China

China also known as "People's Republic of China" is the most populous nation in the world with over 1.3 billion people and 55 minorities. China is the oldest living civilization in the world with 5000 years of history. The name China stemmed from the Persian word for it that was Cin. Cin was derived from the early Chinese Qin Dynasty. For thousands of years, China was a leading civilization, outpacing the world in the arts and sciences but in the 19th and 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats and foreign occupation. After WW2, the Communist leader Mao Zedong seized China from Nationalist Chiang Kai Shek in a civil war. While ensuring China's sovereignty, Mao imposed strict controls over Chinese lives and inadvertently caused the deaths of millions of Chinese through his failed policies. Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping focused on market-oriented development. After 3 decades, living standards improved dramatically. China is now the world's 2nd largest economy.