China, officially the People’s Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. It is the world’s most populous country, with a population of more than 1.4 billion. China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 even though it spans five geographical time zones and borders 14 countries, the second most of any country in the world after Russia. It is the world’s third or fourth largest country. The country is officially divided into 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities; Beijing (capital city), Chongqing, Shanghai (largest city) and Tianjin, and two special administrative regions; Hong Kong and Macau.

In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin reunited core China and established the first Chinese empire. The succeeding Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements. The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty (618–907) and Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) completed the Four Great Inventions (compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing).

Tang culture spread widely in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa. China was invaded by the Empire of Japan during World War II. Then in 1949 the Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China on mainland China while the Kuomintang-led ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan.  Both the PRC and the ROC currently claim to be the sole legitimate government of China, resulting in an ongoing dispute even after the United Nations recognized the PRC as the government to represent China at all UN conferences in 1971. China is currently governed as a unitary one-party socialist republic by the CCP.

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China