China
country in East Asia
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is divided into 33 province-level divisions, including two special administrative regions. Beijing is the capital, while Shanghai is the most populous city by urban area. Its geography features the Central Plain, major rivers such as the Yangtze and Yellow River, deserts, subtropical and temperate forests, plateaus, and mountain ranges such as the Himalayas. It is the world's second-most populous country after India, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion (17% of the world's population). Covering 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third largest country by area.
Humans first arrived in China during the Paleolithic. During the 2nd millennium BCE, dynastic states emerged. In 221 BCE, China was unified under the Qin, followed by the Han dynasty, ushering in two millennia of imperial rule across periods of unity and division. The imperial era saw the expansion of the Silk Road and the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, and the compass.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “China” as country in East Asia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as country in East Asia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q148. VIAF identifies the subject as 132441531. The Library of Congress control number is n79091151. Authority coordinates are 35.845, 103.452. 2 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “China”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow China primary sources, China archive and China research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “China”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “China” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.