| Chinese - this name basically refers to the ethnic group Khan, constituting 91.6% of the population of the Peoples Republic of China. Also, there are 55 recognized and from 15 to 20 un-recognized nationalities and ethnic groups living in China. All the citizens of China, irrespective of their ethnicity are generally called “Chinese”.
In China there are 56 nationalities, 55 of them are minorities. Only the one nationality Khan constitutes more than 90% of the country’s population. That is, usually when we say “Chinese”, we mean the representatives of the Mongolian nationality Kidan (Khitai) from which "kitai" is derived in some other languages. Though actually, the indigenous people of the Median Empire are Khans.
History:
Written artifacts about the Khan allow us to reconstruct their history back to four thousand years. Starting from the 16th century, several migratory waves of Khans took place from their traditional territories to new places.
The connecting cultural elements of Chinese people are the Chinese script (common for all the dialects), and also the knowledge of their common history and traditions.
The number of Chinese Internet users has surpassed the Americans. By the end of June in China there were 253 million users of the World Wide Web, in USA only 223 million. In the last year the number of Chinese who are connected to the Internet increased by 1.5, their number is increasing very fast.
Certainly, in percentage terms this figure looks a little bit modest, says NTV. Only 19% of people on this earth have access to the Internet. In the USA, 71% of the population is connected, in Russia, 21% of the population.
China, the official name of the Peoples Republic of China, abbreviated as PRC, is a nation in East Asia, the world’s most populous country (more than 1.3 billion people, the majority of the population is ethnic Chinese, original name - Khan); by area it occupies fourth place in the world, conceding to Russia, Canada and the USA. Since China was declared as a People’s Republic in 1949, it is ruled by the Communist party of China. Despite the formal presence of eight parties, the PRC is actually a one-party state.
In the country, the socialist market economy is being developed, and a significant part of the economy has been privatized. “China specific socialism” has been fixed as the economic course in the Constitution of the country.
The PRC has common borders with 14 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
The history of China is unique with a lot of variety of written sources which, together with archaeological data, allow us to reconstruct the political life and social processes since ancient times. The sacred ancient religious-philosophical and historical Chinese texts, especially those in which the doctrine of Confucius (Chinese “K’ung-fu-tse”) was stated, influenced the further development of Chinese civilization and the worldly outlook of the Chinese people.
Since the times of Confucius (Chinese “K’ung-fu-tse”), every body in the Chinese civilization had a very high sociopolitical activity directed towards the achievement of happiness and the well-being in the worldly life – i.e. his destiny did not depend upon some divine decree, but upon his own efforts. This contains the roots of saturation of the Chinese history with mass national movements and high social mobility that are typical to China.
Chinese civilization is one of the oldest in the world. As per the estimates of Chinese scientists, it can be five thousand; at the same time the available written sources prove this period to be no less than 3500 years. The old systems of administrative control, which were modified by the dynasties replacing each other, had apparent advantages for the Chinese state, whose economy was based upon developed agriculture, as compared with more backward neighbors-nomads and mountaineers. The introduction of Confucianism as the state ideology (1st century BC) and the uniform system of script (2nd century BC) strengthened the Chinese civilization more.
From the political point of view, China during several millennia underwent cyclic repeating periods of political unity and disintegration. The territory of China was regularly subjected to invasions by outsiders; however the majority of aggressors sooner or later assimilated in the Chinese ethnicity. The modern Chinese state and society is the result of centuries-old cultural and political mutual penetration and interaction with different neighboring Asian people, accompanied by the migration of millions of humans. The influence of the Chinese ethnicity with its huge demographic potential on the neighboring people cannot be overestimated.
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European Royalty, politicians and celebrities will be attending the opening of the Olympic Games on August 8 in Beijing. US President George Bush will also be traveling to China for the Olympic Games opening and to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Overall, China is expecting over a million visitors during the Olympics, and Chinese government assured they will make everyone feel at home (which means wiretaps, censorship, and spying?).
