People's Republic of China

State

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia divided into 33 province-level divisions; Beijing is the capital and Shanghai the most populous city, and with a population exceeding 1.4 billion it is the world's second-most populous country. In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the PRC after winning the Chinese Civil War, while the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan; both sides still claim political legitimacy. The reform and opening-up that began in 1978 moved China toward a socialist market economy, spurring economic growth. China is a unitary state with the CCP as its sole ruling party, the world's largest manufacturer, and the second-largest economy by nominal GDP.