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. Zhonghua, 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 Nationalists and the Communists—struggled for control of the country. In 1949, the Communists won control of China. The Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan and set up a government there they called the Republic of China.

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.

In 1971 the United Nations (UN) admitted the People's Republic of China and expelled Taiwan from 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.

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.

Mountains occupy about 43 percent of China's land surface; mountainous plateaus account for another 26 percent; and basins, predominantly hilly in terrain and located mainly in arid regions, cover approximately 19 percent of the area. Only 12 percent of the total area may be classed as plains.

Physiographic Regions

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

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.

The Mongolian Borderlands

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).

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.

North China

This region lies between the Mongolian Borderlands on the north and the Yangtze River Basin on the south and consists of several distinct topographic units. The Loess 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 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 Highlands on the Shandong Peninsula consist 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 the Central Mountains, which constitute a formidable barrier to northern-southern movement.

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 mountain spurs of the Central Mountains and constitutes 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-Guizhou 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.

The Tibetan Plateau

Occupying the remote southwestern extremity of China is the high, mountain-rimmed plateau of Tibet; 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.

The northernmost major stream of China is the Amur River (Heilong Jiang), which forms most of the northeastern boundary with Russia. The Songhua (Sungari) and Liao rivers and their tributaries drain most of the Manchurian Plain and its surrounding highlands.

The major river of North China is the Huang He. It is traditionally referred to as "China's Sorrow" because, throughout Chinese history, it has periodically devastated large areas by flooding. The river is diked in its lower course, and its bed is elevated above the surrounding plain as a result of the accumulation of silt. The river rises in the marginal highlands of the Tibetan Plateau and follows a circuitous course to the Bo Hai (an arm of the Yellow Sea), draining an area more than twice the size of France. The Yangtze River of central China has a discharge more than ten times that of the Huang He. The longest river in Asia, it has a vast drainage basin. The Yangtze rises near the source of the Huang He and enters the sea at Shanghai. It is a major transportation artery.

Serving the major port of Guangzhou (Canton) are the estuarine lower reaches of the Xi Jiang, the most important river system of southern China. The river, which has numerous tributaries and distributaries, has a discharge three times as great as that of the Huang He.

Most of the important lakes (hu) of China lie along the middle and lower Yangtze Valley. The two largest in the middle portion are Dongting Hu and Poyang Hu. In summer these lakes increase their areas by two to three times and serve as reservoirs for excess water. Tai Hu is the largest of several lakes in the Yangtze delta, and Hongze Hu and Gaoyou Hu lie just to the north of the delta.

Saline lakes, many of considerable size, abound in the Tibetan Plateau. The largest is the marshy Qinghai Hu in the less elevated northeast, but several others nearly as large occur on the high plateau. In the arid northwest and in the Mongolian Borderlands are a number of large lakes, most of which are also saline; principal among these are Lop Nur and Bosten Hu east of the Tarim Pendi. Ulansuhai Nur, which is fed by the Huang He, is in Inner Mongolia; Hulun Nur lies west of the Da Hinggan Ling in Manchuria.

More than 2000 reservoirs have been constructed throughout the nation, primarily for irrigation and flood control. Most are small, but the largest, the Longmen reservoir on the Huang He, has a capacity of 35.4 billion cu m (1250 billion cu ft).

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.

The Asian monsoon (prevailing winds) exerts the primary control on China's climate. In winter, cold dry winds blow out of the high-pressure system of central Siberia, bringing low temperatures to all regions north of the Yangtze River and drought to most of the country. In summer, warm moist air flows inland from the Pacific Ocean, producing rainfall in the form of cyclonic storms. Amounts of precipitation decline rapidly with distance from the sea and on leeward sides of mountains. The remote basins of the northwest receive little precipitation. Summer temperatures are remarkably uniform throughout most of the country, but extreme temperature differences between north and south characterize the winters.

Southeastern China, from the Yangtze Valley southward, has a subtropical climate with a distinctly tropical climate in the extreme south. Summer temperatures in this region average 26° C (79° F). Average winter temperatures decline from about 18° C (about 64° F) in the tropical south to about 4° C (about 39° F) along the Yangtze River. An average of eight typhoons a year, mainly between July and November, bring high winds and heavy rains to the coastal areas. The mountainous plateaus and basins to the southwest also have subtropical climates, with considerable local variation. As a result of higher elevations, summers are cooler, and as a consequence of protection from northerly winds, winters are mild. The Sichuan Basin, which has an 11-month growing season, is noted for high humidity and cloudiness. Rainfall, especially abundant in summer, exceeds 990 mm (39 in) annually in nearly all parts of southern China.

North China, which has no mountain ranges to form a protective barrier against the flow of air from Siberia, experiences a cold, dry winter. January temperatures range from about 4° C (about 39° F) in the extreme south to about -10° C (about 14° F) north of Beijing and in the higher elevations to the west. July temperatures generally exceed 26° C (79° F) and, in the North China Plain, approach 30° C (86° F). Almost all the annual rainfall occurs in summer. Annual precipitation totals are less than 760 mm (less than 30 in) and decrease to the northwest, which has a drier, steppe climate. Year-to-year variability of precipitation in these areas is great; this factor, combined with the possibility of dust storms or hailstorms, makes agriculture precarious. Fog occurs on more than 40 days a year in the east and on more than 80 days along the coast.

The climate of Manchuria is similar to, but colder than, that of North China. January temperatures average about -18° C (about 0° F) over much of the Manchurian Plain, and July temperatures generally exceed 22° C (72° F). Rainfall, concentrated in summer, averages between about 510 and 760 mm (about 20 and 30 in) in the east but declines to about 300 mm (about 12 in) west of the Da Hinggan Ling.

Desert and steppe climates prevail in the Mongolian Borderlands and the northwest. January temperatures average below -10° C (14° F) everywhere except in the Tarim Pendi. July temperatures generally exceed 20° C (68° F). Annual rainfall totals less than 250 mm (less than 10 in), and most of the area receives less than 100 mm (less than 4 in).

Because of its high elevation, the Tibetan Plateau has an arctic climate; July temperatures remain below 15° C (59° F). The air is clear and dry throughout the year with annual precipitation totals of less than 100 mm (less than 4 in) everywhere except in the extreme southeast.

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.

Dense tropical rain forests are found in the region south of the Xi Jiang valley. These forests consist of broadleaf evergreens, some more than 50 m (more than 160 ft) tall, intermixed with palms. An extensive region of subtropical vegetation extends north to the Yangtze Valley and west to the Tibetan Plateau. This zone is especially rich in species, including evergreen oak, ginkgo, bamboo, pine, azalea, and camellia. Also found are forests with laurel and magnolia and a dense undergrowth of smaller shrubs and bamboo thickets. Conifers and mountain grasses dominate at higher elevations.

To the north of the Yangtze Valley a broadleaf deciduous forest, similar to that of the eastern United States, originally prevailed. The principal species remaining here are various oaks, ash, elm, and maple; linden and birch flourish to the north in Manchuria. China's most important timber reserves are found in the mountains of northern Manchuria, where extensive tracts of a larch-dominated coniferous forest remain. The Manchurian Plain, now under cultivation, was once dominated by a forest steppe—grasses interspersed with trees.

Prairie, or steppe, lands, covered with drought-resistant grasses, are found in the eastern portion of the Mongolian Borderlands. The vegetation of this region has, however, been depleted by overgrazing and soil erosion. The more arid regions of the northwest are characterized by clumps of herbaceous plants and grasses separated by extensive barren areas; salt-tolerant species dominate here. A somewhat lusher tundra vegetation, consisting of grasses and flowers, is found on most of the high plateau of Tibet. In more favored locations throughout the arid regions, larger shrubs and even trees may occur, and in many mountain areas, spruce and fir forests are found.

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).

Several types of primates, including gibbon and macaque as well as several other species of apes and monkeys, are abundant in the tropical south. Large carnivores, such as bear, tiger, and leopard, are few in number and confined to remote areas. Members of the leopard family, for instance, are distributed at the peripheries of the heavily populated areas; leopards are found in northern Manchuria, the snow leopard in Tibet, and the clouded leopard in the extreme south. Smaller carnivores, such as fox, wolf, raccoon dog, and civet cat, are widespread and locally numerous. Antelope, gazelle, chamois, wild horses, deer, and other hoofed animals inhabit the uplands and basins of the west, and the Alaskan moose is found in northern Manchuria. Birdlife is diverse and includes pheasant, peacock, parrot, heron, and crane.

Along with the common domesticated animals are found the water buffalo, an important draft animal in the south; the camel, which is utilized in the arid north and west; and the yak, a semidomesticated oxlike animal, which is used in the highlands of Tibet.

Marine life is abundant, especially along the southeastern coast, and includes flounder, cod, yellow croaker, pomfret, tuna, cuttlefish, sea crabs, prawns, and dolphins. The rivers of China contain a variety of carp species, as well as salmon, trout, sturgeon, catfish, and the Chinese river dolphin. Much of China's inland water is devoted to fish farming.

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.

China is particularly well endowed with energy resources. Coal reserves of up to 11 trillion metric tons are claimed, most of it in Manchuria and adjacent areas of North China. Petroleum reserves are estimated at more than 147 billion barrels, the bulk of which has been discovered offshore. China now claims to be second only to Saudi Arabia in oil reserves; other deposits are located in Manchuria and in the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai and in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Oil-shale deposits are located primarily in Liaoning and Guangdong.

Among metallic mineral ores, iron-ore reserves are estimated to be more than 40 billion metric tons. The largest deposits, mainly in southern Manchuria, northern Hebei, and Inner Mongolia (Nei Monggol), are mostly of low quality. Some high-grade deposits of hematite occur in Liaoning and Hubei in the Yangtze Valley. Extensive deposits have also been discovered on Hainan. Reserves of aluminum ores, occurring mainly in Liaoning and Shandong, are estimated at more than 1 billion metric tons. Tin reserves, found primarily in Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are perhaps as much as 2 million metric tons; China's production of refined tin amounts to about one-quarter of the world's output. China holds the world's largest reserves of both antimony and tungsten. Tungsten is found mainly in the highlands north of the Xi Jiang, and the largest antimony deposits are in Hunan.

China also holds abundant reserves of magnesite, molybdenum, mercury, and manganese. Reserves of lead, zinc, and copper, however, are modest. Uranium has been discovered in several localities, principally in Manchuria and the northwest. Other resources occurring in considerable quantities are phosphate rock, salt, talc, mica, quartz, silica, and fluorspar.

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.

Population

The Chinese population is approximately 92 percent ethnic, or 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.

Ethnic Groups

More than 70 million people belong to 56 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 Thai-related Zhuang, about 15.5 million, largely in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; the Hui, or Chinese Muslims, about 8.6 million, in Ningsia 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, Gansu, and Xinjiang; and the Tibetans, about 4.6 million, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (see Tibet) and Qinghai. 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 Ch'ing, or Manchu, dynasty. Numbering 9.8 million, they are almost indistinguishable from the Han Chinese.

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 1994, the death rate dropped from 22.5 to an estimated 7.3 per 1000 population; the birthrate declined from about 45 per 1000 in 1953 to an estimated 18.1 in 1994. As a result, the net natural increase declined from about 22.5 per 1000 in 1953 to 10.8 per 1000 in 1994. Nevertheless, at that rate China would still show an annual population growth of nearly 13 million.

The decrease in fertility recorded between the 1950s and 1990s was largely effected by government efforts to promote late marriages and, more recently, to induce the Chinese family to have only one child. This program has been coupled with the continual expansion of public health facilities that provide birth-control information and contraceptive devices at little or no cost. It was officially estimated in 1984 that 70 percent of all married couples of childbearing age were using contraception, and that 24 million couples had formally pledged to have no more than one child. Abortion is legal, and social pressures to terminate a pregnancy are applied to women who already have one child or more. The national minorities have generally been excluded from the government's birth-control program, in keeping with a policy of allowing the non-Han peoples a maximum of cultural independence.

In 1980 the government reported that 65 percent of the population was under 30 years of age. Thus, a substantial proportion of the Chinese population will be of childbearing age for at least the next several decades. In September 1982, the leadership of the Chinese Communist party declared that the nation must limit the population to 1.2 billion by the end of the century, a goal requiring an intensification of population control efforts. In 1988 the government recognized the goal as unattainable and revised it to 1.27 billion.

China had an estimated 1994 population of 1,190,431,106. The population density was about 124 people per sq km (about 322 per sq mi); this figure represents an average of a very uneven geographic distribution. The great bulk of the population is found in the 19 eastern provinces that have formed the historical heartland of China. This reflects the dissimilar historical land-use and settlement patterns of the Chinese (in the east) and the non-Han (in the west). Since the 1960s the Chinese government has promoted settlement of the lands of the western provinces and autonomous regions.

Despite industrialization, China continues to be a predominantly rural, agricultural nation. Although major urban concentrations existed in China even before the time of the Roman Empire (44 BC-AD 476), the country as a whole has only slowly come to be urbanized. Nearly three-quarters of the population is classified as rural.

Spontaneous migration from the countryside to the city was prohibited from the mid-1950s because of the lack of productive employment for additional city dwellers. This prohibition was the outgrowth of the belief of Communist leader Mao Zedong that the class distinction between urban and rural people was a major cause of social inequality in China. During the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, the Chinese expended considerable energy on a campaign of sending educated urban youth to the countryside for several years or even permanent settlement. This movement was intended to provide urban skills in rural areas, thereby reducing peasant interest in migrating to the city. The rustication program was downplayed after the death of Mao in 1976 and virtually eliminated by the end of 1978, at which time migration to the cities began to increase.

Residential mobility within cities is also restricted by the government. A person must have government approval and guarantee of a residence and employment before moving. Some residential movement within the major cities has resulted, however, from the large-scale destruction of old housing and its replacement by four- and five-story apartment buildings.

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, 1991 estimate, 7,830,000), the country's largest city and a major port; Beijing (7,000,000), the capital and cultural center of China; Tientsin (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.

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 (about 1766-about 1027 BC).

One of the most ambitious efforts of the Chinese Communist government since 1949 has been the modification of the Chinese language. The official spoken language of the Chinese is Putongua ("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.

In 1977 the Chinese made a formal request to the United Nations (UN) to have Pinyin ("phonetic spelling") romanization used for the spelling of place-names in China. This method of transliteration was created by the Chinese in the late 1950s and has been undergoing steady modification. Some Chinese officials claim that Pinyin will ultimately replace Chinese characters as the written Chinese language; this is not expected to become a reality in the near future, however.

China's more than 70 million minority members have their own spoken languages, which include Mongolian, Tibetan, Miao, Tai, Uygur, and Kazakh. Formerly, many of the minority languages did not have a written form; the Chinese government has encouraged the development of written scripts for these languages, using Pinyin. These groups are also encouraged to continue traditions that will promote knowledge of their ethnolinguistic heritage. The Mandarin-based dialect is taught in schools, usually as a second language, and knowledge of it is requisite throughout China. See Chinese Language.

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, 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.

Chief among the more formal religions of China, in addition to Buddhism and Taoism, were Christianity and Islam. Most temples and schools of these four religions were converted to secular purposes. Only with the constitution of 1978 was official support again given for the promulgation of formal religion in China. The constitution also stated, however, that the Chinese population had the right to hold no religious beliefs and "to propagate atheism." The constitution of 1982 allows residents freedom of religious belief, and protects legitimate religious activities. Since then many temples, churches, and mosques have reopened.

Since religious rights were guaranteed, Christian groups in the cities and Buddhist sects in both the cities and countryside have been extremely active. The ethnic Chinese Muslims, or Hui, as well as the Muslim minority peoples such as the Uygur, Kazakhs, and Kirgiz, have held their faith in Islam continually but now practice their religion more openly.

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 promotion of their political programs. Therefore, the Communists combined political propaganda with educational development. The 1990 census showed the literacy rate has climbed to 78 percent.

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 of 1966 to 1969, virtually all classrooms in China were closed. 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.

Government policies toward education changed dramatically during this period. The traditional 13 years of kindergarten to 12th grade were reduced to a 9- or 10-year plan for primary and secondary (or middle) school. Colleges that had traditionally had a four- or five-year curriculum adopted a three-year program, and part of this time was mandated as productive labor in support of the school or the course of study being pursued. A two-year period of manual labor also became essential for most secondary school graduates who wished to go on to college.

Following Mao's death in 1976, a major review of these policies began. As a result, and because of the increased interest in the development of science in Chinese education, curricula again came to resemble those of the pre-Cultural Revolution years. Programs for primary and secondary schooling were gradually readjusted to encompass 12 years of study, and high school graduates were no longer required to go to the countryside for two years of labor before competing for college positions.

A significant change in the educational system has been the reinstitution of standardized college-entrance exams. These exams were a regular part of the mechanism for upward mobility in China prior to the Cultural Revolution. During the experimentation of those years, antitraditionalists were able to eliminate the entrance exams by arguing that they favored an elite who had an intellectual tradition in their families. When colleges reopened from 1970 to 1972, admission was granted to many candidates because of their political leanings, party activities, and peer-group support. This method of selection ceased in 1977, as the Chinese launched their new campaign for the Four Modernizations. The government's stated goals for rapid modernization in agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology required high levels of training. Such educational programs by necessity had to be based on theoretical and formal skills more than on political attitudes and the spirit of revolution. As a result of student disturbances in 1989, university students are again required to complete one year of political education prior to entering college.

By the early 1990s about 121.6 million pupils were enrolled in primary schools, and about 52.3 million students were enrolled in secondary schools; enrollments in 1949 had been about 24 million in primary schools and 1.25 million in secondary schools. About 2.04 million students enrolled in China's 1075 institutions of higher learning.

Chinese higher education is now characterized by the "key-point system." Under this system the most promising students are placed in selected key-point schools, which specialize in training an academic elite. University education remains difficult to attain; as many as 2 million students compete each year through entrance examinations for 500,000 university openings. Students finishing secondary schools may also attend junior colleges and a variety of technical and vocational schools. Among the most prominent universities in China are Beijing University (1898); Hangzhou University (1952); Fudan University (1905), in Shanghai; and the University of Science and Technology of China (1958), in Hefei. All higher education in China is free. An innovation in China's educational system is the Television University (see Communications below).

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.

With the increase in foreign cultural exchanges since the mid-1970s, the official attitude toward the propaganda aspects of the arts has been relaxed. Foreign literature, which had been banned in the 1960s, began to reappear in China. In 1978 and 1979 some 200 translations of foreign works, including popular novels from the West, were completed in the People's Literature Publishing House.

In popular music the change was officially noted in a government report, which stated that new songs were emerging in the early 1980s because the Chinese were "tired of the old political songs and slogans they grew up with." The Chinese government also recognizes that the arts afford a useful social outlet. Movie theaters are usually filled to capacity, and traveling troupes of acrobats, circus performers, and jugglers, as well as ballet and opera shows, play to full houses in small cities and commune centers. During the 1980s, China showed increased openness to classical and popular musicians from the West.

The climate for cultural expression in China is delicate because of the speed with which government attitudes can change. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers campaign, writers and intellectuals were encouraged to speak up and provide perspectives on the government's progress in meeting the needs of the people. The criticisms that were prompted by this call for candor were so strong that the government suddenly reversed itself, and many intellectuals found themselves persecuted for the opinions they had expressed. Similar "changes of sky" led China's artists, writers, composers, and filmmakers to respond cautiously to governmental encouragement of independent cultural expression in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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.

Beijing remains the cultural heart of the nation. Located in the vicinity of the famous Tiananmen Square are the Forbidden City, formerly the residence of the emperor and now a museum open to the public; the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall; and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution (1950). Beijing was also the location of the famous "Democracy Wall" and its so-called big-character posters that were significant (until officially banned in the late 1970s) in the expression of public opinion about governmental policy shifts after Mao's death in 1976. The Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Ming dynasty tombs, and the Great Wall are all near Beijing; these great monuments of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties provide a cultural focus for the increasingly mobile Chinese population.

In Shanghai are the Museum of Art and History, which houses one of China's finest art collections, and the Museum of Natural Sciences. Also here is the Garden of the Mandarin Yu, which exemplifies a significant program of government support of the arts; after 1949 the Communist government opened many formerly private homes, gardens, and parks of the wealthy, making them into public museums. They have become popular in all cities as places to stroll, meet for tea, and chat with friends and foreigners, and as places to be educated about the class differences between the wealthy and the poor before 1949.

Guangzhou is the home of one of China's major zoos; the Guangzhou Museum; Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (1931); Yuexiu Park, with its Ming dynasty Zhenhai Pagoda; the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees; and the Huaisheng Mosque, which was founded in AD 627. Near Xi'an (Sian) is one of the most impressive works of Chinese antiquity—a terra-cotta army of more than 6000 life-size figures that were found in the tomb of the Ch'in emperor Shih Huang Ti, who died in 210 BC.

The promotion of national self-awareness since the 1949 revolution has led virtually every city to establish some sort of cultural monument to its role in the development of China. In cities where no formal museums exist, usually a former estate has been turned into an open garden or tearoom, giving the cities an increasingly urbane character.

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.

The Chinese Communist party emerged in the 1920s in the midst of a mounting economic crisis caused by foreign intervention and increased landlord influence in the countryside. For more than two decades, it expanded its control over large rural areas by introducing an agrarian program based on the control of rent and usury, and by giving power to peasant associations. On October 1, 1949, the Communist party successfully established a unified national government and economy on the mainland for the first time since the end of the imperial period in 1912. From 1949 to 1952 the emphasis was on halting inflation and ending food shortages and unemployment. The new government initiated a land reform program that redistributed land to 300 million poor peasants. Under the first five-year plan (1953-1957), 92 percent of the agricultural population was organized into cooperative farms. In 1958 the rural people's communes were established, and these dominated agriculture in China until the early 1980s. The commune was based on the collective ownership of all land and major tools by its members, who produced mainly to meet state planning targets and who were rewarded according to the work they performed, although basic necessities were guaranteed to all members.

In the urban-industrial sector, state ownership of property and of industrial and commercial enterprises was gradually extended. Industry grew steadily from heavy investment under the first five-year plan, and the state-owned sector achieved an overwhelming importance. The second five-year plan was introduced in 1958, and in the summer of that year the regime embarked on its much publicized Great Leap Forward. This program was characterized by large investments in heavy industry and the establishment of small-scale versions of such industries as steel refining. The program, however, caused great disruptions in economic management and in rational economic growth, and in 1960 the Great Leap Forward had to be abandoned. The Chinese economy then entered a period of readjustment, but by 1965 production in many fields again approached the level of the late 1950s. The third five-year plan began in 1966, but both agricultural and industrial production were severely curtailed by the effects of the Cultural Revolution; a fourth five-year plan was introduced in 1971 as the economy began its recovery.

After eliminating the vestiges of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, China's leaders decided to move at a faster pace on all economic fronts to make up for the loss suffered in the preceding ten years. A fifth five-year program was begun in 1976 but was interrupted in 1978, when the Four Modernizations program was launched. It called for the "all-round modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology by the end of the century so that the economy can take its place in the front ranks of the world." A ten-year plan for 1976 to 1985 stressed improvement in economic management and a larger role for private and collectively owned (as opposed to state-owned) enterprises. This program was superseded by a more modest ten-year plan for 1981 to 1990, but efforts to attract Western technology and investment continued, as did a program of incentives to increase agricultural production. Policies introduced in October 1984 called for further decentralization of economic planning and for increased reliance on market forces to determine the prices of consumer goods. The five-year plan for 1986 to 1990 anticipated an annual economic growth rate of 7 percent, but the economy slowed after the political crackdown in 1989. The slowdown, however, was temporary, and the Chinese economy expanded rapidly during the early 1990s as the government continued to ease controls on the economy; in 1993 the economy grew by an estimated 13 percent. This rapid growth has caused some problems, such as high inflation rates in urban areas.

National Output

The annual gross domestic product (GDP) of China in the early 1990s was $544.6 billion, or about $460 per capita. Agricultural output (which also includes some small-scale industries in rural areas, forestry, and fishing) accounted for about 24 percent of domestic income, and industrial output (which includes manufacturing, mining, electricity generation, and building and construction) accounted for 42 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 grew at a rate well above 10 percent annually in the early 1990s, one of the largest growth rates in the world.

Labor

The Chinese labor force is estimated at nearly 584 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 about 60 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.

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 about 10 percent of China's total area is arable (mostly located in eastern China), and nearly all this land is under cultivation. Almost half the cultivated land is irrigated; indeed, China has more irrigated land than any other country. 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 Manchuria 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 0.13 hectare (0.32 acre) in the early 1990s.

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.

Under the commune system it was possible to organize large-scale agricultural experimentation for scientific farming, to plant crops in areas where soil and other natural conditions are most favorable, and to develop irrigation and drainage on an efficient scale. Although land was collectively owned, each rural household usually had access to a small private plot, which it was free to use as it pleased. Autonomy was also granted to production teams and individual households to market products after official targets were met.

In the early 1980s, in an effort to erase China's perennial food deficit while allowing an increase in average per capita food consumption, the Chinese government once again restructured the agricultural sector. The system of communes and production brigades was largely dismantled, and the household became the principal unit of agricultural production. Under this "responsibility system," each household, after contracting with local authorities to produce its quota of specified crops, was free to sell any additional output on the free market. Such sales represented about 60 percent of Chinese agricultural output in the late 1980s.

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.

Agricultural mechanization is actively pursued, although it remains in the early stages of development and is considered impractical in many places because of the relatively small size of the cultivated areas. Flood control and irrigation projects, which include the construction of dams, canals, and reservoirs, have been accomplished on a large scale since the 1950s. In the same period important changes have also occurred in cropping patterns in China. With the development of water resources and a more intensive use of fertilizer, a second crop could be planted along the three river valleys on the North China Plain. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze Valley, already a double-cropped paddy area, were made to yield three crops of paddy each year. More recently, however, the possibility of returning to the two-crop pattern of cultivation has been discussed, because a third crop involves high fertilizer expenditure and a tight farming schedule.

To supplement agricultural production, the various levels of government operate about 2300 state farms. There are large-scale units run for the purpose of agricultural experimentation and for commercial production of certain economic crops and foodstuffs for urban markets or export. They are usually located in virgin lands or in newly reclaimed areas where the rural population density is not great and modern machinery may be used effectively.

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 Red Basin of Sichuan. In the early 1990s the annual production of rice was about 183.8 million metric tons, the largest in the world.

The second most important food crop is wheat, which is grown mainly north of the Huai River. The chief wheat-growing areas are the North China Plain and the valleys of the Wei and Fen rivers in the loess region. Although the area of wheat cultivated is nearly as large as that of rice, the yield is lower. The wheat crop in the early 1990s was about 96 million metric tons a year.

Kaoliang (a sorghum) and millet are important food crops in North China and Manchuria. Kaoliang is also used as an animal feed and converted into alcohol for a beverage; the stalks are utilized to make paper and as a roofing material. Maize occupies about 15 percent of the cultivated area. Oats are important chiefly in Inner Mongolia and in the west, notably in Tibet. Annual production in the late 1980s included (in metric tons): maize, 98.8 million; kaoliang, 4.9 million; millet, 3.4 million; barley, 3 million; and oats, 600,000.

Other food crops include sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and various fruits and vegetables. Sweet potatoes predominate in the south and white potatoes in the north. Fruit ranges from such tropical varieties as pineapples and bananas, grown on the island of Hainan, to apples and pears, grown in the northern provinces of Liaoning and Shandong. Citrus fruits, particularly oranges and tangerines, are major products of South China.

Oilseeds play a major role in Chinese agriculture, supplying edible and industrial oils and an important share of exports. The most important oil crop is the soybean, which occupies about 5 percent of the total cultivated area; it is grown mainly in North China and Manchuria. Among the world's leaders in yearly soybean production (9.7 million metric tons in the early 1990s), China is also the world's leading producer of peanuts, with an annual production in the early 1990s of about 6.3 million metric tons. Peanuts are grown in Shandong and Hebei. Other important oilseed crops are sesame and sunflower seeds and rapeseed. A valuable oil is supplied also by the tung tree. More than half the tung oil produced in China originates in Sichuan.

Tea is a traditional export crop of China. Still one of the major tea producers, China produces more than 20 percent of the world supply; its annual output was about 542,000 metric tons in the early 1990s. The principal tea plantations are on the hillsides of the middle Yangtze River valley and in the southeastern provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.

China obtains sugar both from sugarcane and from sugar beets; the annual production of refined sugar is about 6.4 million metric tons. Sugarcane is grown mainly in the provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan. Sugar beets, a relatively new crop for the country, are raised in the Manchurian province of Heilongjiang and on irrigated land in Inner Mongolia.

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; about 5.7 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 North China Plain, the loess region, the Yangtze River delta, and the middle Yangtze plain. The North China Plain 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.

Livestock

China maintains a large livestock population. Hogs are numerous; they numbered about 370 million in the early 1990s, accounting for nearly 45 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 about 105 million cattle and water buffalo, 111 million sheep, 95 million goats, and 10 million horses.

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 about 14 percent in the early 1990s. Timber remains in very short supply, however; the annual output of roundwood was 282.3 million cu m (about 10 billion cu ft) in the early 1990s. Two-thirds of this amount was used for fuel.

The distribution of forests in China is very uneven. The northeast and southwest have half the forest area and three-quarters of the forest resources. Principal species cut are various pines, spruce, larch, oak, and, in the extreme south, teak and mahogany. Other commercial species include the tung tree, lacquer tree, camphor, and bamboo. Nationwide tree-planting campaigns have involved both state-run projects and collectively organized efforts; rural communes have been responsible for planting 70 percent of the total reforested area. Trees are planted around settlements, along roads, on the edge of bodies of water, and by the sides of peasant homes. A major project is to establish a continuous forest belt along the northwestern border of the semiarid regions, on the North China Plain, and in western Manchuria.

Fishing

The total catch of fish, shellfish, and mollusks in China in the early 1990s was estimated at about 13.1 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.

Unlike inland freshwater fishing, marine fishing was relatively undeveloped until recently. Most fishermen were resettled in coastal fishing communes in the 1960s, and many were encouraged to pursue agricultural activities as well as fishing. These communes also practiced marine fish farming. The marine catch, at 7.6 million metric tons each year, now surpasses freshwater landings.

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 42 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.

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.

The program for readjustment called for a slowing of heavy industrial growth; light industries were given priority for industrial development funds, for they were considered able to return the investments within a short time, facilitating their own rapid expansion. Funds were also directed into the building and construction industry to improve the living conditions of urban residents and to create job opportunities for the urban unemployed.

Another recent reform is the granting of autonomy to state-owned enterprises to determine—after meeting state targets—how to handle production, sales, and profits. China has also sent large numbers of scholars, factory managers, and technicians abroad to acquire advanced management and technical expertise. Foreign technology has also been imported in the form of new and complete plants.

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. Manchuria, North China, and the Yangtze Valley are the main producing areas.

Major iron and steel mills are located at Anshan, Benxi, Beijing, Baotou, Taiyuan, Wuhan, Ma'anshan, Panzhihua, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tientsin. In the early 1990s China annually produced about 68 million metric tons of pig iron and 71 million metric tons of crude steel.

Among China's heavy industries are shipbuilding and the manufacture of locomotives, rolling stock, tractors, mining machinery, power-generating equipment, and petroleum-drilling and refining machinery.

The petrochemical industry has plants in most of the provinces and autonomous regions; the major plants are located at Beijing, Shanghai, Lanzhou, Shengli, Yueyang, Anqing, and Guangzhou. Products include synthetic fibers, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. A unique feature of the Chinese petrochemical industry is the widespread presence of small nitrogenous fertilizer factories that use a production technique developed in China. In the early 1990s Chinese factories annually produced 21 million metric tons of fertilizers.

The Chinese textile industry is the largest in the world, and cotton yarn production stood at 4.6 million metric tons in the early 1990s. Most of the new cotton-textile mills have been constructed in the cotton-growing areas of Hubei, Hunan, Hebei, and Shaanxi provinces.

Other important manufactures, and their production rates in the early 1990s included cement (304 million metric tons), paper and paperboard (15.9 million metric tons), bicycles (36.8 million units), sewing machines (7.6 million units), motor vehicles (714,200 units), and television sets (26.9 million units).

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 annual output that exceeded about 1 billion metric tons by the early 1990s. 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.

Rapid development of the petroleum industry since the 1950s has made China one of the world's major producers; yearly production stood at about 1.04 billion barrels in the early 1990s. China became self-sufficient in gasoline products in 1963, and by 1973 it was able to export both crude oil and refined petroleum products. Daqing oil field, in the province of Heilongjiang, was discovered and developed in the late 1950s and is now the most productive oil field in the country. The nation's largest petroleum reserves, estimated at approximately 10 billion barrels, are found in the arid Tarim Pendi, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Production of iron ore grew rapidly in the 1970s and early 1980s, and annual output was estimated at 86 million metric tons in the early 1990s. China is the world's largest producer of natural graphite, with an output of 490,000 metric tons in 1989. Other minerals produced in the country in significant quantities include salt (28 million metric tons), magnesite (2 million), phosphate rock (21.6 million), bauxite (3.7 million), manganese (640,000), sulfur (300,000), zinc (763,000), copper (296,000), lead (364,000), antimony ore (29,700), tin (42,100), tungsten (11,000), and mercury (700).

Energy

China is one of the world's leading producers of electricity, with an annual estimated output of 740 billion kilowatt-hours in the early 1990s, and an installed generating capacity of 158.7 billion kilowatt-hours. Yet, electricity production is not sufficient to meet needs, especially in the cities development has been given high priority by the government.

About 75 percent of China's annual electrical output is thermally generated in coal-burning installations, with oil-fired plants supplying 20 percent. Hydropower accounts for virtually all of the remainder. The country's main hydroelectric stations are at Liujia Xia on the Huang He in Gansu, Danjiangkou on the Han River in Hubei, Gongu on the Dadu River in Sichuan, and one on the Xin'an Jiang in Zhejiang. Numerous other large-scale generating stations under construction since the late 1970s include one on the Yangtze River, just below the Yangtze Gorges, and one on the Huang He, where it leaves the Qinghai grassland. New coal-fired stations include several built adjacent to the large coalfields of North China. A nuclear energy plant is in Shanghai.

China's waterpower resources are more plentiful than those of any other country. A notable feature of the Chinese power industry has been the construction of small, local power-generating plants. Local governments and rural communes have harnessed hydroelectric potential as an integral part of their water conservation programs, especially in the south, where precipitation is great and rivers are swift and often have steep gradients. A number of small methane-fired plants, using garbage as fuel, were opened in the 1980s.

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 exceeds about 64,000 km (about 40,000 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.

Chinese roads and highways have grown from a pre-1949 length of about 80,000 km (about 50,000 mi), which only provided connections between the coastal treaty ports and the immediate hinterlands, to a system of about 1,029,000 km (about 639,000 mi). About 17 percent of these routes are paved and another 63 percent are gravel or improved earth. Roads now connect Beijing to the capitals of all provinces and autonomous regions, as well as to major ports and railroad centers. The network also extends into rural areas, making most localities accessible by roads. Motorized public transportation is well developed in urban centers, and the bicycle is widely used for traveling short distances. The more than 700,000 motor vehicles produced annually in China, however, do not meet the needs of an increasingly mobile population.

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 1541 larger ships (with another 227 owned by China but registered in other countries) that visit ports in more than 100 countries. Most of these ships were built in China.

Air transportation in China received a boost with the purchase of three jumbo jetliners in 1979 and the opening of a new international airport in Beijing in 1980; since then, air travel between China and the rest of the world has intensified. Internal flights now link more than 90 cities, 47 of which can handle large passenger jets.

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 the early 1990s about 21.3 million radios were in use. 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 35.8 million television sets in the early 1990s. 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.

The Central People's Television Station was established in Beijing in 1958; in the same year the first Chinese television sets were manufactured in the Tientsin State Radio Plant. Beijing has augmented the standard programming of the Central People's Television Station with two additional channels, and many cities or provinces have their own local stations. The average composition of programming is 20 percent news; 25 percent sports, service, science, and programs for children and specialized audiences; and 55 percent entertainment. In 1993 the government attempted to restrict access to foreign satellite broadcasts, newly accessible to millions due to the growth in the number of private receivers.

The Television University, under the administration of Central People's Television, is another aspect of China's communications. In Beijing, nine hours a day of television courses are offered. Hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in Television University programs. This arrangement is especially suitable for China with its extremely large college-age population.

China's earliest international broadcasting station was established in 1950 with programs in seven languages and was named Radio Beijing. In 1978 the name was changed to the International Radio of the People's Republic of China, and its broadcast schedule was expanded to 38 foreign languages. In the early 1990s, China produced about 20 million radios annually.

Some 1635 newspapers have a combined circulation exceeding 125 million. The most significant newspaper is the Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), published in Beijing. It is under the direct control of the Communist party's Central Committee. Its daily circulation is about 3 million. Most of the news comes from Xinhua (New China News Agency). Foreign observers consider this a primary source for news of China. Other major newspapers and periodicals include Sichuan Ribao (Sichuan Daily), Guangming Ribao (Kuangming Daily), Jiefang Ribao (Liberation Daily), Renmin Huabao (People's Pictorial), and Jingji Ribao (Economic Daily).

China has an active publishing industry. The government's drive for universal education has resulted in heightened public interest in both fiction and nonfiction, as well as in the translated works of foreign authors.

Postal and telecommunications services are controlled by the government. Telephone service extends to virtually all localities, but few households have their own telephones. In the early 1990s about 15 million telephones were in use.

Currency and Banking

The Chinese unit of currency is the yuan (8.71 yuan equal U.S.$1; 1994). 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.

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.

Until the late 1970s the raw materials and equipment needed by state-owned enterprises were generally not purchased as commodities but were provided to these enterprises by the government. After production was completed, the products were submitted to the government for distribution. The consumer goods needed by the rural population were distributed by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, a state-run operation. Such essential items as food grains, oil, meat, sugar, and cotton fabric were rationed because they were relatively scarce and because low fixed prices had to be ensured for everyone. Food grains were distributed to rural households by production teams as the major part of remuneration for work performed.

Since 1979, state-owned enterprises have been free to obtain some of their supplies and dispose of a part of their product on the market; wider use of advertisement as a source of information has also been evident. In urban centers, this reorganization of commerce has brought about a rapid growth of collectively and individually owned businesses, such as restaurants, teahouses, inns, hairdressing establishments, photography studios, tailor shops, and all types of repair and maintenance services. Rural markets have been reopened where individual households are allowed to dispose of their surplus products or to purchase supplies.

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 the early 1990s yearly exports totaled about $92 billion and imports about $104 billion. The principal Chinese exports included clothing and accessories, textiles, petroleum and petroleum products, footwear, and telecommunications and sound equipment. Among the major imports were machinery, steel products and other metals, automobiles, synthetics, agricultural chemicals, rubber, wheat, and ships. Hong Kong is China's chief trading partner, annually purchasing in the early 1990s about $37.5 billion in goods and selling $20.5 billion. Other principal partners are Japan, the United States, Taiwan, Germany, Russia, South Korea, and France. Trade relations with the United States were imperiled in 1993 when the United States threatened not to renew China's "most-favored-nation" (MFN) trading status unless human rights conditions in China improved. However, in May 1994 the United States renewed China's MFN designation, even though the Chinese government made little progress toward improving its human-rights record.

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 the early 1990s some 38 million tourists visited China annually, spending nearly $4 billion.

Government

China has had an organized government since the establishment of the Shang dynasty about 1726 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.

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. In the early 1990s, however, Deng Xiaoping, who did not hold any official post, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese government. In January 1995 the government described Deng as being in good health, although Deng's daughter admitted her father's health was in decline and he could no longer stand or walk.

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. The Fifth National People's Congress, elected in 1978, consisted of 3497 deputies, with workers and peasants accounting for nearly half the membership. The Sixth National People's Congress, which convened in June 1983, had 2978 delegates. The seventh Congress convened in March 1988, and the eighth in March 1993, with 2970 deputies.

The National People's Congress is empowered to pass laws, amend the constitution, and to approve the national budget and economic plans. It also has the power to appoint and remove members of the State Council (cabinet).

In practice, however, the National People's Congress has little real power. Because of its unwieldy size, the congress meets only irregularly to conduct required business. While the congress is not in session, a Standing Committee, elected from its membership, acts in its place. The Standing Committee also represents the congress in a variety of government functions, including receiving foreign envoys and ratifying or nullifying treaties with foreign governments.

The State Council is the central governmental body of the National People's Congress. It is led by the Chinese premier and vice premiers. Various ministries, commissions, and agencies are responsible to the Council.

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.

One reason for China's reluctance in developing a more formal legal framework is that the Communist party has acted as an informal mediator between the aggrieved parties in cases of civil wrongdoing. This role has given the party an important function in the day-to-day workings of Chinese society. Resolution of neighborhood disputes, divorces, family arguments, and minor thefts have been particularly influenced by this type of paralegal mediation; the local party secretary is usually the mediator in such cases.

Occasional public trials are highly publicized; among the most prominent of these was the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980 and 1981 (see the "History" section of this article). The government intends such trials to be instructive to the Chinese public. As the Chinese move toward closer relations with Western nations, pressure to institute a more formal body of legal statutes will probably increase. This may in turn generate an associated network of lawyers, courtrooms, and more formal legal procedures.

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 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 3 directly governed municipalities—Beijing, Shanghai, and Tientsin. 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 non-Chinese minorities.

From the late 1950s through the 1970s, in most areas administrative towns and villages were replaced by communes as the basic administrative units and the communes were further divided into production brigades. In 1985 a five-year campaign to dismantle 56,000 rural communes was completed.

Although each layer of governmental structure is responsible to the layer above it, much authority has generally been vested in small local units. The promise of such an arrangement was important in the success of the Chinese Communists in 1949. The government has expended considerable energy to continue to have such local government provide a forum for discussion of and input into the governing process in China.

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.

The Chinese Communist party has more than 52 million members (although this represents only about 4.2 percent of the total population) and is the world's largest Communist party. The party held its first National Party Congress in 1921, when it had only 57 members; its membership had grown to 10 million by 1956. The organization and functions of the Communist party are set forth in the party constitution; the sixth party constitution was approved in 1982 at the 12th Congress. It is notable for de-emphasizing the authority of the party leader, whose title was changed from chairman to general secretary. The National Party Congress is the highest party organ. The Central Committee, elected by the National Party Congress, elects the Politburo and its Standing Committee, as well as the party general secretary. Functional authority over the party machinery resides with the Politburo and the Standing Committee.

Several minor political parties and mass organizations are active in China. Among these are the China Democratic League, the All-China Athletic Federation, and the All-China Woman's Federation, but the only one with any potential for political influence is the Communist Youth League, with about 56 million members in the early 1990s. This organization plays a major role in recruiting youth who wish to prepare for membership in the Communist party after the age of 18.

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.

Among the most impressive gains have been those in the area of health care. In 1949 the life expectancy in China was 45 years; by the mid-1990s the figure had risen to about 68 years for men and 71 years for women. During the same period the number of medical doctors increased greatly: Despite an overall rapid population increase, China in the early 1990s had 1 doctor for every 637 inhabitants, as opposed to a ratio of 1 to 27,000 in 1949. Clinics are found at the village and district level, and hospitals, in most cases, at the city and county level. For a year's coverage at the local clinic level, the cost per individual is equal to approximately two and one-half days' labor; when a patient visits the clinic, a nominal fee is levied. For more comprehensive treatment at municipal or provincial medical facilities, the cost is usually borne by the work unit or the government.

One of the most profound recent changes in health services has involved the renewed interest in traditional Chinese medicine—local herbal medications, folk medicine, and acupuncture, for example. Such treatment is now more common in China than is Western-style medicine. In rural areas, as much as four-fifths of the medication utilized may be herbal. A paramedical corps of so-called barefoot doctors plays an important role in bringing health services to the people. These personnel are trained in hygiene, preventive medicine, acupuncture, and routine treatment of common diseases. They operate in rural areas where both Chinese and Western-style doctors are scarce. For millions of peasants the barefoot doctor is their first encounter with anyone trained in health services.

China has promoted mass campaigns in the health-care field. Efforts to promote child immunizations, eradicate schistosomiasis, and diminish venereal disease have all been given widespread governmental promotion. Highly successful campaigns have been waged against tuberculosis, malaria, filariasis, and other diseases that were formerly widespread. The government has vacillated in its support of family planning through birth-control programs. Since the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, however, the government has strengthened its encouragement of birth control. Family planning is specifically advocated by the constitution.

The government also provides benefits for disability, maternity, injury, and old age.

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 the early 1990s the PLA was approximately 3 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 260,000 members, including about 25,000 in the naval air force and another 6,000 in the marines; the air force had 470,000 members, including 220,000 in air defense. There is also a strategic rocket force of 90,000. The army was supported by a national militia of some 12 million, including a security force of about 1.2 million.

The navy had more than 2000 vessels, including 47 submarines, one of them armed with nuclear missiles. The air force had about 5000 combat aircraft. China has made significant progress in the development of nuclear weapons, but in comparison with those of the United States or Russia, its arsenal is small. The PLA also plays a significant role in economic production and in major construction efforts such as dams, irrigation projects, and land reclamation schemes. The PLA virtually ran the nation during the most chaotic years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1969) and suppressed prodemocracy demonstrations in Beijing in June 1989.

History

According to Chinese tradition, the Chinese people originated in the Huang He (Yellow River) valley. The legends tell of a creator, 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 circa 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).

The Earliest Dynasties

Tradition names the Hsia (1994?-1766? BC) as the first hereditary Chinese dynasty, which ended only when a Hsia 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.

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 Hsia. The last Shang monarch, a cruel and debauched tyrant, was overthrown by a vigorous king of Chou, a state in the Wei River valley. Situated on the northwestern fringes of the Shang domain, the culture of Chou 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.

Chinese civilization was gradually extended over most of China proper north of and including the Yangtze Valley under the Chou dynasty. The broad expanse of this area and the primitive state of overland communications made it impossible for the Chou 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.

Chou 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.

Religious practices corresponded to the hierarchical social system. The Chou believed that heaven gave a mandate to rule, which sanctioned the political authority of the kings. The Chou kings sacrificed to the Lord on High, now called T'ien ("Heaven"), and to their ancestors. The lords of the states sacrificed to local nature and agricultural deities, as well as to their ancestors. Individual families offered sacrifices to their ancestors. If sacrifices were neglected, misfortunes and calamities were expected to result.

The Eastern Chou

The Chou 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 Chou from their capital near the site of present-day Xi'an. Subsequently, the Chou established a new capital to the east, at Loyang. Although they were now safer from barbarian attack, the Eastern Chou could no longer exercise much political or military authority over the vassal states, many of which had grown larger and stronger than the Chou. As custodians of the mandate of heaven, however, the Chou 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.

Economic integration enabled rulers to exercise control over greater expanses of territory. States situated on the outer fringes of the Chinese cultural zone expanded at the expense of their less advanced non-Chinese neighbors, and, in expanding, invigorated and diversified their own cultures through selective borrowing from the non-Chinese civilizations. It was from non-Chinese in the northwest, for example, that the Chinese of the border areas first adopted the use of mounted cavalry units. For the states in the heartland of the North China Plain, expansion meant aggression against other states that shared the same basic civilization, and the uniformity of culture among the states tended to promote cultural stagnation. By the 6th century BC seven powerful states surrounded the few smaller, relatively weak ones on the North China Plain.

With the decline of the political authority of the Chou dynasty and the emergence of the powerful peripheral states, interstate relations became increasingly unstable. During the 7th and 6th centuries BC, brief periods of stability were achieved by organizing interstate alliances under the hegemony of the strongest member. By the late 5th century BC, however, the system of alliances had proved untenable, and Chou China was plunged into a condition of interstate anarchy. The era is known as the Period of the Warring States (403-221 BC).

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 Chou. 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.

The doctrines of Taoism, the second great school of philosophy during the Period of the Warring States, are set forth in the Tao-te Ching ("Classic of the Way and Its Virtue"), which is attributed to the semihistorical figure Lao-tzu, and in the works of Chuang-tzu. The Taoists disdained the intricately structured system that the Confucians favored for the cultivation of human virtue and establishment of social order. At the political level Taoism advocated a return to primitive agricultural communities, in which life could follow the most natural course. Government policy should be one of extreme laissez-faire, permitting a spontaneous response to nature by the people.

A third school of political thought that flourished during the same period and subsequently exercised a lasting influence on Chinese civilization was legalism. Reasoning that the extreme disorders of their day called for new and drastic measures, the legalists advocated the establishment of a social order based on strict and impersonal laws governing every aspect of human activity. To enforce such a system they desired the establishment of a powerful and wealthy state, in which the ruler would have unquestioned authority. The legalists urged the socialization of capital, establishment of government monopolies, and other economic measures designed to enrich the state, strengthen its military power, and centralize administrative control.

Creation of the Empire

During the 4th century BC, the state of 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 Chou grew ever weaker until the regime collapsed in 256 BC. A generation later, the Ch'in had subjugated the other warring states.

In 221 BC, the king of Ch'in proclaimed himself Shih Huang Ti, or First Emperor of the Ch'in 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 Ch'in 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 Ch'in 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 Ch'in to outlaw the many contending schools of philosophy that had flourished during the late Chou. Only legalism was given official sanction, and in 213 BC the books of all other schools were burned, except for copies held by the Ch'in imperial library.

The First Emperor also attempted to push the perimeter of Chinese civilization far beyond the outer boundaries of the Chou 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 Ch'in. 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 Ch'in was the completion of the Great Wall.

The foreign conquests of the Ch'in 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 Ch'in 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 Shih Huang Ti came under the domination of a wily palace eunuch. A power struggle ensued, crippling the central administration, and the indignant population rose in rebellion.

From the turbulence and warfare that marked the last years of the Ch'in dynasty, there arose a rebel leader of humble origin, Liu Pang (see Kao Tsu). 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 Ch'in, modifying the policies that had resulted in the downfall of the Ch'in. 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 Ch'in, 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.

Emperor Wu's expansionist policies consumed the financial surpluses that had been accumulated during the laissez-faire administrations of his predecessors and necessitated a restoration of legalist policies to replenish the state treasuries. Taxes were increased, government monopolies revived, and the currency debased. Hardships suffered by the peasants were aggravated by the growth in population, which reduced the size of individual landholdings at a time when taxes were increasing. During the 1st century BC, conditions worsened further. On several occasions the throne was inherited by infants, whose mothers often filled government posts with unqualified members of their own family. Factionalism and incompetence weakened the imperial government. Great landholding families in the provinces challenged the tax-collecting authority of the central government and acquired a kind of tax-exempt status. As the number of tax-free estates grew, the tax base of the government shrank, and the burden borne by the taxpaying peasants became more and more onerous. Agrarian uprisings and banditry reflected popular discontentment.

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.

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 Taoist 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.

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 (220-265). 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 Tsin, or Chin, dynasty (265-317) 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.

The non-Chinese tribes of the north, which the Han had fought to a standstill along the border, seized the opportunity afforded by the weakness of the government to extend their search for pastoral lands into the fertile North China Plain. Invasions began in 304, and by 317 the tribes had wrested North China from the Tsin dynasty. For almost three centuries North China was ruled by one or more non-Chinese dynasties, while the south was ruled by a sequence of four Chinese dynasties, all of which were centered in the area of the present-day city of Nanjing (Nanking). None of the non-Chinese dynasties was able to extend control over the entire North China Plain until 420, when the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534) did so.

During the second half of the 5th century the Northern Wei adopted a policy of Sinification. The agricultural area of North China was administered bureaucratically, as it had been by earlier Chinese dynasties, and military service was imposed on the tribesmen. Chinese-style clothing and customs were adopted, and Chinese was made the official language of the court. The tribal chieftains, pushed beyond their endurance by the Sinification policies, rebelled, and in 534 the dynasty toppled. For the next 50 years, North China was again ruled by non-Chinese dynasties.

The Reestablished Empire

China was reunited under the rule of the Sui dynasty (589-618). The first Sui emperor was Yang Chien, a military servant who usurped the throne of the non-Chinese Northern Chou in 581. During the next eight years he completed the conquest of South China and established his capital at Changan (now 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, Taoism 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.

The brief Sui reign was a time of great activity. The Great Wall was repaired at an enormous cost in human life. A canal system, which later formed the Grand Canal, was constructed to carry the rich agricultural produce of the Yangtze delta to Loyang and the north. Chinese control was reasserted over northern Vietnam and, to a limited degree, over the Central Asian tribes to the north and west. A prolonged and costly campaign against a kingdom in southern Manchuria and northern Korea, however, ended in defeat. With its prestige seriously tarnished and its population impoverished, the Sui dynasty fell in 617 to domestic rebels led by Li Yuan.

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 Changan 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.

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.

An Lu-shan's Rebellion

The early Tang rulers, including the Empress Wu (reigned 683-705), a former imperial concubine, were generally able monarchs. The brilliant emperor Hsüan Tsung, however, became enamored of the courtesan 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 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 Lu-shan, 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 Po, 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.

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.

Social and economic growth tended to preserve unity during the years of political fragmentation. Handicraft guilds, the use of paper money, and commercial centralization all started during the late Tang.

The dispersal of political and economic power that marked the collapse of the Tang dynasty resulted in a brief period of disunion known as the Five Dynasties period (907-960). Not only did five short-lived dynasties follow one another in the Huang He valley of North China, but ten independent states were established, most of them in South China. Although foreign invaders did not overrun China during this period, the Liao dynasty (907-1125) of the Khitan Mongols, based in Manchuria and Mongolia, was able to extend its influence over parts of northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces. Beijing became the southern capital of their joint Sino-Khitan Empire.

Cultural Maturity and Alien Rule

The Five Dynasties period was brought to a close in 960, when a military leader, Chao K'uang-yin, seized the throne and proclaimed the establishment of the Sung dynasty (960-1279). By 978 the Sung 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 Sung (960-1126), when the capital was situated at Kaifeng, and the Southern Sung (1127-1279), when the capital was at Hangzhou and the dynasty controlled only South China.

The Northern Sung

Fearing the dispersal of military power to the frontiers, a development that had weakened the Tang, the early Sung 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 Sung 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.

After repeated defeats at the hands of the Liao, the Sung signed a treaty in 1004, ceding permanently the area that the Liao occupied along the northern border and agreeing to pay an annual tribute. After a prolonged struggle with the Hsi Hsia, a Tangut tribe on the northwest border, the Sung again bought peace with tribute in 1044. By the middle of the 11th century the Sung began to experience fiscal difficulties. The population increase had outstripped economic growth. Military expenses associated with northern border defense consumed a major portion of annual income; so did the administrative costs of a growing civil bureaucracy. As the military and fiscal situation deteriorated, the civil bureaucracy was torn by factions proposing different measures for reform.

In 1069 a young Sung emperor appointed the able Wang An-shih as his chief counselor. Wang conceived a series of sweeping reforms designed to increase government income, reduce expenditure, and strengthen the military. Realizing that government income was ultimately linked to the prosperity of the individual peasant taxpayer, he proposed a land reform that would give equal holdings to all, loans to cultivators to assist in planting and harvesting, elimination of compulsory labor service for the peasantry, a graduated tax on wealth, and state purchase of surplus commodities for resale or distribution in times of famine. Parts of Wang's programs were adopted, but they were soon abandoned because of bureaucratic opposition.

The Southern Sung

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

Under the Southern Sung, South China continued to develop rapidly. The economic prosperity and intellectual achievements of the southern Chinese far surpassed those of their conquered brethren to the north. Rapid economic development enabled the government to strengthen its defenses to a greater degree than that achieved by the Northern Sung. Neo-Confucianism, synthesized in its final form by Chu Hsi, remained primarily a human-centered system of thought, although it borrowed metaphysical doctrines from Buddhism to present a more balanced and durable philosophy of the universe. Although the bureaucracy burgeoned and administrative deterioration was apparent, the Southern Sung showed no sign of internal collapse. The dynasty was brought to its knees by a clearly superior military force only after years of bitter fighting.

In 1206 an assembly of all Mongol tribes convened at Karakorum in Outer Mongolia to confirm the establishment of Mongol unity under the leadership of Genghis Khan. The Mongols promptly embarked on a series of conquests that resulted in the establishment of the largest empire in the world at the time. In China it was the alien Chin dynasty that first fell to the Mongol armies. Genghis Khan captured the Chin capital at Beijing in 1215 and subsequently extended his power over the remainder of North China. The conquest of the Southern Sung was not completed until 1279, after Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, had succeeded to Mongol leadership.

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 Sung. They ruled as Chinese monarchs under the dynastic title Yüan (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 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.

Imperial Power

Two major dynasties dominated Chinese history after Chu's seizure of power in the 14th century.

Founded by Chu, the Ming first established its capital at Nanjing and revived the characteristically Chinese civilization of the Tang and the Sung. 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 Macao. 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’eng-hu 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.

The downfall of the Ming was brought about by a rebellion originating in Shaanxi Province as a result of the inability of the government to provide relief in a time of famine and unemployment. When the rebels reached Beijing in 1644, the best Ming troops were deployed at the Great Wall, guarding against invasion by the Manchus, a Tungusic tribe that had recently gained power in Manchuria. The Ming commander decided to accept Manchu aid to drive the rebels from the capital. Once this collaboration had been effected, the Manchus refused to leave Beijing, forcing the Ming to withdraw to South China, where they attempted, unsuccessfully, to reestablish their regime.

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 Ch'ing 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 Ch'ien Lung, the Ch'ing dynasty reached the apogee of its power. Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet were all securely under Ch'ing control. Even Nepal was made to feel Chinese influence. Burma sent periodic tribute to the Ch'ing court, as did the Ryukyu Islands. Korea and northern Vietnam both recognized Chinese suzerainty, and Taiwan was incorporated into China proper.

The domestic order that the Manchus firmly enforced made the 18th century a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity in China. Population perhaps doubled, but production failed to expand at an equal pace. By the end of the 18th century, the economic status of the Chinese peasant had begun to decline. The financial resources of the government were gravely depleted by the costs of foreign expansion, and at the end of Ch'ien Lung's reign they were nearly exhausted by large-scale official corruption. Manchu troops stationed throughout China were a further drain on the economy and, enervated by generations of peacetime garrison duty, scarcely capable of bearing arms in their own defense.

Commercial relations with the West were grudgingly accepted by the Manchus in the late 18th century. Foreign trade was confined to the port of Guangzhou, and foreign merchants were required to conduct trade through a limited number of Chinese merchants, known collectively as the cohong. The most active trading nations were Great Britain, France, and the United States. Of these, British trade was by far the greatest. Initially, the balance of trade was in China's favor, as Great Britain purchased tea and made payments in silver. Apparently in order to reverse the balance of trade, British merchants during the 1780s introduced Indian opium to China. By 1800 the opium market had mushroomed, and the balance of trade shifted in favor of Britain. The large-scale drain of Chinese silver resulting from the increased opium trade aggravated the fiscal difficulties already confronting the Ch'ing government.

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 Great 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.

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 Great 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 Tientsin 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.

These treaties, collectively known in China as the unequal treaties, were to guide Chinese relations with the West until 1943. They changed the course of Chinese social and economic development and permanently handicapped the Manchu dynasty. By their provisions, Chinese ports were opened to foreign trade and residents, and Hong Kong and Kowloon were permanently ceded to Great Britain. Foreign nationals of treaty powers were granted extraterritoriality, so that almost all foreigners in China were tried by their own judges or at their consulates under the laws of their homelands. All treaties included a most-favored-nation clause, under which any privilege extended by China to one nation was automatically extended to all other treaty powers. Eventually a network of foreign control over the entire Chinese economy was forged. The treaties set the duty on goods imported into China at a maximum 5 percent of value. This provision was designed to eliminate the arbitrary imposition of excessive duties. It left China unable to levy taxes on imports sufficient to protect domestic industries and to promote economic modernization.

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, 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.

The Manchu dynasty, confronted with the reality of conducting relations with the vastly more powerful Western nations and ravaged by a domestic rebellion of unprecedented proportion, realized its policies must change if the empire was to survive. From 1860 to 1895 attempts were made to restore benevolent Confucian government; to solve domestic, social, and economic problems; and to adopt Western technology in order to strengthen state power. The Manchus, themselves unable to provide the leadership for such programs, turned to Chinese leaders in the provinces. Empowered with unprecedented imperial grants of financial, administrative, and military authority, certain of the Chinese officials had noteworthy success in implementing their programs. During the 1860s and 1870s, largely through the efforts of Governors Tseng Kuo-fan, Li Hung-chang, and Tso Tsung-t'ang, the Taiping and several other major rebellions were put down, domestic peace was restored, arsenals and dockyards were established, and several mines were opened. The objectives of preserving Confucian government and developing modern military power were basically incompatible, however. Leadership in the modernization program was entrusted to the only central leadership group in China, the Neo-Confucian bureaucrats graduated from the civil service examination system. These men were poorly equipped or only partly committed to carry out a program of modernization aimed at augmenting state power. Consequently, China's efforts to strengthen itself from 1860 to 1895 were basically unsuccessful.

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 Ryukyu 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 Great Britain detached Burma. 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 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 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 Great 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.

Reform Movements and the Boxer Rebellion

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 Tz'u Hsi, who had recently retired. Tz'u Hsi 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 Rebellion 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.

The hour was late for the Manchus. Shortly after the Sino-Japanese War the Western-educated Sun Yat-sen had initiated a revolutionary movement dedicated to establishing a republican government. During the first decade of the 20th century the revolutionaries formed a coalition of overseas Chinese students and merchants, and domestic groups dissatisfied with Manchu rule. In mid-1911 uprisings occurred in protest against a Ch'ing railroad nationalization scheme, and in October of that year rebellion broke out at Hankou in central China. As rebellion spread to other provinces, the revolutionary society led by Sun took control. The Manchu armies, reorganized by General Yüan Shih-k'ai, were clearly superior to the rebel forces, but Yüan applied only limited military pressure and negotiated with the rebel leadership for a position as president of a new republican government. On February 12, 1912, Sun Yat-sen stepped down as provisional president in favor of Yüan, and the Manchus submissively retired into oblivion. On February 14, 1912, a revolutionary assembly in Nanjing elected Yüan the first president of the Republic of China.

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 Nationalist party, or Kuomintang, 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, 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.

During World War I (1914-1918), Japan sought to gain a position of undisputed supremacy in China. In 1915 Japan presented China with the so-called Twenty-one Demands, the terms of which would have reduced China to a virtual Japanese protectorate. China yielded to a modified version of the demands, agreeing, among other concessions, to the transfer of the German holdings in Shandong to Japan. The belated entry of China into the war on the Allied side in 1917 was designed to gain a seat for China at the peace table and a new chance to check Japanese ambitions. China expected that the United States, according to the Open Door Policy, would offer its support. At Versailles, however, President Woodrow Wilson withdrew United States support of China on the Shandong issue when Japan withdrew its demands for a racial-equality clause in the League of Nations Covenant, a provision bitterly opposed in the United States because of the possibility of unlimited influx of labor from Asia. The indignant Chinese delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. China, however, later gained admission to the league on the basis of a separate peace treaty with Austria.

Chinese youth and intellectuals, who in the previous decade had looked increasingly to the West for models and ideals for the reform of China, were crushed by what they considered Wilson's betrayal at Versailles. When the news reached China, a mass anti-Japanese protest demonstration, the May Fourth Movement of 1919, erupted at Beijing University and swept through the country.

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 organized 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.

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 Manchuria and North China.

During the 1920s Japan had moderated its policy toward China. At the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, it had agreed to return the former German holdings in Shandong to China. After 1928, however, militant Kuomintang nationalism clashed with Japanese imperialist interests over the latter's control of the South Manchurian Railway. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese seized on an alleged nationalist bombing of the railway to extend their military control over all Manchuria. The following spring the Japanese transformed the three provinces of Manchuria into the new state of Manchukuo and later made Henry Pu-yi, the last ruler of the Manchu dynasty as Emperor Hsüan T'ung, its chief of state. Early in 1933 eastern Inner Mongolia was incorporated into Manchukuo. By mid-1933, Japan had extracted from China an agreement for the demilitarization of northeastern Hebei.

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 at Yan'an in Shaanxi Province. By 1936 they had established a new base in the northwest. 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.

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.

During World War II (1939-1945), the Kuomintang government in Chonqing suffered serious military and financial debilitation while the Communists, with their headquarters at Yan'an, significantly expanded their territorial bases, military forces, and party membership. After serious losses of men and equipment were sustained during the battle for eastern China in 1937 and 1938, the ranks of the Kuomintang armies were replenished by inadequately trained recruits. The reequipping of these armies, for the most part, had to be delayed until 1945, when the first large-scale shipments of U.S. military equipment reached the Nationalist government. Not only were the military forces of the Kuomintang government drastically weakened after 1938, but also the leadership was rent by factionalism. These problems were compounded by a condition of severe inflation that began in 1939, when the government, cut off from its main sources of income in Japanese-occupied eastern China, turned to the printing presses to finance the mounting costs of wartime operations. Despite substantial U.S. financial aid, the inflationary trend worsened with a consequent growth in official corruption, loss of morale in the armed forces, and alienation of the civilian populace.

The Communists, on the other hand, fanned out from Yan'an, occupying much of North China and infiltrating many of the rural areas behind Japanese lines. There they skillfully organized the peasantry in their support and built up the ranks of the Communist party and the Red Army. Unity and organizational discipline were maintained through a vigorous campaign of propaganda and thought reform. Large stockpiles of captured Japanese weapons and ammunition were turned over to the Communists by the Soviet forces that occupied Manchuria after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945. As a result, the Communists emerged from World War II a far larger, stronger, better-disciplined, and better-equipped force than before.

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 Nationalists 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.

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.

The 1954 constitution, which replaced the Organic Law of 1949 as the basic law of the land, confirmed the hegemony of the Chinese Communist party and introduced limited structural change designed to centralize government control. This charter was later superseded by others.

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.

In the first years of the Communist republic the government also resorted to terror in its efforts to eliminate all opposition and potential enemies. In 1951 Beijing authorities stated that between October 1949 and October 1950, more than 1 million so-called counterrevolutionaries were executed. Some foreign authorities estimated that the figure came close to 2 million at the end of 1951.

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.

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 Manchuria. 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.

On coming to power, the Communist regime also attempted to regain areas it considered to be within the historic boundaries of China. In 1950 Chinese troops invaded Tibet and forced the mountain country to accept Chinese rule. In August 1954, Zhou Enlai officially declared that the liberation of Taiwan was one of his principal objectives, and Chiang Kai-shek also refused to accept the status quo, asserting from time to time his intention of reconquering the mainland. The Communists began an artillery bombardment of the Nationalist-held island of Chin-men (Quemoy) in early September and later attacked other islands off the coast of mainland China, including Matsu and the Tachens. The Nationalists retaliated with air and naval raids against the mainland. When the Communists intensified their offensive against the islands in 1955, the Nationalists, with the help of the United States Seventh Fleet, evacuated the Tachens. Since 1958 a cease-fire in the straits has been generally observed by both sides, although the Communist regime has never forsworn the use of force to capture Taiwan.

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.

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.

Diplomatic efforts to gain friendship, however, were hampered by Chinese irredentism and subversive tactics. In 1959 Chinese troops penetrated and occupied some 31,000 sq km (about 12,000 sq mi) of territory claimed by India. Negotiations between the two countries proved inconclusive, and serious fighting erupted again in 1962, when Chinese troops advanced across the claimed Indian borders. Although the Chinese subsequently withdrew the troops to their 1959 positions, the aggression lowered China's prestige among the neutral nations of Asia and Africa. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Communists lent their moral support as well as technical and material assistance to Communist-led insurgency movements in Laos and Vietnam. In addition, the active part played by Chinese embassy officials in fomenting Communist revolution resulted in their 1965 expulsion from Indonesia, where the large Chinese overseas population had to absorb the full impact of Beijing's unpopularity, suffering enormous loss of life and property. Burma and Cambodia, although remaining on friendly terms with China, still continued their close relations with the Soviet Union. Only Albania remained an unquestioning ally of China.

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.

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.

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.

The Cultural Revolution had an adverse effect on foreign relations. The Red Guard inspired riots in Hong Kong that caused economic and social chaos. Pro-Red Guard propaganda and agitation by overseas Chinese strained relations with many states, especially the USSR, and a successful Chinese hydrogen-bomb test in 1967 did nothing to allay Soviet apprehension. Tension between the two powers mounted further as the Chinese accused Soviet leaders of imperialism after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In 1969 the Chinese attacked augmented Soviet border guards on the Ussuri River in Manchuria, creating an explosive situation.

The Last Years Under Mao

Mao emerged victorious from 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.

A power struggle in 1971 resulted in the disappearance from public life of Lin, who was later accused of plotting to assassinate Mao and was said to have died in an airplane crash. Zhou rose in prominence. The Tenth Party Congress, held in August 1973, expunged from the constitution the name of Lin as Mao's successor. The positions of Mao and Zhou remained unchallenged. Mao's commitment to mobilization of the masses and his deep-seated distrust of bureaucracy were expressed in 1973 and 1974 in a new thought-reform campaign attacking both Confucianism and Lin Biao. Mao's radical thought was reflected in a new, greatly simplified national constitution adopted by the Fourth National People's Congress in January 1975; but the moderate Deng Xiaoping, a rehabilitated victim of the Cultural Revolution, was named deputy to Premier Zhou.

During this period China's foreign relations improved dramatically. In 1971 it was admitted to the United Nations, replacing the Republic of China (Taiwan). In 1972 U.S. President Richard M. Nixon made an official visit to China, during which he agreed to the need for Sino-United States contacts and the eventual withdrawal of United States troops from Taiwan. As a step toward full diplomatic relations, liaison offices were set up in Beijing and Washington in 1973. Diplomatic relations with Japan were established in 1972.

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 Xioaoping, 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.

Hua then concentrated on stabilizing politics, aiding recovery from earthquakes that had devastated Tangshan and other parts of the north in July 1976, and fostering economic development. To carry out his program he appointed moderate officials to high positions. In 1977 Deng was reinstated as first deputy premier and also in his other posts. The Gang of Four was expelled from the party. The 11th Party Congress in August 1977 was dominated by a triumvirate composed of Chairman Huan and vice-chairman Deng and Ye Jianying. New leadership once again came from the military and veteran party officials.

The emphasis on moderation in politics and modernization in government was reflected in the Fifth National People's Congress, which met in February and March 1978. Hua was reelected premier, with Deng as first deputy premier. Ye was named chairman of the Standing Committee of the congress, a post that, under the new constitution approved by the congress, is equivalent to head of state.

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 looked on their remaining Chinese minority as fifth columnists 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.

Apprehensive of Soviet-Vietnamese encirclement, China enhanced its foreign contacts. Full diplomatic relations were established with the United States in January 1979 and a trade agreement was made in July. Closer ties were also forged with Japan and Western Europe.

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.

In 1980 Hua Guofeng resigned the premiership and was succeeded by Zhao Ziyang, a Deng supporter. Early in 1981, after a trial that was extensively publicized in China, all the members of the Gang of Four were convicted and imprisoned. In June another of Deng's allies, Hu Yaobang, replaced Hua as party leader. A new national constitution and a new Communist party constitution were adopted in 1982. The former revived the largely ceremonial office of president (previously state chairman), which had been abolished by Mao in 1968.

In January 1987 Zhao Ziyang was named acting general secretary of the Communist party and Hu Yaobang was forced to resign. The leadership changes came after a wave of student demonstrations calling for increased democratization and freedom of expression. Hu's death in April 1989 sparked a new wave of pro-democracy demonstrations, which swelled in May when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Beijing to end the 30-year rift between the USSR and China. The protesters occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square until the morning of June 4, when armored troops stormed the city center, killing hundreds of civilians (see Tiananmen Square Protest). In the ensuing political crackdown, Zhao Ziyang was stripped of his party posts, and Jiang Zemin became general secretary. The Eighth National People's Congress elected Jiang president of China in March 1993.