Query: The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China claim to be the official governments of China.

Relevant passages:
China <=SEP=> China , officially the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) , is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the world 's most populous country , with a population of over 1.381 billion . Covering approximately 9.6 e6km2 , China is the world 's second-largest state by land area and third - or fourth-largest by total area . Governed by the Communist Party of China , it exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct-controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai and Chongqing ) and the Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau , also claiming sovereignty over Taiwan . China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia , and has been characterized as a potential superpower .   China emerged as one of the world 's earliest civilizations in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain . For millennia , China 's political system was based on hereditary monarchies , or dynasties , beginning with the legendary Xia dynasty . Since 221 , when the Qin dynasty conquered the other largest six states to form the first unified Chinese empire , China has then expanded , fractured and re-unified numerous times in the following millennia . In 1912 , the Republic of China ( ROC ) replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949 , when it was defeated by the communist People 's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War . The Communist Party established the People 's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949 , while the ROC government relocated to Taiwan with its present de facto temporary capital in Taipei . Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China , though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory .   China has had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two thousand years , during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline . Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978 , China has become one of the world 's fastest-growing major economies . , it is the world 's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and largest by purchasing power parity ( PPP ) . China is also the world 's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods . China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world 's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget . The PRC is a member of the United Nations , as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 1971 . China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations , including the WTO , APEC , BRICS , the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( SCO ) , the BCIM and the G-20 .

Communist Party of China <=SEP=> The Communist Party of China ( CPC ) is the founding and ruling political party of the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) . The CPC is the sole governing party of China , although it coexists alongside eight other legal parties that make up the United Front ; these parties , however , hold no real power or independence from the CPC . It was founded in 1921 , chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao . The party grew quickly , and by 1949 the CPC had driven the nationalist Kuomintang ( KMT ) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War , thus leading to the establishment of the People 's Republic of China . The CPC is currently the world 's second largest political party with a membership of 88.76 million as of 2016 ( while the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have remained the largest with a membership of 110 million as of the previous year , 2015 ) . It also controls the world 's largest armed force , the People 's Liberation Army .   The CPC is , officially , organized on the basis of democratic centralism , a principle conceived by Russian Marxist theoretician Vladimir Lenin which entails democratic and open discussion on policy on the condition of unity in upholding the agreed upon policies . The highest body of the CPC is the National Congress , convened every fifth year . When the National Congress is not in session , the Central Committee is the highest body , but since the body meets normally only once a year , most duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee . The party 's leader holds the offices of General Secretary ( responsible for civilian party duties ) , Chairman of the Central Military Commission ( CMC ) ( responsible for military affairs ) and State President ( a largely ceremonial position ) . Through these posts the party leader is the country 's paramount leader . The current party leader is Xi Jinping , elected at the 18th National Congress ( held in 2012 ) .   The CPC is still committed to communist thought and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers ' Parties each year . According to the party constitution the CPC adheres to Marxism -- Leninism , Mao Zedong Thought , socialism with Chinese characteristics , Deng Xiaoping Theory , Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development . The official explanation for China 's economic reforms is that the country is in the primary stage of socialism , a developmental stage similar to the capitalist mode of production . The planned economy established under Mao Zedong was replaced by the socialist market economy , the current economic system , on the basis that `` Practice is the Sole Criterion for the Truth '' ( i.e. the planned economy was deemed inefficient ) .   Since the collapse of Eastern European communist regimes in 1989 -- 1990 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 , the CPC has emphasized its party-to-party relations with the ruling parties of the remaining socialist states . While the CPC still maintains party-to-party relations with non-ruling communist parties around the world , since the 1980s it has established relations with several non-communist parties , most notably with ruling parties of one-party states ( whatever their ideology ) , dominant parties in democratic systems ( whatever their ideology ) , and social democratic parties .