China (Concert of Europe)

China (Chinese: 中國 Zhōngguó), officially the Empire of China (Chinese: 中華帝國 Zhōnghuá Dìguó), is a sovereign nation in. It is the largest Asian nation by population and land area, and shares borders with the Yellow Sea and the to the east,  to the northeast,  to the north,  and  to the west, and,  and the  to the south. China is one of the most ancient civilazions and nations of the world; its empire was an Asian superpower for most of its history, but its archaic government and lack of key innovations during the 19th century caused it to be surpassed by.

The early 20th century saw the beginning of an extremely violent civil war in China, known as the Warlord Period: in 1912, the ruling Qing dynasty was topples, and in the ensuing chaos republican, monarchist and communist factions fought each other in a devastating conflicts. The war went on to become another front of the, with the various factions being supported by other nations: and its allies supported a Chinese general, Yuan Shikai, who had proclaimed himself emperor. However, his rule over China proved tenuous, and would be restored only later, when Japan, now a German ally, invaded the country with the excuse of restoring Yuan Shikai's legitimate rule, defeating republican and communist armies and occupying the whole of the country. Later, China would be dismembered by Japan, which aimed at cutting it down to size to make it more easily become a state in the Japanese sphere of influence: vast territories were ceded to neighboring states, and Tibet and Manchuria were made into independent states.

Despite this, China's economy managed to recover and modernize in the post-war period, also thanks to massive Japanese investment and China's participation in the : the country is however economically and politically deeply tied to Japan, to the point that some even consider it a Japanese protectorate. The dominant Chinese ethnic groups are the Han, also known as Chinese proper, but there are numerous other minor groups, including the Hui, the Miao, the Tai and more. China's territory is vast and varied, including all sorts of biomes and climates within its borders.