the Open Door Policy in 1899 and 1900. That policy, to which the other foreign powers assented, stipulated that their new privileges in China in no way changed the equal position of all nations under the terms of the most-favored-nation clauses. The United States also undertook to guarantee the territorial and administrative integrity of China, although it remained unwilling to back this guarantee with force until 1941.

D2e Reform Movements and the Boxer Uprising  
By 1898 an enlightened group of reformers had gained access to the young and open-minded Emperor Kuang Hsü. In the summer of that year, prompted by the urgency of the situation created by the new spheres of influence, they instituted a sweeping reform program designed to transform China into a constitutional monarchy and to modernize the economy and the educational system. This program struck at the entrenched power of a clique of Manchu officials appointed by Dowager Empress Cixi (Tz’u Hsi), who had recently retired. Cixi and the Manchu officials seized the emperor, and with the aid of loyal military leaders, put down the reform movement. A period of violent reaction swept the country, reaching its peak in 1900 with the fanatically antiforeign uprising of the secret society of Boxers, a group that enjoyed the support of the dowager empress and many Manchu officials. After a Western expeditionary force had crushed the Boxer Uprising at Beijing, the Manchu government realized the futility of its policy of reaction. In 1902 it adopted its own reform program and made plans to establish a limited constitutional government on the Japanese model. In 1905 the ancient civil service examinations were abandoned.

E The Republic of China  The Chinese Republic maintained a tenuous existence from 1912 until 1949. Although a constitution was adopted and a parliament convened in 1912, Yüan Shih-k’ai never allowed these institutions to inhibit his personal control of the government. When the newly formed Kuomintang (Nationalist Party, or KMT), headed by Sun Yat-sen, attempted to limit Yüan’s power, first by parliamentary tactics and then by an unsuccessful revolution in 1913, Yüan responded by dismissing parliament, outlawing the Kuomintang (KMT), and ruling through his personal connections with provincial military leaders. Sun Yat-sen took refuge in Japan. Yüan, however, was forced by popular opposition to abandon his plans to restore the empire and install himself as emperor. He died in 1916, and political power passed to the provincial warlords for more than a decade. The central government retained a precarious and nearly fictional existence until 1927.

E1 The Kuomintang and the Rise of the Communist Party  
A period of scrutiny and reappraisal followed, from which two clear objectives emerged: to rid China of imperialism and to reestablish national unity. Disillusioned by the cynical self-interest of the Western imperialist powers, the Chinese became more and more interested in the revolutionary changes in Russia and in Marxist-Leninist thought. The Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai in 1921, numbering among its original members Mao Zedong. In 1923 Sun Yat-sen agreed to accept Soviet advice in reorganizing the crumbling Kuomintang and its feeble military forces. At the same time he agreed to admit Communists to Kuomintang membership. Sun’s basic ideology, the Three Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and Socialism, were charged with the spirit of anti-imperialism and national unification. Despite Sun’s death in 1925, the rejuvenated Kuomintang, under the leadership of the young general Chiang Kai-shek, launched a military expedition from its base in Guangzhou in 1926. Chiang sought to reunify China under Kuomintang rule and rid the country of imperialists and warlords. Before the Kuomintang completed the nominal reunification of China early in 1928, however, Chiang conducted a bloody purge of the party’s Communist membership, and from then on he relied upon support from the propertied classes and the foreign treaty powers.

E1a Chiang’s Problems  The new national government that the Kuomintang established at Nanjing in 1928 was faced with three problems of overpowering magnitude. First, Chiang had actually brought only five provinces under his control. The remainder of the country was still governed by local warlords. Second, by the early 1930s he was confronted with an internal Communist rebellion. The Chinese Communists, after being purged from the Kuomintang in 1927, split into two factions and went underground. One faction attempted to foment urban uprisings; the other, headed by Mao Zedong, took to the countryside of central China, where it mobilized peasant support, formed a peasant army, and set up several soviet governments. The first faction eventually joined Mao in central China. Third, Chiang’s new government was faced with Japanese aggression in North and Northeast China.

E1b The Sian Incident  
In dealing with these three problems during the 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek negotiated with the domestic warlords and temporized with the Japanese, giving priority to the suppression of the Communist rebellion. Late in 1934, he succeeded in dislodging the Red Army from its base in central China, but the Communists fought their way across China to the west and then north on the so-called Long March, which terminated in Shaanxi Province in the north. By 1936 they had established a new base at Yan’an. As Japanese aggression intensified, popular pressure mounted for the Chinese to stop fighting among themselves and to unite against Japan. Chiang, however, resisted until late 1936, when he was kidnapped by one of his own generals. During his captivity at Xi’an he was visited by Communist leaders, who urged the adoption of a common policy toward Japan. After his release he moderated his anti-Communist stand, and in 1937 a Kuomintang-Communist united front was formed against the Japanese.

E2 World War II  In 1937 Japan and China were plunged into full-scale war as a result of a skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. By 1938 Japan had seized control of most of northeast China, the Yangtze Valley as far inland as Hankou, and the area around Guangzhou on the southeast coast. The Kuomintang moved its capital and most of its military force inland to Chongqing in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

E3 The Kuomintang-Communist Fight for Supremacy  
In 1945, shortly after Japan surrendered, fighting broke out between Communist and Kuomintang troops over the reoccupation of Manchuria. A temporary truce was reached in 1946 through the mediation of the U.S. General George C. Marshall. Although fighting was soon resumed, Marshall continued his efforts to bring the two sides together. In August 1946 the United States tried to strengthen Marshall’s hand as an impartial mediator by suspending its military aid to the Nationalist government. Nevertheless, hostilities continued, and in January 1947, convinced of the futility of further mediation, Marshall left China. The conflict quickly blossomed into full-scale civil war, and all hope of political rapprochement disappeared. In May 1947, U.S. aid to the Kuomintang was resumed. However, the government forces were wearied by two decades of nearly continuous warfare, the leadership was rent by internal disunity, and the economy was paralyzed by spiraling inflation. In 1948 military initiative passed to the Communists, and in the summer of 1949, Nationalist resistance collapsed. The government, with the forces it could salvage, sought refuge on the island of Taiwan.

In September 1949 the Communists convened the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an ad hoc quasi-constituent body of 662 members, which adopted a set of guiding principles and an organic law for governing the country. The conference elected the Central People’s Government Council, which was to serve as the supreme policymaking organ of the state while the conference was not in session. Mao Zedong, who served as chairman of this body, was, in fact, head of state. In accordance with the powers delegated to it by the conference, the Central People’s Government Council set up the various organs of the central and local governments. At the national level, the Government Administrative Council headed by Zhou Enlai performed both the legislative and executive functions of government. Subordinate to the council were more than 30 ministries and commissions charged with the conduct of various aspects of state affairs. The new regime, called the People’s Republic of China, was officially proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

F The People’s Republic  In 1953, after Communist control had been firmly established in most localities, the Central People’s Government Council initiated the election of people’s congresses at the local level. These, in turn, elected congresses at the next highest administrative level. A hierarchy of elected congresses was completed in 1954 with the election of the National People’s Congress, which approved the draft constitution submitted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

F1 The Transformation of Society  The basic policy of the Communist government was to transform China into a socialist society. To this end Marxist-Leninist education and propaganda were employed extensively. Youths were directed to look to the party and the state rather than to their families for leadership and security. Women were assured a position of equality by new marriage laws that banned concubinage, polygamy, sale of children, and interference with the remarriage of widows and ensured equal rights with respect to employment, ownership of property, and divorce. Religion was strictly controlled; foreign missionaries were forced to leave; and Chinese clerics, disposed to cooperate with the Communists, were placed over the Christian churches. Intellectuals were subjected to a specialized program of thought reform directed toward eradicating anti-Communist ideas.

F1a Economic Policy  The first task of the Communists was to reconstruct the economy, which had been disrupted by decades of domestic warfare. They immediately instituted severe measures to check inflation, restore communications, and reestablish the domestic order necessary for economic development. Their basic economic policy was the step-by-step organization of the farmers into agricultural collectives in order to promote efficiency and create the savings necessary for the establishment of heavy industry. Private industry was gradually brought under joint state-private ownership and state control through a series of programs involving state seizure of a controlling interest, through reform and intimidation of some owners, and through fixed compensatory payment to others whose expertise the state was anxious to enlist. Land reform was started in 1950 and was followed by the formation of mutual-aid teams, cooperatives, and collective farms. The first five-year plan, initiated in 1953 and carried out with Soviet assistance, emphasized heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods. Soviet aid and technical advice contributed greatly to the early success of the program.

F1b Foreign Policy  Chinese foreign policy reflected the unity of the Communist movement in the 1950s. China and the USSR signed a treaty of friendship and alliance in 1950, and in supplementary agreements, concluded in 1952 and 1954, the USSR made major concessions to China, including the abrogation of Soviet privileges in Northeast China. China also pursued close relations with its smaller Communist neighbors. During the Korean War (1950-1953) Chinese troops aided the Communist regime of North Korea against UN forces. After a truce was concluded in 1953, the Chinese accelerated the flow of military aid to Communist insurgents fighting the French in Vietnam. Zhou Enlai played an important role in negotiating the Geneva Agreements of 1954 that ended the hostilities.

F1c The Great Leap Forward  The caution and planning that went into the first five-year plan were to a large extent abandoned in the second, which began in 1958. More rigid controls were imposed on the economy in order to increase agricultural production, restrict consumption, and speed up industrialization. The slogan of the plan was to effect a Great Leap Forward. Largely because of poor direction and inadequate planning, the program miscarried. The economy became badly disorganized, and industrial production dropped by as much as 50 percent between 1959 and 1962.

F2 Growing Isolation  Matters were made worse in 1960 by the withdrawal of Soviet economic assistance and technical advice. As the USSR moved toward peaceful coexistence with the West, ideological differences developed between the two leading Communist powers. Their alliance deteriorated rapidly in the early 1960s, and in 1962 China openly condemned the USSR for withdrawing its missiles from Cuba under pressure from the United States, maintaining that aggression and revolution were the only means to achieve the basic Communist purpose of overthrowing capitalism. In particular, the Chinese accused Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev of modern revisionism and betrayal of Marxist-Leninist ideals. As a result, the USSR no longer actively financed the economic development of China. The Chinese began to compete openly with the USSR for leadership of the Communist bloc and for influence among the neutral nations. Zhou Enlai toured Asia and Africa in 1963 to gain support for the Chinese view.

F3 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution  As the Communists struggled to remake Chinese society, differences appeared between Mao, who favored a pure Communist ideology, and intellectuals, professional people, and bureaucrats, who wanted a more rational, moderate approach encouraging efficiency and productivity. In May 1956, party leaders concerned over their inability to command the unquestioning loyalty of the influential intellectual class launched a campaign advising the Chinese to "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." Educated Chinese were urged to air their complaints so that problems might be identified and resolved. In early 1957 Mao himself broadened the campaign, inviting free criticism of all government policies. It was assumed, of course, that such criticism would still be within the Communist framework. Such an unexpected torrent of dissatisfaction fell on party leaders, however, that in June 1957 strict controls on freedom of expression were reimposed.

F3a Widening Division  Thereafter the division between Mao and the moderates widened. In 1959 he retired as head of state and was succeeded by the moderate Liu Shaoqi; he retained the party chairmanship, however. Mao’s influence was further diminished by the economic failures of the Great Leap Forward. The division became a public struggle in 1966, when Mao and his supporters launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to eradicate the remains of so-called bourgeois ideas and customs and to recapture the revolutionary zeal of early Chinese communism. Mao also wanted to weaken the party bureaucracy, now entrenched in privilege, and modernize the educational system to benefit rural and manual laborers.

Students calling themselves Red Guards, joined by groups of workers, peasants, and demobilized soldiers, took to the streets in pro-Maoist, sometimes violent, demonstrations. They made intellectuals, bureaucrats, party officials, and urban workers their chief targets. The central party structure was destroyed as many high officials, including head of state Liu, were deprived of their positions and expelled from the party. Schools were closed and the economy disrupted.

F3b International Tension  During 1967 and 1968 bloody fighting between Maoists and anti-Maoists, and among various Red Guard factions, took thousands of lives. In some areas rebellion deteriorated into anarchy. Finally the army, led by Mao’s close associate Lin Biao, was called in to restore order. The Red Guards were sent back to school or to labor in remote areas.

F3c The Last Years Under Mao  Mao emerged victorious during the Cultural Revolution and was greatly honored. More diversity was allowed, however, and real power was held by others. The Ninth Party Congress in April 1969 attempted to reestablish the party’s central organization. Mao was reelected party chairman with much fanfare, and Defense Minister Lin Biao, Mao’s personal choice, was named his eventual successor. The most influential figures, however, were not Maoists but moderates—high military officials, followers of Lin Biao, or men of pragmatic policies such as Premier Zhou Enlai.

F4 Mao’s Successors  Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao both died in 1976, leaving a power vacuum. Zhou’s death precipitated a struggle for power between moderate and radical leaders. The radicals scored an early victory by preventing the moderate first deputy premier, Deng Xiaoping, from being chosen premier and then having him ousted from his government and party posts. As a compromise, Hua Guofeng, an administrator without close ties to either faction, became premier. Under Hua, moderate policies prevailed. Consolidating his position, he had the Gang of Four—as moderates called Mao’s widow Jiang Qing, and three other leading radicals—arrested and charged with assorted crimes. About the same time he was named to succeed Mao as party chairman.

F5 Foreign Relations  As these internal adjustments were being made, relations with Vietnam began to show strain. To China’s chagrin, Soviet influence in Vietnam was growing, and the policy of closing down private businesses in the newly won South was most acutely felt by the Chinese minority. The result was an exodus of ethnic Chinese who streamed into southern China, clogging its welfare facilities; by July 1978 China felt compelled to close its borders. When Vietnam further invaded Cambodia and toppled that country’s Chinese-backed government in January 1979, China retaliated; in February it sent troops into Vietnam. Although the forces were withdrawn in early March, the Vietnamese now regarded their remaining Chinese minority as unwelcome and put pressure on them to leave. Hundreds of thousands set off by sea, often in overloaded, rickety boats, and although many reached safety in other countries, as many are thought to have perished. The plight of the boat people became an international concern.

F6 Aging Leadership  
Deng Xiaoping was the dominant figure in China throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, retaining behind-the-scenes influence even as he steadily surrendered his public titles. Eager to expand trade and industry by attracting foreign investment, Deng and China’s other aging leaders took a far less dogmatic stance on economic policy than on political questions.