# mainland China
## English
### Alternative forms

* Mainland China

### Etymology

From mainland +‎ China.

### Proper noun

mainland China
* The People's Republic of China, viewed as the general geographical region administered by the PRC in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War (as opposed to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan which are coastal and insular areas)
** 1957, Chung-cheng (Kai-shek) Chiang, “Conclusion”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy‎, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 348:Had my Government remained on the mainland, there would never have been such calamities as the Korean War and the Communist occupation of northern Korea and northern Indo-China. The place to begin combating Communism in Asia, therefore, is mainland China.
** 1968, “SHANGHAI (SHANG-HAI)”, in Encyclopedia Britannica‎, volume 20, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 346, column 2:In 1953 the city had only 20% of the total value of mainland China's industrial output, but this was officially claimed to be 368% higher than that of 1950.
** 1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon‎, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 282:Many Americans were primarily Europeanists in their approach to foreign affairs, dismissing Asia as relatively unimportant. But the United States is a Pacific power, and rapid changes were taking place in Asia—where more than half the human race lived—that might well determine the world's future. Japan would soon be the world's third-ranking industrial power, behind the United States and the Soviet Union. Some of the most rapid rates of economic progress anywhere were being achieved by the nations of non-Communist Asia. And mainland China potentially posed the greatest threat to peace during the final third of the twentieth century.
** 1983 December 18, “Butterfield Tells Suffering On Mainland”, in Free China Weekly‎, volume XXIV, number 50, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:Chinese Communist rule on mainland China during the past three decades has destroyed the vitality, spirit and cultural heritage of the Chinese people, said Fox Butterfield, during an address at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Dec. 11.
** 2004, Phil Macdonald, National Geographic Traveler: Taiwan, National Geographic Society, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 122:At Cihhu (Cihu), near the town of Dasi (Daxi), 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Taipei on Provincial Highway 7, Chiang Kai-shek lies entombed above ground in a granite and marble coffin in one of his former country villas. The gravesite is "temporary," as before his death Chiang had requested his body be returned to his native province of Zhejiang in mainland China.
** [2019 October 1, Mike Ives, “Hong Kong Police Shoot a Protester, 18, With a Live Bullet for the First Time”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-10-01, Asia Pacific‎:Tsuen Wan is a working-class area near Hong Kong’s border with the Chinese mainland, miles from the city’s gleaming financial district.]
** 2021 November 21, “On Chinese islands next to Macau, great stories of pirates, typhoons and war played out”, in South China Morning Post‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 November 2021‎:It’s hard to imagine now, but there were once three mountainous, verdant islands between Macau and mainland China. The Portuguese named them Dom João, Montanha and Lapa. Later the islands became known in Chinese as Xiao (Little) Hengqin, Da (Big) Hengqin and Wanzai, respectively.
** 2022 February 12, Twinnie Siu, Marius Zaharia, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, “Mainland China to help overwhelmed Hong Kong with COVID fight”, in Edwina Gibbs, Lincoln Feast, Jane Merriman, editors, Reuters‎, archived from the original on 13 February 2022, China‎:Hong Kong and mainland China are among few places in the world still aiming to suppress every COVID-19 outbreak, but the Omicron variant has proven tough to keep under control.
** 2022 March 18, Dake Kang, Huizhong Wu, “China weighs exit from ‘zero COVID’ and the risks involved”, in AP News‎, archived from the original on 18 March 2022:In mainland China, authorities have shut down travel out of and within the hardest-hit province, Jilin in the northeast. More than 1,800 cases were reported in Jilin on Friday, out of 2,400 nationwide. Restrictions were partially eased, however, in Shenzhen, a major tech and finance hub bordering Hong Kong that had been locked down since Sunday.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mainland China.
* Also used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see mainland,‎ China.
** 2022 April 26, Luna Sun, “China’s Hainan free-trade port tipped to deepen Asean ties, but island must ‘brave’ uncertainty”, in South China Morning Post‎, archived from the original on 26 April 2022:“Tourists could come to Hainan before going to places such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore, and shop offshore duty-free products which could be directly delivered back home, each person can purchase as much as 100,000 yuan (US$15,255),” Shen said. Tourists from Southeast Asian countries could also be inclined to visit Hainan before touring mainland China, he said.

#### Usage notes

* The geopolitical sense of mainland China includes Hainan province even though the province is offshore of the Asian mainland. The literal sense does not include Hainan.

#### Derived terms

* mainland Chinese

#### Translations
### Further reading

* “mainland China”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* “mainland China” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.