วันศุกร์ที่ 1 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2550
SOCIETY
Population:1982 census reported total population of 1,008,180,738; official estimate at end of 1986 nearly 1.1 billion with 1.4 percent annual rate of increase. Urban population officially estimated at 382 million by end of 1985, or 37 percent of total. About 94 percent of population lives on approximately 36 percent of land.
Education:In 1985, about 96 percent of primary-school-age children attended school as compared with about 20 percent before 1949. About 136 million students enrolled in more than 832,000 primary schools. Secondary-level middle schools divided into junior and senior stages; majority of schools at lower level. About 48.6 million students attended some 104,800 secondary-level institutions. Technical education emphasized. Intense competition for admission to more than 1,000 colleges and universities; about 1.7 million students in various higher educational institutions. Beijing and Qinghua universities and more than 100 other key universities most sought after by college entrants.
Ethnic Minorities: As of 1987 China recognized 55 minority nationalities, numbering about 70 million persons, concentrated in northwest and southwest. Not largest, but most important politically, Tibetans (Zang nationality) and various Turkic-speaking groups constituted majorities in Xizang (Tibet) and Xinjiang-Uygur autonomous regions, respectively.
Health:Level of health and medical care improving. System of national, provincial-level, and local facilities in urban and rural areas plus network of industrial and state-enterprise hospitals. Traditional and Western medicine both practiced. Average life expectancy of sixty-nine years in 1985. Many once-widespread epidemic diseases now under control or eradicated.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0006)
Education:In 1985, about 96 percent of primary-school-age children attended school as compared with about 20 percent before 1949. About 136 million students enrolled in more than 832,000 primary schools. Secondary-level middle schools divided into junior and senior stages; majority of schools at lower level. About 48.6 million students attended some 104,800 secondary-level institutions. Technical education emphasized. Intense competition for admission to more than 1,000 colleges and universities; about 1.7 million students in various higher educational institutions. Beijing and Qinghua universities and more than 100 other key universities most sought after by college entrants.
Ethnic Minorities: As of 1987 China recognized 55 minority nationalities, numbering about 70 million persons, concentrated in northwest and southwest. Not largest, but most important politically, Tibetans (Zang nationality) and various Turkic-speaking groups constituted majorities in Xizang (Tibet) and Xinjiang-Uygur autonomous regions, respectively.
Health:Level of health and medical care improving. System of national, provincial-level, and local facilities in urban and rural areas plus network of industrial and state-enterprise hospitals. Traditional and Western medicine both practiced. Average life expectancy of sixty-nine years in 1985. Many once-widespread epidemic diseases now under control or eradicated.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0006)
GEOGRAPHY
Size:
Area about 9.6 million square kilometers; east to west distance about 5,000 kilometers, from the Heilong Jiang (Amur River) to Pamir Mountains in Central Asia; north to south distance approximately 4,050 kilometers, from Heilongjiang Province to Hainan Island in south, and another 1,450 kilometers further south to Zengmu Shoal, territorial claim off north coast of Malaysia.
Topography:
Main topographic features include Qing-Zang (Qinghai-Tibet) Plateau 4,000 meters above sea level and Kunlun, Qin Ling, and Greater Hinggan ranges. Longest of country's numerous rivers, Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) and Huang He (Yellow River), extend for some 6,300 and 5,400 kilometers, respectively.
Climate:
Most of country in temperate belt. Complex climatic patterns ranging from cold-temperate north to tropical south. Precipitation varies regionally; temperatures range from minus 30°C in north in January to 28°C in south in July. Alternating wet monsoon in summer, dry monsoon in winter.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0005)
Area about 9.6 million square kilometers; east to west distance about 5,000 kilometers, from the Heilong Jiang (Amur River) to Pamir Mountains in Central Asia; north to south distance approximately 4,050 kilometers, from Heilongjiang Province to Hainan Island in south, and another 1,450 kilometers further south to Zengmu Shoal, territorial claim off north coast of Malaysia.
Topography:
Main topographic features include Qing-Zang (Qinghai-Tibet) Plateau 4,000 meters above sea level and Kunlun, Qin Ling, and Greater Hinggan ranges. Longest of country's numerous rivers, Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) and Huang He (Yellow River), extend for some 6,300 and 5,400 kilometers, respectively.
Climate:
Most of country in temperate belt. Complex climatic patterns ranging from cold-temperate north to tropical south. Precipitation varies regionally; temperatures range from minus 30°C in north in January to 28°C in south in July. Alternating wet monsoon in summer, dry monsoon in winter.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0005)
History
Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing independently, the others being Mesopotamia, Ancient India (Indus Valley Civilization), Maya Civilization, Ancient Greece (Minoan Civilization), and Ancient Egypt.
Prehistory
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest humans in China date to 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago.[2][3] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) has fossils dated at somewhere between 300,000 to 550,000 years.
The earliest evidence of a fully modern human in China comes from Liujiang County, Guangxi, where a cranium has been found and dated to approximately 67,000 years ago. Although much controversy persists over the dating of the Liujiang remains,[4][5] a partial skeleton from Minatogawa in Okinawa, Japan has been dated to 18,250 ± 650 to 16,600 ± 300 years ago, so modern humans must have reached China before that time.
Dynastic rule
History of China
ANCIENT
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2070–1600 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BCE
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
IMPERIAL
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
Western Han
Xin Dynasty
Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280 CE
Wu, Shu & Wei
Jin Dynasty 265–420 CE
Western Jin
Eastern Jin 16 Kingdoms
304–439 CE
Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589 CE
Sui Dynasty 581–619 CE
Tang Dynasty 618–907 CE
5 Dynasties &
10 Kingdoms
907–960 CE Liao Dynasty
907–1125 CE
Song Dynasty
960–1279 CE
Northern Song W. Xia Dyn.
Southern Song Jin Dyn.
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368 CE
Ming Dynasty 1368–1644 CE
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911 CE
MODERN
Republic of China 1911–present
People's Republic
of China 1949–present Republic of China
(on Taiwan)
Timeline of Chinese history
Dynasties in Chinese history
Military history of China
Naval history of China
History of Chinese art
History of science and technology in China
History of Education in China
This box: view • talk • edit
Main articles: Dynasties in Chinese history and Chinese sovereign
Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, but it was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early bronze-age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province.[6] Archaeologists have since uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs in locations cited as Xia's in ancient historical texts, but it is impossible to verify that these remains are of the Xia without written records from the period.
Life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, ca. 3rd century BCE.The second dynasty, the loosely feudal Shang, definitely settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 18th to the 12th century BCE. They were invaded from the west by the Zhou, who ruled from the 12th to the 5th century BCE. The centralized authority of the Zhou was slowly eroded by warlords. Many strong, independent states continually warring with each other in the Spring and Autumn period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king.
The first unified Chinese state was established by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE, when the office of the Emperor was set up and the Chinese language was forcibly standardized. This state did not last long, as its legalist policies soon led to widespread rebellion.
The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that would last to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded China's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia.
After Han's collapse, another period of disunion followed, including the highly chivalric period of the Three Kingdoms. Independent Chinese states of this period also opened diplomatic relations with Japan, introducing the Chinese writing system there. In 580 CE, China was reunited under the Sui. However, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived after a failure in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598-614) weakened it.
Northern Song era Jun Ware planter, early 12th century.Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith. The Song dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, along with the production of abundant food surpluses. Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people. The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period in China for the arts, philosophy, and social life. Landscape art and portrait paintings were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity since the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and make trades of precious artworks. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasis on new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.
In 1271, Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, with the last remnant of the Song Dynasty falling to the Yuan in 1279. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty thinkers such as Wang Yangming would further critique and expand Neo-Confucianism with ideas of individualism and innate morality that would have tremendous impact on later Japanese thought. Chosun Korea also became a nominal vassal state of Ming China and adopted much of its Neo-Confucian bureaucratic structure. China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing during the early Ming Dynasty. The Ming fell to the Manchus in 1644, who then established the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last dynasty in China. In the 19th century the Qing Dynasty adopted a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia itself. At this time China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, in particular the West. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control.
One result was the Taiping Civil War which lasted from 1851 to 1862. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, who was partly influenced by a misinterpretation of Christianity. Hong believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. Although the Qing forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history, costing at least twenty million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in the First World War), with some estimates up to two-hundred million. Muslims and aboriginal populations would revolt in bloody revolts, most notably in the Dungan revolt (1862-1877) and the Panthay Rebellion (1856-1873) in Yunnan. Though largely unknown, these revolts were exceptionally bloody, killing a million people in the Panthay Rebellion[7][8], several million in the Dungan revolt[8] and five million in the suppression of Miao people in Guizhou.[8] The flow of British opium led to more decline.
While China was torn by continuous war, Meiji Japan succeeded in rapidly modernizing its military with its sights on Korea and Manchuria. Maneuvered by Japan, Korea declared independence from Qing China's suzerainty in 1894, leading to the First Sino-Japanese War, which resulted in China's humiliating secession of both Korea and Taiwan to Japan. Following these series of defeats, a reform plan for Qing China to become a modern Meiji-style constitutional monarchy was drafted by the Emperor Guangxu in 1898, but was opposed and stopped by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who placed Emperor Guangxu under house arrest in a coup d'état. Further destruction followed the ill-fated 1900 Boxer Rebellion against westerners in Beijing. By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun, and calls for reform and revolution were heard across the country. The 38 year old Emperor Guangxu died under house arrest on November 14, 1908, suspiciously just a day before Cixi. With the throne empty, he was succeeded by Cixi's handpicked heir, his two year old nephew Puyi, who became the Xuantong Emperor, the last Chinese emperor. Guangxu's consort, who became the Empress Dowager Longyu, signed the abdication decree as regent in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China. She died, childless, in 1913.
Republic of China (1912-1949)
At the 1924 inauguration of the Whampoa Military Academy, Sun Yat-sen delivered a speech that would later become the lyrics of the ROC's national Anthem.Main article: History of the Republic of China
See also: History of Taiwan
On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of the Qing Dynasty. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who had defected to the revolutionary cause, soon usurped the presidency by forcing Sun to step aside. Yuan then attempted to have himself emperor of a new dynasty, but died of natural causes before securing power over all of the Chinese empire.
After Yuan Shikai's death, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally-recognized, but virtually powerless, national government seated in Beijing. Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories. In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control, moving the nation's capital to Nanjing (Nanking) and implementing "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's program for transforming China into a modern, democratic state. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 (part of World War II) forced an uneasy alliance between the Nationalists and the Communists as well as around 10 million Chinese civilian deaths. With the surrender of Japan in 1945, China emerged victorious but financially drained. The continued distrust between the Nationalists and the Communists led to the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Civil War many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented on the mainland.
The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (1949-Present)
Main article: History of the People's Republic of China
See also: History of Hong Kong, History of Macau, and History of Taiwan
After its victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, controlled most of Mainland China. On October 1, 1949, they established the People's Republic of China, laying claim as the successor state of the ROC. The central government of the ROC was forced to retreat to the island of Taiwan. Major armed hostilities ceased in 1950 but both sides are technically still at war.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the Republic of China began the implementation of full, multi-party, representative democracy in the territories still under its control (Taiwan Province, Taipei, Kaohsiung and some offshore islands of Fujian province). Today, the ROC has active political participation by all sectors of society. The main cleavage in ROC politics is the issue of eventual unification with China vs. formal independence.
Post-1978 reforms on the mainland have led to some relaxation of control over many areas of society. However, the Chinese government still has absolute control over politics, and it continually seeks to eradicate threats to the stability of the country. Examples include the fight against terrorism, jailing of political opponents and journalists, custody regulation of the press, regulation of religion, and suppression of independence/secessionist movements. In 1989, the student protests at Tiananmen Square were violently put to an end by the Chinese military after 15 days of martial law. In 1997 Hong Kong was returned to the PRC by the United Kingdom and in 1999 Macau was returned by Portugal.
Today, the Republic of China continues to exist on Taiwan, while the People's Republic of China controls the Chinese mainland. The PRC continues to be dominated by the Communist Party, but the ROC has moved towards democracy. Both states are still officially claiming to be the sole legitimate ruler of all of "China". The ROC had more international support immediately after 1949, but most international diplomatic recognitions have shifted to the PRC. The ROC representative to the United Nations was replaced by the PRC representative in 1971.
The ROC has not formally renounced its claim to all of China, or changed its official maps on which its territories include the mainland and Mongolia, but it has moved away from this identity and increasingly identifies itself as "Taiwan". Presently, the ROC does not pursue any of its claims. The PRC claims to have succeeded the ROC as the legitimate governing authority of all of China including Taiwan. The PRC has used diplomatic and economic pressure to prevent official recognition of the ROC by world organizations such as the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee. Today, there are 25 U.N. member states that maintain official diplomatic relations with the ROC and majority of U.N. member states that maintain official diplomatic relations with the PRC.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China
Prehistory
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest humans in China date to 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago.[2][3] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) has fossils dated at somewhere between 300,000 to 550,000 years.
The earliest evidence of a fully modern human in China comes from Liujiang County, Guangxi, where a cranium has been found and dated to approximately 67,000 years ago. Although much controversy persists over the dating of the Liujiang remains,[4][5] a partial skeleton from Minatogawa in Okinawa, Japan has been dated to 18,250 ± 650 to 16,600 ± 300 years ago, so modern humans must have reached China before that time.
Dynastic rule
History of China
ANCIENT
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2070–1600 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BCE
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
IMPERIAL
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
Western Han
Xin Dynasty
Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280 CE
Wu, Shu & Wei
Jin Dynasty 265–420 CE
Western Jin
Eastern Jin 16 Kingdoms
304–439 CE
Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589 CE
Sui Dynasty 581–619 CE
Tang Dynasty 618–907 CE
5 Dynasties &
10 Kingdoms
907–960 CE Liao Dynasty
907–1125 CE
Song Dynasty
960–1279 CE
Northern Song W. Xia Dyn.
Southern Song Jin Dyn.
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368 CE
Ming Dynasty 1368–1644 CE
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911 CE
MODERN
Republic of China 1911–present
People's Republic
of China 1949–present Republic of China
(on Taiwan)
Timeline of Chinese history
Dynasties in Chinese history
Military history of China
Naval history of China
History of Chinese art
History of science and technology in China
History of Education in China
This box: view • talk • edit
Main articles: Dynasties in Chinese history and Chinese sovereign
Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, but it was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early bronze-age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province.[6] Archaeologists have since uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs in locations cited as Xia's in ancient historical texts, but it is impossible to verify that these remains are of the Xia without written records from the period.
Life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, ca. 3rd century BCE.The second dynasty, the loosely feudal Shang, definitely settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 18th to the 12th century BCE. They were invaded from the west by the Zhou, who ruled from the 12th to the 5th century BCE. The centralized authority of the Zhou was slowly eroded by warlords. Many strong, independent states continually warring with each other in the Spring and Autumn period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king.
The first unified Chinese state was established by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE, when the office of the Emperor was set up and the Chinese language was forcibly standardized. This state did not last long, as its legalist policies soon led to widespread rebellion.
The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that would last to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded China's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia.
After Han's collapse, another period of disunion followed, including the highly chivalric period of the Three Kingdoms. Independent Chinese states of this period also opened diplomatic relations with Japan, introducing the Chinese writing system there. In 580 CE, China was reunited under the Sui. However, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived after a failure in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598-614) weakened it.
Northern Song era Jun Ware planter, early 12th century.Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith. The Song dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, along with the production of abundant food surpluses. Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people. The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period in China for the arts, philosophy, and social life. Landscape art and portrait paintings were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity since the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and make trades of precious artworks. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasis on new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.
In 1271, Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, with the last remnant of the Song Dynasty falling to the Yuan in 1279. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty thinkers such as Wang Yangming would further critique and expand Neo-Confucianism with ideas of individualism and innate morality that would have tremendous impact on later Japanese thought. Chosun Korea also became a nominal vassal state of Ming China and adopted much of its Neo-Confucian bureaucratic structure. China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing during the early Ming Dynasty. The Ming fell to the Manchus in 1644, who then established the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last dynasty in China. In the 19th century the Qing Dynasty adopted a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia itself. At this time China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, in particular the West. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control.
One result was the Taiping Civil War which lasted from 1851 to 1862. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, who was partly influenced by a misinterpretation of Christianity. Hong believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. Although the Qing forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history, costing at least twenty million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in the First World War), with some estimates up to two-hundred million. Muslims and aboriginal populations would revolt in bloody revolts, most notably in the Dungan revolt (1862-1877) and the Panthay Rebellion (1856-1873) in Yunnan. Though largely unknown, these revolts were exceptionally bloody, killing a million people in the Panthay Rebellion[7][8], several million in the Dungan revolt[8] and five million in the suppression of Miao people in Guizhou.[8] The flow of British opium led to more decline.
While China was torn by continuous war, Meiji Japan succeeded in rapidly modernizing its military with its sights on Korea and Manchuria. Maneuvered by Japan, Korea declared independence from Qing China's suzerainty in 1894, leading to the First Sino-Japanese War, which resulted in China's humiliating secession of both Korea and Taiwan to Japan. Following these series of defeats, a reform plan for Qing China to become a modern Meiji-style constitutional monarchy was drafted by the Emperor Guangxu in 1898, but was opposed and stopped by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who placed Emperor Guangxu under house arrest in a coup d'état. Further destruction followed the ill-fated 1900 Boxer Rebellion against westerners in Beijing. By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun, and calls for reform and revolution were heard across the country. The 38 year old Emperor Guangxu died under house arrest on November 14, 1908, suspiciously just a day before Cixi. With the throne empty, he was succeeded by Cixi's handpicked heir, his two year old nephew Puyi, who became the Xuantong Emperor, the last Chinese emperor. Guangxu's consort, who became the Empress Dowager Longyu, signed the abdication decree as regent in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China. She died, childless, in 1913.
Republic of China (1912-1949)
At the 1924 inauguration of the Whampoa Military Academy, Sun Yat-sen delivered a speech that would later become the lyrics of the ROC's national Anthem.Main article: History of the Republic of China
See also: History of Taiwan
On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of the Qing Dynasty. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who had defected to the revolutionary cause, soon usurped the presidency by forcing Sun to step aside. Yuan then attempted to have himself emperor of a new dynasty, but died of natural causes before securing power over all of the Chinese empire.
After Yuan Shikai's death, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally-recognized, but virtually powerless, national government seated in Beijing. Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories. In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control, moving the nation's capital to Nanjing (Nanking) and implementing "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's program for transforming China into a modern, democratic state. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 (part of World War II) forced an uneasy alliance between the Nationalists and the Communists as well as around 10 million Chinese civilian deaths. With the surrender of Japan in 1945, China emerged victorious but financially drained. The continued distrust between the Nationalists and the Communists led to the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Civil War many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented on the mainland.
The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (1949-Present)
Main article: History of the People's Republic of China
See also: History of Hong Kong, History of Macau, and History of Taiwan
After its victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, controlled most of Mainland China. On October 1, 1949, they established the People's Republic of China, laying claim as the successor state of the ROC. The central government of the ROC was forced to retreat to the island of Taiwan. Major armed hostilities ceased in 1950 but both sides are technically still at war.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the Republic of China began the implementation of full, multi-party, representative democracy in the territories still under its control (Taiwan Province, Taipei, Kaohsiung and some offshore islands of Fujian province). Today, the ROC has active political participation by all sectors of society. The main cleavage in ROC politics is the issue of eventual unification with China vs. formal independence.
Post-1978 reforms on the mainland have led to some relaxation of control over many areas of society. However, the Chinese government still has absolute control over politics, and it continually seeks to eradicate threats to the stability of the country. Examples include the fight against terrorism, jailing of political opponents and journalists, custody regulation of the press, regulation of religion, and suppression of independence/secessionist movements. In 1989, the student protests at Tiananmen Square were violently put to an end by the Chinese military after 15 days of martial law. In 1997 Hong Kong was returned to the PRC by the United Kingdom and in 1999 Macau was returned by Portugal.
Today, the Republic of China continues to exist on Taiwan, while the People's Republic of China controls the Chinese mainland. The PRC continues to be dominated by the Communist Party, but the ROC has moved towards democracy. Both states are still officially claiming to be the sole legitimate ruler of all of "China". The ROC had more international support immediately after 1949, but most international diplomatic recognitions have shifted to the PRC. The ROC representative to the United Nations was replaced by the PRC representative in 1971.
The ROC has not formally renounced its claim to all of China, or changed its official maps on which its territories include the mainland and Mongolia, but it has moved away from this identity and increasingly identifies itself as "Taiwan". Presently, the ROC does not pursue any of its claims. The PRC claims to have succeeded the ROC as the legitimate governing authority of all of China including Taiwan. The PRC has used diplomatic and economic pressure to prevent official recognition of the ROC by world organizations such as the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee. Today, there are 25 U.N. member states that maintain official diplomatic relations with the ROC and majority of U.N. member states that maintain official diplomatic relations with the PRC.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China
POPULATION
The People's Republic conducted censuses in 1953, 1964, and 1982. In 1987 the government announced that the fourth national census would take place in 1990 and that there would be one every ten years thereafter. The 1982 census, which reported a total population of 1,008,180,738, is generally accepted as significantly more reliable, accurate, and thorough than the previous two. Various international organizations eagerly assisted the Chinese in conducting the 1982 census, including the United Nations Fund for Population Activities which donated US$15.6 million for the preparation and execution of the census.
The nation began preparing for the 1982 census in late 1976. Chinese census workers were sent to the United States and Japan to study modern census-taking techniques and automation. Computers were installed in every provincial-level unit except Xizang and were connected to a central processing system in the Beijing headquarters of the State Statistical Bureau. Pretests and smallscale trial runs were conducted and checked for accuracy between 1980 and 1981 in twenty-four provincial-level units. Census stations were opened in rural production brigades (see Glossary) and urban neighborhoods. Beginning July 1, 1982, each household sent a representative to a census station to be enumerated. The census required about a month to complete and employed approximately 5 million census takers.
The 1982 census collected data in nineteen demographic categories relating to individuals and households. The thirteen areas concerning individuals were name, relationship to head of household, sex, age, nationality, registration status, educational level, profession, occupation, status of nonworking persons, marital status, number of children born and still living, and number of births in 1981. The six items pertaining to households were type (domestic or collective), serial number, number of persons, number of births in 1981, number of deaths in 1981, and number of registered persons absent for more than one year. Information was gathered in a number of important areas for which previous data were either extremely inaccurate or simply nonexistent, including fertility, marital status, urban population, minority ethnic groups, sex composition, age distribution, and employment and unemployment (see table 5, Appendix A).
A fundamental anomaly in the 1982 statistics was noted by some Western analysts. They pointed out that although the birth and death rates recorded by the census and those recorded through the household registration system were different, the two systems arrived at similar population totals (see Differentiation , ch. 3). The discrepancies in the vital rates were the result of the underreporting of both births and deaths to the authorities under the registration system; families would not report some births because of the one-child policy and would not report some deaths so as to hold on to the rations of the deceased. Nevertheless, the 1982 census was a watershed for both Chinese and world demographics. After an eighteen-year gap, population specialists were given a wealth of reliable, up-to-date figures on which to reconstruct past demographic patterns, measure current population conditions, and predict future population trends. For example, Chinese and foreign demographers used the 1982 census age-sex structure as the base population for forecasting and making assumptions about future fertility trends. The data on age-specific fertility and mortality rates provided the necessary base-line information for making population projections. The census data also were useful for estimating future manpower potential, consumer needs, and utility, energy, and health-service requirements. The sudden abundance of demographic data helped population specialists immeasurably in their efforts to estimate world population. Previously, there had been no accurate information on these 21 percent of the earth's inhabitants. Demographers who had been conducting research on global population without accurate data on the Chinese fifth of the world's population were particularly thankful for the 1982 census.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
The nation began preparing for the 1982 census in late 1976. Chinese census workers were sent to the United States and Japan to study modern census-taking techniques and automation. Computers were installed in every provincial-level unit except Xizang and were connected to a central processing system in the Beijing headquarters of the State Statistical Bureau. Pretests and smallscale trial runs were conducted and checked for accuracy between 1980 and 1981 in twenty-four provincial-level units. Census stations were opened in rural production brigades (see Glossary) and urban neighborhoods. Beginning July 1, 1982, each household sent a representative to a census station to be enumerated. The census required about a month to complete and employed approximately 5 million census takers.
The 1982 census collected data in nineteen demographic categories relating to individuals and households. The thirteen areas concerning individuals were name, relationship to head of household, sex, age, nationality, registration status, educational level, profession, occupation, status of nonworking persons, marital status, number of children born and still living, and number of births in 1981. The six items pertaining to households were type (domestic or collective), serial number, number of persons, number of births in 1981, number of deaths in 1981, and number of registered persons absent for more than one year. Information was gathered in a number of important areas for which previous data were either extremely inaccurate or simply nonexistent, including fertility, marital status, urban population, minority ethnic groups, sex composition, age distribution, and employment and unemployment (see table 5, Appendix A).
A fundamental anomaly in the 1982 statistics was noted by some Western analysts. They pointed out that although the birth and death rates recorded by the census and those recorded through the household registration system were different, the two systems arrived at similar population totals (see Differentiation , ch. 3). The discrepancies in the vital rates were the result of the underreporting of both births and deaths to the authorities under the registration system; families would not report some births because of the one-child policy and would not report some deaths so as to hold on to the rations of the deceased. Nevertheless, the 1982 census was a watershed for both Chinese and world demographics. After an eighteen-year gap, population specialists were given a wealth of reliable, up-to-date figures on which to reconstruct past demographic patterns, measure current population conditions, and predict future population trends. For example, Chinese and foreign demographers used the 1982 census age-sex structure as the base population for forecasting and making assumptions about future fertility trends. The data on age-specific fertility and mortality rates provided the necessary base-line information for making population projections. The census data also were useful for estimating future manpower potential, consumer needs, and utility, energy, and health-service requirements. The sudden abundance of demographic data helped population specialists immeasurably in their efforts to estimate world population. Previously, there had been no accurate information on these 21 percent of the earth's inhabitants. Demographers who had been conducting research on global population without accurate data on the Chinese fifth of the world's population were particularly thankful for the 1982 census.
from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
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