China
China traditional Chinese: 中國; officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state located in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing.
It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC also claims the territories governed by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity commonly known as Taiwan today, as a part of its territory, which includes the island of Taiwan as Taiwan Province, Kinmen and Matsu as a part of Fujian Province and islands the ROC controls in the South China Sea as a part of Hainan Province. These claims are controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan. 
Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area after Russia and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement. China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south.
The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas. The history of China goes back to the ancient civilization – one of the world's earliest – that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain.
For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (c. 2000 BCE). Since 221 BCE, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) overthrew the last dynasty in 1911, and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. |
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After the surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II, the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang
in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in
Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the Kuomintang relocated the ROC
government to its present capital of Taipei.
Read more: Republic of China (1912–49) and History of the Republic of China
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC and occupying Tibet. However, remaining Nationalist forces continued to wage an insurgency in western China throughout the 1950s.
Read more: Republic of China (1912–49) and History of the Republic of China
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC and occupying Tibet. However, remaining Nationalist forces continued to wage an insurgency in western China throughout the 1950s.
Mao encouraged population growth, and under his leadership the Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million. However, Mao's Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation. Between 1 and 2 million landlords were executed as "counterrevolutionaries."
In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a period of political recrimination and social upheaval which lasted until Mao's death in 1976.
In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. Read more: History of the People's Republic of China
In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a period of political recrimination and social upheaval which lasted until Mao's death in 1976.
In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. Read more: History of the People's Republic of China
After Mao's death in 1976 and the arrest of the faction known as the Gang of Four, who were blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping took power and led the country to significant economic reforms.
The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the communes were disbanded in favour of private land leases.
This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment. China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982. In 1989, the violent suppression of student protests in Tiananmen Square brought condemnation and sanctions against the Chinese government from various countries.
The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the communes were disbanded in favour of private land leases.
This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment. China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982. In 1989, the violent suppression of student protests in Tiananmen Square brought condemnation and sanctions against the Chinese government from various countries.
Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and Zhu Rongji led the nation in the 1990s. Under their administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%. The country formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and maintained its high rate of economic growth under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao's leadership in the 2000s.
However, rapid growth also severely impacted the country's resources and environment, and caused major social displacement. Living standards continued to improve rapidly despite the late-2000s recession, but centralized political control remained tight.
Preparations for a decadal Communist Party leadership change in 2012 were marked by factional disputes and political scandals. During China's 18th National Communist Party Congress in November 2012, Hu Jintao was replaced as General Secretary of the Communist Party by Xi Jinping. Under Xi, the Chinese government began large-scale efforts to reform its economy, which has suffered from structural instabilities and slowing growth. The Xi–Li Administration also announced major reforms to the one-child policy and prison system
However, rapid growth also severely impacted the country's resources and environment, and caused major social displacement. Living standards continued to improve rapidly despite the late-2000s recession, but centralized political control remained tight.
Preparations for a decadal Communist Party leadership change in 2012 were marked by factional disputes and political scandals. During China's 18th National Communist Party Congress in November 2012, Hu Jintao was replaced as General Secretary of the Communist Party by Xi Jinping. Under Xi, the Chinese government began large-scale efforts to reform its economy, which has suffered from structural instabilities and slowing growth. The Xi–Li Administration also announced major reforms to the one-child policy and prison system
China today
China had the largest and most complex economy in the world for most of the past two thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. As of 2013, it is the world's second-largest economy by both nominal total GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP), and is also the world's largest exporter and importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defence budget.
The PRC (People's Republic of China) has been a United Nations member since 1971, when it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM and the G-20. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of commentators.
The PRC (People's Republic of China) has been a United Nations member since 1971, when it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM and the G-20. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of commentators.
China is one of 17 megadiverse countries, lying in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. By one measure, China has over 34,687 species of animals and vascular plants, making it the third-most biodiverse country in the world, after Brazil and Colombia. The country signed the Rio de Janeiro Convention on Biological Diversity on 11 June 1992, and became a party to the convention on 5 January 1993. It later produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, with one revision that was received by the convention on 21 September 2010.
China is home to at least 551 species of mammals (the third-highest such number in the world), 1,221 species of birds (eighth), 424 species of reptiles (seventh) and 333 species of amphibians (seventh). China is the most biodiverse country in each category outside the tropics. Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of homo sapiens. At least 840 animal species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 149.95 million hectares, 15 percent of China's total land area.
China has over 32,000 species of vascular plants, and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. The understorey of moist conifer forests may contain thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which are predominate in central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China. China has over 10,000 recorded species of fungi, and of them, nearly 6,000 are higher fungi.
China is home to at least 551 species of mammals (the third-highest such number in the world), 1,221 species of birds (eighth), 424 species of reptiles (seventh) and 333 species of amphibians (seventh). China is the most biodiverse country in each category outside the tropics. Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of homo sapiens. At least 840 animal species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 149.95 million hectares, 15 percent of China's total land area.
China has over 32,000 species of vascular plants, and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. The understorey of moist conifer forests may contain thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which are predominate in central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China. China has over 10,000 recorded species of fungi, and of them, nearly 6,000 are higher fungi.
In recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution. While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, they are poorly enforced, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favour of rapid economic development. Urban air pollution is a severe health issue in the country; the World Bank estimated in 2013 that 16 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are located in China. China is the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter. The country also has water problems. Roughly 298 million Chinese in rural areas do not have access to safe drinking water, and 40% of China's rivers had been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste by late 2011. This crisis is compounded by increasingly severe water shortages, particularly in the north-east of the country.
However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy commercialization, with $52 billion invested in 2011 alone; it is a major manufacturer of renewable energy technologies and invests heavily in local-scale renewable energy projects. By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources – most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW. In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$618.55 billion) in water infrastructure and desalination projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020. In 2013, China began a five-year, US$277-billion effort to reduce air pollution, particularly in the north of the country - source
China Now Has the Second-Most Millionaires in the World
However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy commercialization, with $52 billion invested in 2011 alone; it is a major manufacturer of renewable energy technologies and invests heavily in local-scale renewable energy projects. By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources – most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW. In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$618.55 billion) in water infrastructure and desalination projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020. In 2013, China began a five-year, US$277-billion effort to reduce air pollution, particularly in the north of the country - source
China Now Has the Second-Most Millionaires in the World
China is not a country known for its sentimental attitude towards animals
Not all of China’s campaigns have taken a consensual approach. One of the arenas of Chinese activism readiest to embrace conflict is also one of its newest: the emerging field of animal welfare.
China is not a country known for its sentimental attitude towards animals. From zoo visitors paying to dangle live chickens into tiger enclosures, to doctors grinding tiger bones into a health tonic, or restaurants serving up feline platters, paws and all, Western newspapers love to recount tales of China’s callous approach to other living creatures. But that stereotype is being undermined.
Led by NGOs, or looser volunteer coalitions, and bolstered by an army of vocal citizens online, the emerging animal-welfare movement is campaigning to outlaw cruelty, from abusive farming practices to use of animals in circus performances, to drawing bile from live bears for traditional Chinese medicine. The manner in which it is panning out provides a window into the unique dynamics and conflicts of a stratified and changing China.
There are many narratives on offer. In one, animal protection campaigners are the true traditionalists, embodying Buddhist and Daoist reverence for the living world in a fight against a brutal, get-rich-quick modernity. In another, wealthy urbanites are pitted against animal traders and transporters who are simply trying to feed their families; or doctors, chefs and community leaders guarding centuries-old traditions.
China is not a country known for its sentimental attitude towards animals. From zoo visitors paying to dangle live chickens into tiger enclosures, to doctors grinding tiger bones into a health tonic, or restaurants serving up feline platters, paws and all, Western newspapers love to recount tales of China’s callous approach to other living creatures. But that stereotype is being undermined.
Led by NGOs, or looser volunteer coalitions, and bolstered by an army of vocal citizens online, the emerging animal-welfare movement is campaigning to outlaw cruelty, from abusive farming practices to use of animals in circus performances, to drawing bile from live bears for traditional Chinese medicine. The manner in which it is panning out provides a window into the unique dynamics and conflicts of a stratified and changing China.
There are many narratives on offer. In one, animal protection campaigners are the true traditionalists, embodying Buddhist and Daoist reverence for the living world in a fight against a brutal, get-rich-quick modernity. In another, wealthy urbanites are pitted against animal traders and transporters who are simply trying to feed their families; or doctors, chefs and community leaders guarding centuries-old traditions.
Hao Xiaomao, a lorry driver barricaded by activists on an expressway near Beijing while driving 500 dogs to the slaughterhouse in spring 2011, summed up this side of the argument when he told journalists that the activists who stopped his truck ‘think dogs are more important than people’.
Dogs and cats have held centre stage. The Harbin expressway stand-off is just one of many roadside rescues to have taken place in recent years. Around 2,000 dogs are thought to have been liberated this way between 2011 and 2012 alone. But these events were not the first battles in the war on dog meat; the earliest blasts of that crusade on the Chinese mainland came from the Chinese Animal Protection Network (CAPN), launched in 2004.
Isolated animal welfare organisations were already working to rescue strays by then, but consumption of dogs and cats hadn’t made it onto their agenda. Indeed, these groups were unconvinced that stopping people from eating one or two particular species was anything but an exercise in arbitrary morality. So CAPN sought to reframe the debate as one about cruelty rather than taste. ‘We want to make more groups aware [that] reducing [the] consumer market is the fundamental solution for related cruelty issues’, the group said in a 2008 review of its work.
Supported by international groups including the RSPCA and World Society for the Protection of Animals, CAPN has worked to link animal-lovers across China and to educate the public on the facts of the trade. That many of the 10,000 cats consumed daily in winter in Guangdong province (where the meat is considered a warming food) are stolen from other provinces features heavily in the literature, for instance.
Dogs and cats have held centre stage. The Harbin expressway stand-off is just one of many roadside rescues to have taken place in recent years. Around 2,000 dogs are thought to have been liberated this way between 2011 and 2012 alone. But these events were not the first battles in the war on dog meat; the earliest blasts of that crusade on the Chinese mainland came from the Chinese Animal Protection Network (CAPN), launched in 2004.
Isolated animal welfare organisations were already working to rescue strays by then, but consumption of dogs and cats hadn’t made it onto their agenda. Indeed, these groups were unconvinced that stopping people from eating one or two particular species was anything but an exercise in arbitrary morality. So CAPN sought to reframe the debate as one about cruelty rather than taste. ‘We want to make more groups aware [that] reducing [the] consumer market is the fundamental solution for related cruelty issues’, the group said in a 2008 review of its work.
Supported by international groups including the RSPCA and World Society for the Protection of Animals, CAPN has worked to link animal-lovers across China and to educate the public on the facts of the trade. That many of the 10,000 cats consumed daily in winter in Guangdong province (where the meat is considered a warming food) are stolen from other provinces features heavily in the literature, for instance.
In early 2007, the group launched an online ‘signing event’ which asked people to pledge to avoid cat and dog meat in future. In the following five months, it collected 21,000 signatures. By the spring of 2008, CAPN had forty-eight member groups, two branches and more than 10,000 individual supporters.
The fight for China’s ‘companion animals’ has grown in prominence since. Before the 2008 Olympics, Beijing officials ordered dog meat off the menu at official Games restaurants. Then, in July 2010, Shanghai film-maker and animal-rights campaigner Guo Ke released a headline-hitting documentary about China’s cat-meat industry, called San Hua – or ‘Three Flowers’ – after his pet cat. Shanghai-based magazine Bund Pictorial carried a description of one of its scenes:
At Fa’s Cat Restaurant in Guangzhou’s Kaiping district, the cook throws cats – too exhausted to struggle – into an iron bucket and beats them with a wooden stick. Five minutes later, the already-stiffening cats are tipped out of the bucket into a cylindrical fur-removing machine. The machine screeches into action and shortly the bloodied corpses are removed and taken to the kitchen for boiling. The cook explains: ‘The worse you treat them the better they taste. It makes sure the blood gets into the meat and it tastes delicious’.
The fight for China’s ‘companion animals’ has grown in prominence since. Before the 2008 Olympics, Beijing officials ordered dog meat off the menu at official Games restaurants. Then, in July 2010, Shanghai film-maker and animal-rights campaigner Guo Ke released a headline-hitting documentary about China’s cat-meat industry, called San Hua – or ‘Three Flowers’ – after his pet cat. Shanghai-based magazine Bund Pictorial carried a description of one of its scenes:
At Fa’s Cat Restaurant in Guangzhou’s Kaiping district, the cook throws cats – too exhausted to struggle – into an iron bucket and beats them with a wooden stick. Five minutes later, the already-stiffening cats are tipped out of the bucket into a cylindrical fur-removing machine. The machine screeches into action and shortly the bloodied corpses are removed and taken to the kitchen for boiling. The cook explains: ‘The worse you treat them the better they taste. It makes sure the blood gets into the meat and it tastes delicious’.
As awareness of these practices has grown, so has pressure on government. Perhaps the biggest victory for the activists came at the end of 2011, when officials cancelled a 600-year-old dog-meat festival in eastern China’s Zhejiang province thanks to a public outcry online.
As well as demonstrating the growing power of the animal protection lobby, the event highlighted the knottier impacts of its actions, as locals mourned the passing of an ancient tradition. A provincial government official was quoted in local media as saying ‘some villagers argued that they had emotional attachments to the festival, as it had been passed from generation to generation, while some said it should be listed as the city’s cultural heritage.’
Surging wealth and enduring poverty, modernity and tradition, xenophobia and international collaboration – these are some of the friction points of a country transforming. Some of China’s animals are now caught up in the mix - source
As well as demonstrating the growing power of the animal protection lobby, the event highlighted the knottier impacts of its actions, as locals mourned the passing of an ancient tradition. A provincial government official was quoted in local media as saying ‘some villagers argued that they had emotional attachments to the festival, as it had been passed from generation to generation, while some said it should be listed as the city’s cultural heritage.’
Surging wealth and enduring poverty, modernity and tradition, xenophobia and international collaboration – these are some of the friction points of a country transforming. Some of China’s animals are now caught up in the mix - source