China


 * For the small Mexican town, see China, Nuevo León.

China is a large country in Asia, with the highest population on the planet. It is one of the oldest continuous civilizations on the planet, having in its history given a number of important inventions and technological advancements to humanity, as well as influential cultural practices and institutions.

Since 1949, the government in control of the Chinese mainland has been the People's Republic of China (PRC). The head of state of the PRC is the President and the head of government is the Premier of the State Council. Both officials serve five-year terms. Officially, the President is chosen by the National People's Congress (the world's largest legislative chamber, with nearly three thousand seats), and the Premier is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Congress. In practice, both offices are invariably awarded to candidates chosen informally by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

The PRC is essentially a one-party state, though a minority of seats in Congress are set aside for approved smaller parties provided those parties go into coalition with the Communists and both accept and support Communist leadership. High-ranking government officials are usually high-ranking Party members as well. This has created a unique intermingling between party and government: Party members serving in government are obliged to carry out party policies, but as party leaders they have considerable influence on the shaping of those policies. This system is different from that seen in other Communist countries such as the Soviet Union, where the party's dominance of the government was one-sided.

The PRC's sovereignty is disputed by the Republic of China (RC). The RC was founded on January 1, 1912 after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution overthrew the ruling Qing Dynasty and ended well over two millennia of imperial rule in China. At the time, China was in a semi-colonized state, with half a dozen foreign powers claiming spheres of influence centered around the country's most economically vital regions. The RC never did effectively control all the territory over which it claimed sovereignty: foreign imperialists, Chinese warlords, a Japanese invasion, and the Communist Party all controlled significant portions of Chinese territory at some point during the period when the RC was in power.

A civil war began in the 1930s when the ROC's ruling Kuomintang Party expelled the Communists from their governing coalition and violently purged Communist officers of the armed forces. The civil war was interrupted during the Second Sino-Japanese War, with both sides (more or less) cooperating, along with the Allied Forces, to expel the Japanese invasion. Following the end of World War II, the civil war quickly resumed, and in 1949, ended with a near-complete Communist victory. The RC managed to hold the island of Taiwan and several smaller islands in its vicinity, and reestablished its government in Taipei. The RC continued to claim to be the rightful government of China, and the PRC claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and the other RC holdings. This situation has persisted to the time of this writing (2015), though a military conflict has yet to arise over the dispute.

During the first half of the Cold War, most anti-Communist countries supported the ROC's claim. However, as the PRC consolidated power on the mainland, this was seen as increasingly unrealistic. In 1971, the United Nations expelled the RC and seated the PRC in its place, granting the PRC China's permanent seat on the Security Council. The following year, the United States began a policy of detente with PRC which gradually led to full diplomatic recognition in 1979. Since these two events, momentum has steadily built internationally to acceptance of the PRC as China's rightful government. However, at the time of this writing, 22 states continue to recognize the RC, and numerous others openly maintain unofficial back-channels.

Note
In most of the works of Harry Turtledove, the POD arrives when China is still in its republic phase, and still embroiled in the Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. A few have PODs set in imperial China, and one or two are set in the PRC. In the Southern Victory series, the type of government (empire? republic? other?) is never discussed.

China in Agent of Byzantium
By the early 14th Century, China was one of the three great powers in the known world. The others were the Byzantine Empire and Persia.

China in "Before the Beginning"
China was one of the first countries to convert to Judaism en masse after it was revealed that the Jews were indeed God's chosen people.

China in Crosstime Traffic
Crosstime Traffic was aware of an alternate in which China had discovered and completely settled North America. In another alternate, China was responsible for starting a devastating nuclear war. In another, the descendants of Alexander the Great ruled half a dozen empires that stretched from Spain to the borders of China. Footage taken in this alternate was shown to Jeremy Solters and his fellow students in US history class.

China in Curious Notions
In the alternate designated as 3477, China, like the rest of the world, was politically dominated by Germany after it emerged victorious from the War of 1914. Its tremendous size and huge population, however, made it nearly impossible to rule to the same extent that Germany ruled other countries.

Although China had overthrown its monarchy in 1911, Germany restored the Emperor, and continued to rule China through the emperor well into the 21st century. China's population, though, made it easy for resistance movements to rise up against German rule and disappear. Organizations like the Triads worked in North America to put their candidate for an emperor and replace Germany with China as the most powerful country in the world.

Given this "wild" status, Lawrence Gomes' claim that Curious Notions purchased its far too advanced merchandise from China was readily accepted by German authorities.

China in The Disunited States of America
China had dissolved into various autonomous provinces in the 20th Century. Two or three of these were considered great powers of the world in the late 21st Century.

China in The Gladiator
In an alternate where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, the People's Republic of China was the only viable rival for the USSR. The PRC had carved out a substantial sphere of influence in the world, most importantly in East Asia, but it was not unheard of for China to meddle in Russia's immediate sphere. Most famously, Albanian leader Enver Hoxha had broken with the USSR and turned to China in the late 20th Century. Though at some later time the Soviet Union re-imposed an Albanian regime friendly to itself, there were still pro-Chinese guerrillas fighting the pro-Soviet government in the closing days of the 21st Century.

China in Gunpowder Empire
China was the easternmost in a string of empires stretching all along the Eurasian land mass, which also included the Roman Empire, Lietuva, Persia and the two empires sharing the Indian subcontinent, all of which - though having varied historical and cultural backgrounds - possessed gunpowder and artillery and had considerable stability. There was some trade between the Chinese and Romans, but it was not very important to either empire. Scholars noted that these two empires had a similar problem of their shores being the target of pirates, from Japan and Scandinavia respectively.

In another alternate, where Jeremy Solters' friend Michael Fujikawa went with his parents, China was dominated by Japanese warlords - which gave the Fujikawa family, with their Japanese background, a better chance to blend in. In the messages which Michael sent to Jeremy, he made little mention of the history or technological level of the China in whose North he lived, mainly complaining of having to get up very early for long and boring religious ceremonies, as part of keeping the Fujikawas' cover in that alternate.

China in In High Places
China was the richest and most powerful country of an alternate where four in five Europeans were killed in the Great Black Deaths. It was conquered by the Manchus, who continued to rule into the 21st Century. However, China never filled the void of exploration and technological development that the crippled Europe left, much to the puzzlement of Crosstimers.

China in Days of Infamy
China was the scene of hard and difficult fighting for the Japanese military. Many of the Japanese soldiers who occupied Hawaii were veterans of fighting in China. These veterans found occupying Hawaii to be much easier.

China in "Drang von Osten"
In the 2040s, the People's Republic of China launched an invasion of Russia that moved quickly towards Europe. In response, a coalition led by Germany moved into the east in 2041, and were able to establish lines well into European Russia. However, by 2043, those lines were collapsing in the face of the sheer numbers of soldiers fielded by the People's Liberation Army, which had pushed into Ukraine.

China in "Getting Real"
By 2117, China was the sole superpower overtaking the United States during the previous century. In addition to its military and economic power, China led the world in technological research and development. The U.S. refused to recognize this change in circumstance leading to trade disputes and minor military skirmishes which accelerated the U.S.'s decline.

China in The Hot War
The Chinese Communist Party had taken control of mainland China in 1949, establishing the People's Republic of China under the rule of Mao Tse-Tung. The United States and much of the West did not recognize Mao's PRC, instead declaring the exiled government of Chiang Kai-Shek, which controlled only Formosa, as the "true" China. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, did recognize the PRC.

In October of 1950, the PRC intervened in the Korean War by dispatching troops to aid North Korea after UN troops crossed the 38th Parallel. The Chinese intervention completely surprised the UN forces. The Chinese troops succeeded in cutting off three divisions of U.S. troops between the Chosin Reservoir and Hungnam, and throughout November, 1950, those U.S. troops were destroyed.

In response, U.S. President Harry Truman authorized General Douglas MacArthur to use atomic weapons in China if they were the only way to improve the situation. That decision was made on January 23, 1951, and the U.S. bombed several strategic positions in Manchuria. In response, China convinced the Soviet Union to launch atomic attacks on U.S. allies in Europe.

While the Soviets and the Americans began a series of tit for tat bombings that finally escalated into World War III, the Chinese government kept its focus limited to the fighting in Korea, insuring a steady flow of arms to the North Koreans. To insure the flow remained steady, Mao pushed for rapid repairs to the places the U.S. had atom bombed. By April, 1951, the rail line through Harbin was functional again.

China in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
China was an occupied territory of the Empire of Japan in 2010. It was partitioned by the Japanese with a separate puppet state existing in Manchukuo under an emperor. The Japanese made a systematic use of it as a pool of virtually unlimited cheap manpower.

China in Joe Steele
China was in the throws of a civil war between the government of Chiang Kai-Shek and the Reds of Mao-Tse-Tung before, during and after World War II, including the period when Japan had invaded China. In August, 1945, the Soviet Union pushed Japan out of China. However, Soviet Premier Leon Trotsky ensured that Manchuria went to Mao. Throughout the remainder of the 1940s, Mao gained on Chiang's forces, until, in October, 1949, just two months after the end of the Japanese War, Mao and his Reds pushed Chiang's forces off of the Chinese mainland.

The U.S. had backed Chiang, and refused to recognize Mao. For a time, U.S. President Joe Steele had considered using atomic bombs to support Chiang, as they'd effectively ended the Japanese War. However, the Soviet ambassador to the U.S., Andrei Gromyko, suggested that any U.S. atomic attack in China might be met with a Soviet atomic attack in Europe. Steele let go of the idea of using atomics.

China in "Les Mortes d'Arthur"
By the Twenty-Second Century, China had overthrown Communism and restored its status as an empire. It was wealthy enough to send a large team to Mimas, a moon of Saturn, for the sixty-sixth Winter Olympic Games but not so wealthy as to have them sent early to train in the low-g environment.

China in "Occupation Duty"
Inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom had a fundamental difference with the Turks of Babylonia over interpretation of the teachings of Buddha. The Chinese like their neighbors in Eastern Asia held to the traditional view that Buddhism is a pacific religion, while the Turks - more recent converts - supported the "Sword Buddha" who authorized and indeed encouraged violence and killing. Still, the different kinds of Buddhists shared various elements of the religion, such as the uttering the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum".

China in Southern Victory
China had been an empire, ruled by the Qing Dynasty during the 19th century. Many of its citizens had emigrated to the United States, but had very few rights. The largest concentration of Chinese in the US was in San Francisco, California.

In 1912, the Qing Dynasty collapsed and China became a republic, and was a minor ally of the Entente when the Great War began in 1914, even though no fewer than four Entente nations (Great Britain, France, Russia, and its hereditary enemy Japan) had carved out colonial spheres of influence within Chinese territory.

After the Great War ended, China's economy had grown so dismal that the worldwide stock market crash of 1929 did not effect it; it had no wealth to lose.

Japan also gained substanial influence in Chinese affairs during this period, and at times even resorted to aerial bombings of Chinese cities. This would later lead to all-out war between both countries.

During the Second Great War, Japan intensified its war greatly although China stayed out of the main part of the war and remained neutral.

China in The Guns of the South
Some of the AK-47s delivered to the Army of Northern Virginia by Andries Rhoodie carried marks proclaiming themselves to have been made in the People's Republic of China. The Army's staff officers pored over maps and atlases of China as they could. However, they were unable to find any section of the country known as the "People's Republic."

China in "The Last Article"
By 1947, Japan had total domination over all of China, and was busy negotiating a trade deal with Germany.

China in The Two Georges
China was a British protectorate. Having secured complete control over the Chinese economy and shut out rival colonial powers which sought to carve out Chinese enclaves to themselves was a major source of the British Empire's continuing as a major world power to the end of the 20th Century and beyond.

China in The War That Came Early
China had been fighting a war in earnest against invading Japanese forces for a year when the Second World War broke out in Europe in October, 1938.

China itself was also in the throes of a civil war, as Communists battled the Kuomintang.

In December 1939, with Japanese forces now engaged in a conflict with the Soviet Union, Communists launched a series of terrorist bombing raids on various Japanese positions in all of China's major cities.

Despite the Japanese occupation, the United States, officially a neutral, maintained military garrisons in China to protect its national interests.

China in "Vilcabamba"
Some time after the Krolp arrived and subjugated Earth, China joined Russia and the United States in a massive organized uprising. That uprising failed.

China in Worldwar
During the first half of the 20thcentury, China had been torn apart by civil war between various factions. The most predominate were the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-Shek, and the Communists led by Mao Tse-Tung. During the 1930's, China was even further ravaged by war, when the Japanese invaded, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War.

When the Race landed at the start of June, 1942, the Chinese, unaware of the Race's true intentions, assisted them by revolting against the Japanese, and within the first three months of the invasion, had reduced them to isolated pockets of resistance, forcing them north back into Manchukuo. After driving the Japanese from China, the two major Chinese factions had realised their error and turned their attention on the Race, even joining forces with the Japanese to fight them. Within Chinese territory, the Race first made the acquaintance of ginger, a powerfully addictive drug to their own biology which all major human powers would eventually exploit.

Throughout the rest of the war, the Chinese continued to fight the Race, being the most resistive of all the occupied territories on Earth. When the Race asked for a cease-fire in 1944, the Chinese were not invited to the proceedings as they had already been conquered. Another factor was that both the major Chinese factions demanded that they alone were the true rulers of China. After the Peace of Cairo was signed, China was recognised as a Race colony. The Chinese refused to accept this and continued on in their struggle against the Race, being the most rebellious of all the colonies on Earth. These efforts were assisted indiscreetly by the Soviet Union as well as the United States.

When the Race's Colonization Fleet arrived in 1962, many Race males, from common infantry males to Fleetlord Atvar, often felt frustrated with China, as it was too densely populated to be settled by colonists, but at the same time had to be kept garrisoned to keep up a strong image to other Tosevite powers. Chinese resistance took a heavy toll on Race forces, and it was these casualties that eventually forced Fleetlord Reffet to seriously consider letting Atvar recruit colonists to be soldiers. In spite of the difficulties in holding China, the Race refused to relinquish any of it when Japan acquired nuclear weapons in 1965 and demanded the return of large stretches of their former empire in China.

In 1964 the Race was temporarily expelled from many of China's major cities including Beijing by a coalition of Chinese factions. However, this rebellion was eventually put down. After Germany's defeat in the Race-German war of 1965, the Germans shipped what was left of their equipment over to the Chinese rather than surrendering it to the Race. This sparked a second mainly Communist rebellion, which employed German anti-tank and anti-air missiles to drive the Lizards from Beijing and other cities in 1966 and hold them for a longer period of time. Though the Race eventually retook the rebel controlled-territory, they realized that it would probably be necessary to negotiate with the various factions.

The Chinese flag flew in the palace of the 37th Emperor Risson in Preffilo on Home, among the other flags of conquered Tosevite empires and not-empires and the banners of all the once-independent empires of Rabotev 2, Halless 1, and ancient Home.

Note
China is only addressed in the beginning of Homeward Bound, stating that it is still in rebellion. Its status in 2031 is never said.