the Republic of China.officially the People's Republic of China. is asovereign state located in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a single-party state governed by the Chinese Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing It exercisesjurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai andChongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC also claims the territoriesgoverned by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity commonly known as Taiwan, as a part of its territory, which includes the island of Taiwan as Taiwan Province, Kinmen and Matsu as a part of Fujian Province and islands the ROC controls in theSouth China Sea as a part of Hainan Province. These claims are controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area,[18] and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.China's landscape is vast and diverse.