The People's Republic of China (PRC) (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國) is a one-party state in East Asia governed by the Communist Party of China. It was founded on 1 October 1949. It has more than 1.3 billion people, which is more than any other country in the world.^[4] It covers an area of 9.6 million square kilometers.

The capital city is Beijing, and Shanghai is the city with the most people living in it. Along with the cities of Tianjin and Chongqing, these four cities are "municipalities" directly controlled by the national government. Two other cities are given the status of "special administrative region". They are Hong Kong, which was once a colony of the United Kingdom and given back to China in 1997; and Macau, which Portugal gave back in 1999. These two cities remain highly autonomous, or have much of their own power. Aside from the "municipalities" and the "SAR's", there are 23 provinces and five "autonomous regions", or regions with more law-making rights than the provinces and with a large number of people of a minority group population. They are the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Nei Mongol Autonomous Region, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The central government is responsible for defense and foreign affairs but not the daily operations for 50 years. PRC claims Taiwan as one of its many provinces. However, PRC does not have control of Taiwan which has an entirely different political system and officially known as the Republic of China (Taiwan).

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