China (Traditional Chinese: 中國; Simplified Chinese: 中国; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó; Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Jonggwo) is a cultural region and ancient civilization in East Asia. Since the stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War, China today is administratively divided into two sovereign states: the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). The PRC administers and governs the majority of China (mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau), while the ROC administers the island groups of Taiwan, the Pescadores, Kinmen, Matsu, the disputed islands of Pratas, and Taiping in the South China Sea. Both the PRC and ROC officially claim to represent the whole of China and neither state recognises the sovereignty of the other.
China has one of the world's longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization and one of the world's longest continuously used written language systems. The successive states and cultures of China date back more than six millennia. For centuries, China was the world's most advanced civilization, and the cultural center of East Asia, with an impact lasting to the present day. China is also home to many of the great technical inventions in world history, including the four great inventions of ancient China: Paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.
|