Empire of The Great Chǔ
China is a unitary constitutional monarchy led by the Ministry, a unicameral legislature composed of Bureaus of experts in various fields. It self-designates as a Green Technocratic Socialist State. It is a permanent member of the Directory of the Human Union of Earth. It is a founding member of several multilateral and regional organizations such as the Silk Road Fund, the Asia-Pacific Comprehensive Partnership, and the Nǚwā Project. Making up around one quarter of the human economy, the Chinese economy is the largest by PPP-adjusted GDP. China is the second-wealthiest country in the Solar system and ranks high in democracy and personal freedom, though comprehensive hate speech laws and intensively planned economics have been criticized by foreign observers. Education is the sole means of political franchise, but it is very easy to obtain and little discrimination exists in its application, while its huge government meets regularly via electronic means and responds closely to the needs of the people through consultative conferences and ethics boards.
The country is both humanity's largest exporter and importer. China is a nuclear-weapon state with the largest standing army by military personnel and the largest defense budget. It is also a spacefaring state, with humanity's largest offworld expat population. It has been described as a hyperpower around which Earth's affairs pivot. China is known for its cuisine and culture and, as a megadiverse country, has 697 HUE Human Heritage Sites.
Etymology
The word "China" has been used in English since the XVIth century; however, it was not used by the Chinese themselves during this period. Its origin has been traced through Portuguese, Malay, and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna, used in ancient Bharat. "China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn (چین), which in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna (चीन). The origin of the Sanskrit word is a matter of debate. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahabharata (IIIrd century BCE to the IVth century CE) and the Laws of Manu (IInd century BCE to the IInd century CE). In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of the Qín dynasty (221 to 206 BCE). Although use in Bharati sources precedes this dynasty, this derivation is still given in various sources. Alternative suggestions include the names for Yèláng and the Jìn or Chǔ state.
The official name of the present state is the "Empire of the Great Chǔ" (大楚帝國; Pinyin: Dà Chǔ Dìguó). The simplified term "Great Chǔ" is common both officially and colloquially. The state is also called Zhōngguó (中國), from zhōng ('central') and guó ('state'), a term which developed under the Western Zhōu dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. In the west, it is known as "China". It is also sometimes poetically known as Huáxià (華夏), a term for the Chinese culture. These terms have also been used as a synonym for the state in imperial records. The name Zhōngguó is also translated as 'Middle Kingdom' in English.
History
Considered one of the six cradles of civilization, its first human inhabitants arrived during the Paleolithic. By the late IInd millennium BCE, the earliest dynastic states had emerged in the Yellow River basin; the bronze age chariot kingdoms of Xià and Shāng/Yīn. The VIIIth to IIIrd centuries BCE was defined by the fragmentation of the Zhōu dynasty, while new schools of history, philosophy, sociology, and economics flourished in the multiple states which emerged therefrom. In 221 BCE, the State of Qín reunified the country and its ruler claimed the title of emperor, one derived from ancient culture heroes of the age of myth and implying a combination of civic and religious significance. Its imperial dynasties which followed include the Qín, Hàn, Jìn, Suí, Táng, Sòng, Yuán, Míng, Qīng, and current Chǔ.
During the Middle Ages, gunpowder, paper, and the compass were invented. The Silk Road brought the wealth of the Earth into the country, while transmitting Chinese culture to its neighbors and farther still. However, the Manchu occupation and the rise of European dominance in the early XIXth century brought a time of stagnation and decline. China was forced to cede territory and authority to foreigners. After decades of dilapidation, the 1866 Bǐngyín War overthrew the Qīng dynasty and the present Chǔ Empire was established on the Lunar New Year of 1870.
Ruled once again by its predominant ethnic group, the country was able to balance retaining its traditions and modernizing on its own terms, a process which culminated in the Third Opium War, the North Asian War, and the defeat of the European colonial powers in the region. The absorption of the Mongol and Manchu lands in the subsequent decades provided both labor and resources, and secured the nation's northern frontiers, while its support for the White Movement in the Russian Civil War resulted in a close relationship with the Russian Federation which emerged from the conflict in 1924. This Sino-Russian alliance would in the coming decades prove to be a juggernaut capable of uniting the world. At the same time, the country incorporated Turkic lands in Central Asia to gain an unbroken route from east to west, and British Burma and Assam were incorporated to provide access to the Bharatic Ocean.
Determined to avoid the fates of other monarchies following the Great War, the imperial court aggressively diversified its political horizon. It implemented experimental reforms which catalyzed the development of an educated and conscious populace as well as established a network of allies across Eurasia. Following the Techno-Socialist Guǐwèi Revolution of 1943, industrial development accelerated further, and Chinese science brought humans to the other planets for the first time in the middle XXth century. China helped to overthrow colonial regimes throughout the world, which aided the growth of technocracy movements in the formerly dominant Europe, and in a final confrontation with the former United States the anticolonial powers would gain total control over the world.
From the 1970s onward, as evidence mounted that human activity was causing potentially disastrous climate change, the environmentalist movement, led by the Primal Treasure Society and the New Green Turbans, would spearhead a sweeping reform to all aspects of economic life with the support of the Imperial Court, culminating in the Nüwa Project which brought about the transformation of urban environments and agricultural practices and the development of new strategies for the procurement of human needs. At the same time, the country further explored the celestial bodies and pioneered mining methods which brought gargantuan mineral wealth to the Earth and solved numerous problems of resource scarcity. The Shénnóng Project has initiated the terraforming of the other inner planets as well as coordinated the creation of cosmohabs and cosmofabs. Along with the invention of artificial abiotic food production from mineral sources, this has resulted in food production keeping pace with the rapid growth of the human population as people live to longer and longer ages.
Geography
China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast territory. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the Turco-Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers. Other major rivers include the Xī, Mê Kông, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west sit major mountain ranges and deserts. High plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, as well as extensive Taiga forest. In the southwest, the great Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountain ranges form the frontier. Near to the Aral Sea in Shuò and Ān Provinces, extensive deserts predominate, punctuated by fertile river systems.
China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern mountain and subarctic winds are cold and dry; in summer, southern coastal winds are warm and moist.
Historically, a major issue was desertification, particularly of the Gobi. Terraforming campaigns in the late XXth century allowed reclamation of millions of lǐ of new farmland. Since the invention of synth food, the need for farmland has waned and the land has largely been given over to controlled natural spaces, green belts, and planned cities. The country's rivers provide ample water supply, while reclamation of fresh water from desalination and asteroid mining has ended water scarcity. With nuclearization in the middle XXth century, climate change as a result of the burning of fossil fuels was put to an end as well.
China is considered a "megadiverse" country, in two of Earth's major biogeographic realms; the Palearctic and the Indomalayan. By one measure, China has over 51,687 species of animals and vascular plants, making it the third-most biodiverse country on the planet, after Kongo and Abya Yala.
China has at least 751 species of mammals (the third-highest), 1,421 species of birds (eighth), 524 species of reptiles (seventh) and 473 species of amphibians (seventh). Chinese wildlife shares habitat with humans, and thrives in vast controlled green belts between urban areas, as well as within urban areas in large parklands. In the 1960s, a sweeping series of bans on traditional medicines and a crackdown on poaching continues to this day, allowing species historically hunted for such practices to recover. Endangered wildlife is protected by strict laws, and the country has over 10,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 5.98 million lǐ^(2); much of the country. Wild animals have been reintroduced to what was once farmland over the last century to great success.
China has over 32,000 species of vascular plants as well as over 10,000 recorded species of fungi, and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. The understory of moist conifer forests contains thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which predominate in central and southern China, support a high density of plant species including numerous rare endemics. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined mostly to Diān, Qióng, Luó, Pú, Miǎn, and Yǎng Provinces, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China.
Government
According to the Constitution, eligibility for election to government positions is contingent on expertise in the field that position governs and ethical integrity in recorded positions of power. Expertise is determined by the Bureau of Education, which selects candidates for each new vacant position in the Ministry based on suggestions from the Ministers of the Bureau in question and thorough examination of their relevant skills and accomplishments in the field. Ethical integrity is determined by the Bureau of Ethics, which examines candidates' personal histories for dishonesty, greed, prejudice, and other corrupt tendencies and must approve of their eligibility. The candidate is then put to a general vote among citizens accredited in the respective field at the tertiary and quaternary levels. The Bureau of Records assigns a coded designation to each candidate to ensure that at every stage of the process the name and family of the candidate is hidden from their examiners to prevent nepotism.
The Emperor, or Son of Heaven, is considered the Head of State of the Great Chǔ Empire. The Emperor is the head of the House of Niè, the descendants of Chǔ Gāozǔ, who led the campaign to end Manchu rule in the XIXth century. The sovereign is not simply a figurehead, but works closely with the Ministry and has a role to perform in government as the head of the Imperial Court. The Imperial Court consists of member of the Imperial Family as well as a group of scholars who have taken a massive examination on the entire history, body of law, diversity of social movements, and legacy of the Imperial institution throughout the ages. They are then given non-hereditary titles of nobility and make their residence in the Inner City of Gōngdū surrounding the Pomelo Blossom Palace, as large complex in the center of the capital built in 1877, in the prosperous years following the defeat of the European powers in the Third Opium War. Therein, they work to compile records of as many aspects of national and international life as possible. They use this to comment on and guide the lawmaking practice of the Ministry, working with the Bureaus to help ground policy in the precedent of world history.
The Emperor also officiates religious rites and ceremonies. They engage in international diplomacy, traveling abroad to participate in meetings with other Heads of State, especially to preside over the meetings of the Directorate of the Human Union of Earth. A subdivision of the Housing Bureau of the Ministry assigns funds and labor to the maintenance of imperial palaces, temples and tombs. The Emperor and members of the Imperial Court receive the same basic wage by the government as any other citizens for their personal use.
The Prime Minister, or Bùxiàng (部相), is the official Head of Government of the Empire. They are the chief elected official of the Ministry, chosen by vote of support from all members of the Ministry. Their election must be approved by the Three Great Bureaus. The Prime Minister acts to coordinate the activities of the Ministry, working with the Three Great Bureaus to put together working groups composed of experts in various fields to propose, draft, alter, and finish new laws. They may give Executive Orders to the Bureaus, but only with the approval of the Bureau of Ethics. They preside over meetings of the Ministry and coordinate the formation of working groups to draft legislation, and they moderate debates on the issues at hand. The Prime Minister serves until such a time as they either die in office or are removed by a vote called by Ministry proposal. The Prime Minister may approve of pardons and loans with the support of the Justice and Finance Bureaus, respectively.
Legislature
The nexus of all government in China is the Bù, translated into English as the "Ministry". It is a massive organization, currently consisting of 107,398 members. It is divided into two primary houses. The upper house, known as the Sān Dàjú, or the Three Great Bureaus. These are the Jiàoyù Jú, or Bureau of Education, the Lúnlǐ Jú, or Bureau of Ethics, and the Huánjìng Jú, or Bureau of the Environment. The Three Great Bureaus must each agree on all new legislation, all candidates for office, and all Executive Orders of the Prime Minister. The Pǔtōng Jú, or Common Bureaus, form the rest of the legislature and govern specific areas of development in the economy, government, and society. The Ministry drafts legislation. The Foreign Bureau ratifies international agreements, while the Finance Bureau approves of a national budget, working with the other bureaus to draft it and taking into account the suggestions of Consultative Conferences composed of accredited experts in the fields. The leaders of individual Bureaus are called Júzhǎng, or while common members of the Bureaus are called Júyuán. The Bureaus are also divided into subsections called Chù, or offices, led by Chùzhǎng, dedicated to individual aspects of that Bureau's area of authority, as well as Kē, or small working groups assigned to specific tasks led by Kēzhǎng.
The Ministry has no political parties. Instead, it is governed by a single national ideology defined in the Constitution. This ideology designates the goals of the government to improve the lives of human beings through socialized industrial and infrastructural development accessible to all, foster the unity of ethnic and religious groups, take action against racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice, and maintain a strict adherence to environmental sustainability, to prevent the degradation of land, sea, and sky. This Green Humanism informs all policy and law, and political parties are considered to represent factionalism and foster efforts to undermine this ideology, and there is not considered a place in government for any attempt to restore prejudice, destructive development, or private property.
Election to any Bureau requires one to demonstrate extensive accreditation in the field that Bureau represents. One must attain the highest levels of quaternary education in the field, and to have accomplished tangible results in the field for national development. The Three Great Bureaus approve of all candidates, vetting them in exhaustive examinations with the name of the candidate obscured. Then, they are subject to public vote among citizens who have accomplished tertiary and quaternary accreditation in the field. By this means, the government, the responsibility of which is nothing less than the survival of all of society, is staffed by the best and brightest among the people, without regard for family name, race, religion, charisma, or any factor other than their skills.
The Ministry is considered to be in session at all times. Its members are issued devices connected to a proprietary intranet by which they may communicate constantly, and the process of drafting legislation is a constant project. Júyuán are given time to decide on their votes and extensive information on the nature of the discussions at hand provided by the intranet. The Ministry drafts laws by first forming committees that work with institutions of higher learning to organize discussion topics relevant to the current situation of the country. These topics are then presented to the Júyuán relevant to the discussion, whereupon working groups are assigned to write down several drafts of proposed laws and regulations. These proposals are brought before the Three Great Bureaus for approval, whereupon the Emperor places his seal upon it and it is enshrined as public policy.
Judiciary
The Judicial system is integrated into the legislature. The Ministry Justice Bureau consists of Júyuán who have been educated in matters of ethics and jurisprudence historical and current. It overlaps significantly with the Ethics Bureau and works with it extensively to review laws. Its members work together to administer a court to deliberate on legal cases brought to the national level. These mostly consist of class action suits against state organizations for prejudicial practices or oppressive work cultures, and evidence for and against is weighed in consultation with conferences of experts in law accredited at the quaternary level. The Justice Bureau administers and regulates the lower courts of the country.
It also regulates corrective actions against offenders, working with the Ethics Bureau to establish methods of dealing with criminals with an emphasis on avoiding retributive justice and focusing wholly on prevention of recidivism. As a result, the state maintains no prisons in the classical sense. Instead, offenders are enrolled into mandatory classes dedicated to educating them on why what they have done is wrong and how best to improve themselves. They are placed under increased surveillance and receive regular visits from social workers to ensure that recidivism is not taking place and that the offender has an adequate diet and living environment. Changes to living areas and nutritional intake are made by the Bureau of Nutrition's local branch in the area, which employs separate social workers dedicated to calibrating the needs of the offender to increase their general disposition. If necessary, social workers are tasked with preventing the offender from re-offending. Voluntary facilities also exist in which the offender may live in a safe and controlled environment under constant supervision, and many violent offenders do enroll themselves in these facilities to great success in reform. When the social workers and the instructors in their classes are satisfied with their progress, restrictions are lifted and surveillance is gradually reduced to normal levels.
Economy
China has the largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, and the largest in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). As of 2075, China accounts for around 40% of the human economy by nominal GDP. Along with Bharat, Congo, Russia, Arabia, Brazil, and Nusantara, it dominates the Earth as well as Human Space. Its celestial associate states on the other inner planets, asteroid belt, comets, and outer planet moons drive massive resource extraction efforts which have further developed human life on the homeworld.
China was one of the Earth's foremost economic powers throughout the arc of East Asian and global history. The country had one of the largest economies on Earth for most of the past two millennia, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. China has developed into a highly diversified economy and one of the most consequential players in international trade. Major sectors of strength include manufacturing, mining, textiles, vehicles, energy generation, banking, electronics, telecommunications, and tourism. China has been the largest manufacturing nation since 1950, after overtaking the U.S., which had been the largest for the previous half century. It has also been the largest in high-tech manufacturing since 1965. The country leads humanity in space mineral wealth and food production. The Chinese manufacturing industry is regarded as the most innovative and active among nations. The country is also humanity's leader in electric and flying vehicle consumption and production, manufacturing and buying half of all electric cars, hover cars, and dirigibles. It is also the leading producer of batteries for electric vehicles as well as several key raw materials for batteries found in the asteroid belt and on the moon and helium production for dirigibles. China leads in recycling efficiency, with the production of energy via its ground and celestial solar arrays, nuclear fission facilities, flying wind turbines, and geothermal, and with the production of water via a network of desalination plants and asteroid mining operations.
The production of synth food has resulted in such a great abundance of food being created that there is no need for price systems for most types of food and all people can be fed for free easily. The asteroid mining and automated systems have resulted in similar advancements to the production of other vital goods and even services through robotics production. As a result, people have largely been able to dedicate their time to leisure and art. Their needs provided for, they engage in labor according to desire and armed with high education provided to them.
Industry and Technology
Chinese industry provides for the needs of much of the world. Over three billion highly educated people and highly efficient and mechanized economy allow for a gargantuan scale of production that outpaces all other nations. The major industries of the country include food, energy, water, robotics, lanthanides, and nuclear fuel. China pioneered nuclear power, synth food, celestial resource extraction, and artificial intelligence, and is the source of a great deal of scientific advancement to this day. The nation was a central force in the worldwide struggle against European colonialism at the end of the XIXth century, and in the process of waging war against exploitative capitalist landowners cultivated a network of allies that would form the foundation of the current Human Union of Earth. Through this organization, China has maintained a leading role in organizing international economic efforts and enforcing regulations. With the establishment of the Techno-Socialist system, its industrial base grew rapidly, bringing the full capacity of its massive population to bear against international problems and human needs. Following the Great Renewal of Earth's Virtue of the late XXth century, it would also lead the effort to massively retrofit existing infrastructure to restore harmony to the environment and repair the damage done to the world during the Second Industrial Revolution.
It leveraged its labor and expertise to lead the effort both domestically and abroad. Entire cities were subject to systematic renovations, planned in stages, by which streets were repurposed as pedestrian spaces, infrastructure for the disabled was added, and a network of raised rail lines were created to facilitate travel within and between urban areas. Coal and oil power facilities were decommissioned in stages as new nuclear and renewable power facilities were created. The use of plastics was put under heavy regulation, and renewable alternatives were devised for all purposes for which such alternatives could be implemented. With the rise of abundant nuclear energy, desalination facilities became an economical means of creating potable water, and massive amounts of it are consumed within the country and exported to other countries. Agriculture was scaled back as synth food was created and proliferated, while terrestrial mining was scaled back as well as the state sponsored the innovation of cosmomining and cosmofab systems.
Mechanization of the economy through the use of robotic systems has consistently grown in the last century as each generation becomes more educated than the last. Robotics has greatly reduced the workload on human beings in production, eliminating a great deal of the drudgery of labor. Many factory lines are almost entirely automated, with fabrication, cleaning, and control all accomplished by robotic systems, while humans are only present to monitor the machinery. Many services are provided by robots both humanoid and non-humanoid, while infrastructural maintenance is also heavily automated. Leisure time of the average person has risen consistently, and as of 2075 it is over 300 days per year.
China accounted for 30.9% of humanity's total wealth in 2022. China brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history. Between 1950 and 2050, China reduced extreme poverty by two billion. From 1950 to 2050, the average standard of living multiplied by a factor of forty. Wages in China have grown significantly in the last 100 years. Per capita incomes have also risen significantly. When the Chǔ Empire was founded in 1870, per capita income in China was far below the planetary average; per capita incomes now set the average itself. China's development is highly even; its rural and interior regions just as prosperous as its urban and coastal regions. It has a high level of economic equality, which has increased quickly since the Techno-Environmentalist Constitution of 2000. Much of the population lives in planned cities with extensive disability access and public transit. Apartment buildings have tailored air conditioning for occupants of varying needs and desires, while childcare and health facilities are extremely common and interspersed according to population density for the purpose of ease of access. Ready access to education is available to almost all people, while recreational facilities are everywhere. People regularly consume recreational drugs, which is encouraged by the state, and socialize through extracurricular learning clubs, dance halls, and internet connection to all corners of the homeworld and beyond.