The Chinese represent the largest single ethnic group in the world, and mainland China is the most populous country in the world.
China is divided at the present time in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.
The unity of the Chinese people comes from their common language. Chinese is divided into a number of dialects that are mutually unintelligible. This is a reflection of much interaction in center of the Chinese cultural area. In part this is reflection of the feeling of cultural and political unity. One might compare modern European countries like Germany and Italy, which have one national dialect and lots of often mutually unintelligible dialects which are nonetheless considered variants of the national language instead of separate langs.