China

"About the only thing that hasn't gone wrong [in China] is that they haven't been rocked yet by the ESA"

- Pacific Rim

The People's Republic of China is a rising power and ally of the United States in the early 21st century.

Second Civil War
The runaway success of Deng Xiaoping's reforms had resulted in a corrupt government and a corrupt form of robber baron capitalism in China. In response in 1992, an ex-high school teacher (Hua Yuchi) preached a return to hard core Maoism and an agrarian policy. Soon 2 million joined his movement, most of them peasants. The Maoist Loyalist Cabal (MLC) moved against the government, starting the Second Civil War.

By 1995, the MLC had conquered Guangzhou. The People's Liberation Army found themselves fighting a war on three fronts. In the west, they faced a great Tibetan uprising. In the northwest, Muslim extremists whom were funded by the Soviet Union and it's megacorp SovOil. In the south, the Maoist Loyalist Cabal (who were allied with the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia).

Wheat crops were wiped out worldwide in 2002, which resulted in famine in northern China leading to a flood of refugees into southern China. By 2005, the MLC practically controlled all of southern China. In 2008, Taiwan took advantage of a distracted China to declare independence with the support and protection of Japan and its megacorp Arasaka. Meanwhile a corporate war began in the South China Sea between SovOil and Petrochem, and since China was in disarray they were unable to intervene and protect their interests in the South China Sea.

In 2008, China under the leadership of General Jiang Xiaxi signed the China-U.S. Mutual Aid Pact, after which Militech formed a joint-venture with CITIC and the United States supplied China with arms and equipment. Several years later in 2013, a cyber strike team assassinated Hua Yuchi. The PLA in rapid succession liberated city after city, and province after province. By 2014, the PLA had reclaimed all of southern China except for the province of Hunan, the stronghold of the MLC. The uprisings in Tibet and Xinjiang had also been crushed. There are still cells of the MLC hidden, having gone underground.

Government
Heading the government of China is the General Secretary/Premier. Though two different positions it can be held by the same person, which currently is the case. He leads the Committee of Communist Party Politburo (CCPP), which has 25 members. It overseas the Central Committee, the State Council, and several Communist groups.

The Central Committee is in charge of deciding foreign policy, making the laws, and establishing investigative committees. The CCPP will accept or reject whatever the Central Committee recommends. It has 210 members whom are provincial party leaders and/or young cadre members.

The State Council has 4 Vice Premiers, 10 Councilors, and the Ministers of the 45 Ministries. It develops the internal quotas, controls the finances of the state, and runs the daily machinery of governing.

Within the institutions of China (the Army, Universities, Hospitals, and Industry), the CCP has created a parallel hierarchy. It monitors and acts as a check on the regular hierarchy within those institutions.

Military
The People's Liberation Army has 10.5 million men and women under arms. Which is a force more than x5 as large as the combined assets of the Neo-Soviet regular armed forces and corporate forces. Unlike the European Community, the United States, and Japan it continues to practice industrial scale warfare (as do the Neo-Soviets to a lesser degree).

The Army's equipment is 2 generations behind that of Militech and only slightly inferior to the equipment of the U.S. Army. It prefers using long-range artillery to soften up the opposition before sending in the troops. PLA soldiers are effective on various types of terrain and far better than American soldiers at hand-to-hand combat.

The Navy has numerous ships, but most of them are surface ships. It's equipment is on par with that of the U.S. Navy. Due to their rivalry with Japan, the need to deal with Taiwan, and kick SovOil out of the South China Sea, the Chinese are starting to build more submarines.

The Air Force has mostly older aircraft and they don't have many of them. What they do have is a vast arsenal of missiles, including nuclear armed ones. China has cruise missiles with a range of 2,000 km and Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile capable of covering most of the Soviet Union.

When it comes to the Elite Forces of China, it is where the Chinese shine. Their elite troops have Militech equipment and are specially trained. They are selected at a young age, from either elementary or middle school. Chinese elite troops are the equal of the U.S. Special Forces.

CITIC
The China International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC) was set up by the PLA in the late 1980s. For all attempts and purposes it is China's megacorporation, a state-owned megacorp and the only one in China. It's divisions make most of the goods for internal use in China.

They have a joint venture with Militech, the American military-industrial megacorp, called CCMMC which arms and equips the PLA. Militech provides the People's Liberation Army with tech support and bulk discounts. China in turn gives Militech plenty of testing space, a low overhead, and cheap labor. Though the equipment that the PLA receives is not as good as that carrying the Militech label, it's far cheaper.

Society
China has a pyramidal society consisting of the cadres, military/corporate, artisan/merchant, peasant, and refugee classes;


 * Cadres: Party members and government workers. They are card-carrying members of the party, who get special privileges, control the bureaucratic ministries, and the political machine. Perks include credsticks, good food, cars, free education, and spacious housing.


 * Military: Receive a free education and military housing. They also get food and good medical treatment.


 * Corporates: They get company vehicles and housing. It is they who deal with the foreigners and run the joint-venture businesses.


 * Merchants / Artisans: Run the stores and food shops. They make the rugs, baskets, statues, and so on. Some of the farmers, the successful ones, are in this class. Members are allowed to keep some profits and live somewhat independently. If they make enough money, they are able to pay for their kids' education.


 * Peasants: Make up the great majority of the population and work in the state-owned factories. They are organized into work units and live packed in rooms in the factory complexes. Peasants receive minimal state health care, minimal schooling for their children, and low quality food. Minorities in tribal lands are included in this group.


 * Refugees: Belong both to this class and to any of the aforementioned classes. Their privileges and opportunities are based on what other class they are part of.

Domestic Environment
Though the countryside looks like something out of ancient China or a Third World nation, the cities are modern with the Net, cars, and public transportation. Like the cities in the West or Japan, you find skylines made up of skyscrapers. There is a privileged class, rich people, a middle class, and the poor. Technologically, the government and corporations have access to technology roughly comparable to what most of the developed world uses.

In China, only the cadres (and some of the corporates) are allowed to wear minimal body armor and to own a pistol (up to 10 rounds). Licenses are needed for cyberware, and only the military and the rich have cyberware. Most foreigners do their business in China via joint-ventures. The partner of choice for most of them is China's megacorp, CITIC. While in the cities there are a good number of foreigners, they are extremely rare in the countryside and are therefore fascinating to peasants.

China has a huge thriving black market where you can get guns, satellite dishes, sex, imported food, cyberware, and Japanese braindance. The centuries-old Triads are active throughout China, running criminal enterprises that are involved in the black market, smuggling, and vice. Within China there are also gangs, some of which evolve into Triads. Fortunately due to the restrictions on cyberware, these gangs are nowhere near as dangerous as the gangs in the United States or Europe due to them being far less lethal and less psychotic.

Due to the continuing existence of MLC cells, the nation is under semi-martial law. Capital punishment can be the penalty for crimes as minor as theft, except for the cadres who have much more leeway. If one is not executed, you are sent to work camps, prison factories, or a regular prison. Democracy activists and political dissidents are sent to either psych wards or work camps.

China, the Technological and Economic Superpower
Historically, China had one of the world's leading civilizations and the home of one multiple great dynasties with large empires. From the times of the ancient Greeks to the beginning of the Renaissance, it was one of the world's leading technological power, rivaled only by the Romans and the Hellenistic kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean, a nearly two thousand year period. China likewise was one of the leading economies of the world, usually number one or two, from the time of the Romans till the American War of Independence. During that time it was usually India that rivaled China in the size of its economy.

Imperial China and the Tributary System
The region known as China was first unified in 221 BC and has existed in numerous forms and dynasties with unified and disintegrated for many centuries. Most of the time it was under the rule of Han Chinese dynasties (except for the Mongol Yuan, Manchu Qing and Japanese occupation). China was conquered by the Mongols with Kublai Khan who established the Yuan Dynasty. It lasted from 1271–1368 AD.

During which time the rule of the Han Chinese dynasties extended as far west as into Central Asia reaching the Aral Sea and going into Afghanistan, but it excluded Tibet, parts of East Turkestan, Inner Mongolia and the upper north east of the Manchus. It reached far north as the border regions of southern Siberia (Tang dynasty). The Tang dynasty conquered parts of the steppe empire of the Turkish Gokturk Khanate (which ruled Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Central Asia) and before it the Han dynasty conquered parts of the steppe empire of the Huns. The Xiongnu were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who ruled Mongolia and Xinjiang. The Qing Dynasty were ethnic Manchus who ruled over China from 1644 to 1912 CE.

Vietnam was conquered by the Han dynasty from 111 BC–40 CE. There was a succesful revolt during Trưng Sisters (40–43 CE) which was ultimately squashed. Vietnam was a protectorate of the Tang dynasty (602–905 AD) and called Annam. Vietnam would continue to be overruled by the Chinese until 938 CE. Afterward it became an independent monarchy. It was conquered again centuries later by the Ming dynasty who ruled it for a few decades, and for most of its history afterwards was a tributary of China until its conquest by the French 1858 CE.

Korea was conquered by the Tang dynasty and ruled by China for a few decades, and for most of its history afterward it was a tributary of China. Korea is historically a buffer state between Chinese dynasties and Japan. After the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Korea became a vassal state of Japan and was annexed in 1910. Japan occupied much of Eastern China until the end of World War 2.

Since the 1800s western imperialist countries began to influence China. These western imperial countries had already conquered vast colonies in the Americas, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The western powers such as Great Britain had military might that China couldn't compete with. After the Opium Wars, Britain imposed the first of many “Unequal Treaties.” China became a torn and subjected country. Germany also gained enclaves in China's east coast. Around 1898 the dominant imperial powers with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, William II of Germany, the Japanese and Nicholas II of Russia were all planning to carve up and divide China of the Qing dynasty.

During the Han dynasty, the Kushan Empire of northern India and Pakistan was a tributary state. The Ming dynasty's naval power was such that for decades in the 15th century, nearly every coastal state in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian peninsula, and East Africa paid China tribute. Before it during the Song Dynasty, China had naval primacy in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Korea was a tributary and vassal state of multiple Chinese dynasties.

Japan was a tributary state of China during the Tang and early Ming dynasty, though only for a few decades. The Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the only person who accepted the Chinese title of "king" despite not being the Emperor of Japan. In 1549 Japan ceased to recognize China's hegemony and left the tributary system. Tibet was a tributary under the Tang and Ming dynasties, likewise for short periods but was independent for most of its history until its conquest by the Manchu Qing rulers of China. 

Foreign Influences over Imperial China
Just as Chinese civilization would have major influence over some of its neighbors when it came to government, art, warfare, philosophy, religion, and literature (especially Korea, Vietnam, and to a lesser degree Japan), at different periods in the history of Imperial China, it's civilization too had been influenced by other civilizations and peoples and parts of China (and in two cases all of China), foreigners conquered or occupied its territory. India is the foreign civilization which made the greatest contribution to Chinese civilization, in the form of Buddhism which quickly spread across China and became one of it's three main religions. The Chinese adapted it to their culture, forming the Chan (aka, Zen) and Pure Land schools. Within the imperial government it had equal status alongside Confucianism and Daoism, and among the masses it's influence was comparable to Chinese Folk Religion (aka, Chinese Traditional Religion) and Daoism. By the 20th century it had become the 2nd largest religion in China, after Chinese Folk Religion. India also made contributions to Chinese cuisine (especially spices and sauces) and art (statuary, murals, etc).

Tibet for a time was an imperial power and for several decades received tribute from the Tang dynasty, during its period of decline. Japan would from the late 19th century till mid 20th century not only replace China as the premier state in the Far East but it would invade China during the long decline of Imperial China. They faced the corrupt Manchu regime with a backward military and disunited government, weakened by European incursions and several devastating rebellions (e.g. Taiping rebellion resulted in the deaths of tens of millions). To the north were the steppe nomads who at times collected tribute from China when it was weak (due to civil wars or rebellions, or incompetent and corrupt governments), during two different periods of division within China they conquered the northern part of China (Toba Wei and Khitan Mongols), and once conquered all of China (Yuan Mongols). To the northeast where the Manchu peoples (who were influenced by China, Korea, and the steppe nomads) who at times were under Chinese domination and at other times were strong enough to collect tribute from them, conquer the northern part (Jurchen Jin) and later conquer all of China (Manchu Qing).